blog post no. 7

I read chapter 11 in the Bedford Book of Genres, titled “Identity”. It talks about identity and how the ways that humans identify themselves physically (with tattoos, piercings, hair styles, clothing styles, etc.) as well as other identifiers like gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc. is similar to how we identify ourselves when we write or create. When we write something, we typically take on a voice that is specific to our own, and that can act as an identifier. There were a variety of passages throughout the chapter highlighting personal identity factors and how they come through in voices in writing.

Whenever I read a personal narrative or really anything, I like to find out more about the author or writer, and I take into account their backgrounds. How we identify ourselves is a very big part of how we write. Granted, everyone can change their voice when writing, but authentic thoughts and statements tend to reveal how a person is I think. There is also a section in the chapter that examines what your “stuff” says about you, and how our possessions reflect who we are and how the people around us perceive us. I thought that was really interesting. Our things can reflect who we are just as much as our writing can, and I had never really thought about that before.