¿Cuénteme más?: Hermeneutics and Complexity of Identity

The following thesis project reflects on how the construction and interpretation of identity might drastically affect the way we exist in the world, utilizing a hermeneutic approach rather than a scientific one. I begin this reflection recounting a personal experience exemplifying how identity constructs are not always reflective of our desires and, thus, subject to change. In the first chapter, I employ the works of three scholars, John D. Caputo, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Maria Lugones to introduce the literature and arguments for my position. With Caputo, I build upon his insights on play within the art creation and interpretation process to propose this as the best place playing field for the designing of the Self and our perception of others. Anzaldúa will help us understand that within different spaces or boundaries, our Self projection might differ–which she refers to as nepantilism. Finally, Lugones offers the concept of world traveling as the best method to travel to other people’s worlds, while also being aware of our arrogant perception. In the second and final chapter, three scenes from the 1996 film Lone Star by John Sayles are utilized to depict how the characters reinterpret identity conflicts and clashes in the scenes in question, in the name of love. This section is meant to explicitly show how a work of art, specifically film, can offer an alternative to the way we choose to engage with those we have labeled as different from us.