The Declarative Trans‑cultural Identity of European Adolescents – an Analysis of Texts Published in Trait d’Union

Authors

  • Kinga Anna Gajda Uniwersytet Jagielloński

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.12.2015.37.07

Keywords:

identity, declarative, transculturalism, European identity, on‑line platform

Abstract

Transcultural identity elaborated upon by Wolfang Welsch is, in my opinion, the answer to the following question: how identity of youth is transformed with regards to globalization, particularism and cosmopolitism. Cultural identity is comprised of a cosmopolitan component but it also includes local affiliation. It focuses on the individual right to create memberships not only based upon one’s national, ethnical or cultural affiliation but rather, it is a coalescence of all aforementioned elements defined from an individual perspective. The membership is subordinate only to individual assessment. Transcultural identity is the awareness of adventure, irregularity and continuity. And it is in this way that European youth perceive and define their identity. They describe their identity as active, nomadic, cyber and performative. This kind of identity is a declarative identity which is also the subject of their writing. The following article aims to describe and define the identity of contemporary European youth and the subject of identity in articles published in The trait d’union – an on‑line journal created in 2004 with support of European Commission. The trait d’union is a platform of European youth communicating and exchanging opinions. It is also a tool used for intercultural teaching. Articles written by youth are an attempt to illustrate their daily experiences connected with globalization, European mobility and trans‑culturalism. These articles are also an interesting source used to analyze contemporary means of communication.

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Author Biography

Kinga Anna Gajda, Uniwersytet Jagielloński

Lecturer at the European Institute of the Jagiellonian University, Ph.D. in literature, graduate of Theatre, Drama and European studies and post-graduate Gender Studies. She is the author of Medea dzisiaj. Rozważania o kategorii innego [Medea Today. Thoughts on the identity of the other] on the performative identity of the woman-Other. She is conducting research on art therapy and creative pedagogy. She is the author of the genre of therapeutic drama, which she is attempting to describe and define and the initiator of publishing a few volumes of therapeutic dramas. Her strong interest is the relation between art/drama and identity. She participates in many national and international projects dealing with creative pedagog y and art therapy. She coordinates the works of the university class of intercultural competences and runs a n internet site in international competences at the Jagiellonian University, educational programmes on this subject and participates in many national and international research and teaching projects on teaching these competences (among others: A trip to Dachau memorial site). She is also the head of the team promoting active teaching of intercultural competences. She is member of the Scientific Board of the Kraków Youth Association for Arts and Sciences under the auspices of the Jagiellonian University at the H. J. Jordan Youth Centre in Kraków. For two years she has cooperated with the Educational Department of the Historical Museum of Kraków.

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Published

2015-09-28

How to Cite

Gajda, Kinga Anna. 2015. “The Declarative Trans‑cultural Identity of European Adolescents – an Analysis of Texts Published in Trait d’Union”. Politeja 12 (5 (37):95-106. https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.12.2015.37.07.