New materialist approaches to the study of language and identity: Assembling the posthuman subject

Abstract

Emphasis on discourse and language-use has fueled the study of identity in education over the last few decades. This paper argues that these approaches fail to fully account for the complex materiality of life, and should be supplemented by new materialist tools for studying language as material. This new materialist approach considers language outside of the usual information–communication model. We argue that this approach is fruitful in studying identity, offering a path around the agency–structure binary where language either serves the subject in self-determination or the institution in furthering normative control. Identity can be studied as an assemblage that does not begin or end in the individual, but partakes of a dynamic affective force field luring posthuman subjects into activity.

Keywords:

• critical theory
• educational research
• language
• culture and literacy
• narrative methods
• teacher knowledge

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Note

Notes

1. Drawing on Spinoza and Bergson, Deleuze uses the term affect to describe the molecular and material dimensions of interaction. Affects do not belong to individuals, but they may contract or converge onto an individual object and may indeed sustain the individuality of an object or person. They operate at the preconscious level.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth de Freitas

Elizabeth de Freitas is professor in the Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research interests include philosophy and cultural studies applied to education. She focuses especially on experiences of mathematics teaching and learning. She is coeditor of the book Opening the research text: Critical insights and in(ter)ventions into mathematics education (2008, Springer Verlag) and coauthor of Mathematics and the body: Material entanglements in the classroom (2014, Cambridge University Press). Her latest work draws extensively on Gilles Deleuze to rethink (school) mathematics, as well as exploring the ways that work on various new materialisms might be put to use in educational theory.

Matthew X. Curinga

Matthew X. Curinga is a software developer and digital media researcher. He is assistant professor and director of the graduate program in Educational Technology at the Ruth S. Ammon School of Education at Adelphi University in New York. His research interests include educational philosophy, political theory, and the study of networked and interactive software systems. He draws on his extensive work as a software developer and educational technology designer to study digital media. Matt holds a BA in English literature from Colby College and an MA in computing and education and EdD in instructional technology and media from Columbia University Teachers College.