Identity is such a curious thing. As human beings, we have this inherent need to designate ourselves as something, to mark us, to define us. It's an attempt to express what and who we are, both as individuals and as groups.
In Waterland, Graham Swift contemplates how humans are the only story telling animals, always bound by that yearning to tell their stories. Identity is very much intertwined with a narrative, be it a personal or collective one that illustrates our perception of what we were, what we are, and often times (futilely) what we will become. Identity is ultimately a narration, an expression of a story.
Identity is too complex a subject matter to narrow down effectively in one book, let alone one article. Indeed, identity encompasses our beliefs, our actions, our history, our aspirations, our sense of belonging, our sexuality, our gender, our ethnicity, our passions - to cut a long story short, identity pertains to virtually everything in our lives. Therefore, I'll simply try to briefly relate my own personal understanding of it and how my sense of identity evolved. I have come to see citizenship as the most powerful source of collective identity.
