This is not true. We are not irrevocably trapped within our social and cultural roles. One's whole being is not contained within one's culture.
True, but a large percentage of it is, I would argue. Anthropological concepts of the person hold that the person is a combination of physical elements (i.e. the body), individual personality, social relationships and societal influences, none of which are separable from the others. It is totally impossible to be a human being without being influenced by our cultures, whether we like it or not.
whole book by L. Trilling, 'Beyond Culture'
To which I would counter R. Jenkins, "Social Identity."
One can also reach beyond culture by resorting to one's innermost core, instincts and feelings, or to the simple biological facts of life: your
body
is not a product of your society, and it is also you.
Yes, but for how long? What you're saying is that it's only possible to resist culture by withdrawing totally from it. Which is a fair point, but I think it also makes it clear that as human beings we are irrevocably linked with our cultures.
(A good example of this is Orwell's W.Smith, who cannot compare his
wretched
living conditions with anything different in his experience, but feels in his bones and his stomach that everything around him is wrong.)
But again, this decision and feeling is not outside his society. Smith has not personally experienced anything different, but other parts of the book suggest that he would have had at least casual contact with ideas about other ways of being, through his parents or through old people like the prole man in the pub. Anyway, the fact that he "feels in his bones" that the society is wrong does not make this sense of wrongness a biological reaction; quite the opposite.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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