PERSONALITY/SOCIAL IDENTITY : GENDER ASPECT, TEXT DIMENSION

Abstract

There exists a scholarly tradition to investigate identity both as an individual and social phenomenon. Therefore personality and social identities are viewed upon as a correlation between self-perception and its realization in social and cultural context. Identity is treated as a system of elements the scope and prevalence of which enable its division into varieties, types, models and regulate human activity in society. Personality and individual identities are most often analyzed in the domains of psychology, sociology, physiology and linguistics. Formation of personal identity begins in early childhood and continues till adulthood being affected by social framework thus defacing natural features. The process of self-perception is dynamic and subject to changes throughout which a person acquires individual features, copes with social adaptation and chooses gender priorities. The contemporary understanding of gender identity interprets it as a complex interaction of different elements, the result of purposeful activity of an individual based on his/her experience. Social identity is the result of identity evolution due to which individuals tried to integrate their personal sameness into the larger group or community they belonged to. Unlike personality identity, social identity is more dynamic, changeable, it does not provide the feeling of continuity and depends on shifting of social moods, stereotypes, its boundaries are obscure and diffusive. Realization of gender identity within social framework in every historic period is different and presupposes adaptation of individual gender perception to social standards. Postmodern worldview releases gender constraints traditionally conditioned by biological sex and reveals plurality of gender identity realization. In the postmodernist world, a person creates his/her social identity in accordance with the conscious priorities designation, due to the targeting patterns and without relinquishing personal unique individuality. Postmodernist fiction embodies the contemporary approaches to gender identity description involving verbal means in textual gender identification.