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Persona Obscura: A Collection Of Essays On Identity And Perception, Heidi A. Fuhr

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

As humans, we like to think that our identities grow alongside our bodies and minds, that they are carved out gradually and imperceptibly by the slow-moving glaciers of lived experience. We regard the self as largely immutable-as a genuine, indelible, and whole entity that comes from within. But humans are social animals. Identity doesn't form in a vacuum. We change selves like we change clothes-and quite often when we change clothes, hairstyles, vocabularies, intonations, and mannerisms. We assume various, sometimes conflicting personas when we interact with peers, authority figures, parents, children, mentors, lovers, and strangers. When we're alone, our interior …