Hydrographies.

Drawing on the work of the theoretical biologist Humberto Maturana, I offer in this essay a way of conceptualizing the forms of identity that survive the various death pronouncements of our postidentitarian moment. I associate the work of imagining those strange new forms of identity with what Frede...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geographical Review Vol. 89; no. 2; pp. 301 - 314
Main Author: Baucom, Ian
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell April 1999
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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Summary:Drawing on the work of the theoretical biologist Humberto Maturana, I offer in this essay a way of conceptualizing the forms of identity that survive the various death pronouncements of our postidentitarian moment. I associate the work of imagining those strange new forms of identity with what Frederic Jameson calls “cognitive mapping,” arguing that these “afteridentities” can emerge from a “hydrographic” charting of the fluid cultural territories of the modern and the postmodern. In conclusion, I indicate how this approach may be of use in contemporary attempts to “map” the diasporic territories of the Black Atlantic. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.