Narrativist Identity Constructions:a Study Of Contemporary Western Identity Politics Theory And Practice

Since the first decade of the twentieth century,terms such as multiculturalism,the plurality of inclusive values,and respect and recognition of identity differences have frequently appeared in public discourse.Not only in the discourse,but also in the political arena,where the international political arena has seen a revival of nationalism around the world to the completion of the UK’s complete exit from the European Union by the end of 2020,and where pluralist policies in Europe and the United States have swung from inclusive to conservative in their treatment of different identity groups,all of these issues seem to signal the strong appeal and influence of "identity" for contemporary people.These issues seem to indicate that the concept of "identity" has a strong appeal and influence on contemporary people.At the same time,as a unique contemporary political landscape,identity politics is a synonym or synonym for social movements related to minority,gender,and sexual identity,and this new social movement,while pursuing social justice,also poses problems for identity and political governance at the national level.This burgeoning political practice faces the dual challenge of conceptual interpretation and normative construction: at the interpretive level,it is difficult to define identity politics and to fully articulate the unique status and value of the concept of identity in contemporary times.The complexity and multiplicity of identities inherent in modern man also add to the difficulty of research.Most importantly,there is a great tension within human identity,and the dual nature of the concept of identity poses a great obstacle to the interpretation of identity,as people seek a common group identity and also desire a unique self-identity.At the normative level,the question of how to draw the boundaries of legitimacy for the practice of identity politics is still debated in theoretical circles because the ultimate purpose of identity politics is also divided between the pursuit of self-fulfillment or the preservation of basic political and social rights.In order to further address the existing problems,this paper attempts to respond to the above challenges at three levels: at the epistemological level of identity,developing a narrativist view of identity to overcome the tension of the concept of identity;at the methodological level of theoretical research,combining the hermeneutic tradition and the normative tradition of contemporary political philosophy to propose a rules-situational dependence theory;Finally,at the level of theoretical content,I summarize theories of identity politics from different intellectual traditions and propose the necessary consensus that citizens of liberal states should follow under the social justice view that I believe should be pursued in order to realize identity politics and to draw the boundaries of legitimacy for the practice of identity politics.