Sarah Wald's Doniger Presentation

In "Many masks, many selves," Wendy Doniger explores the issue of identity and the paradox of self-imitation.  She uses traditional mask imagery to consider the questions: What is the nature of individual identity?  Why would someone masquerade as someone who is in turn masquerading as him or herself--a dizzying "triple cross" (Doniger 60)?  In order to tackle these questions, Doniger narrows her focus to politics and gender, providing notable examples of self-imitation in both of these categories.  Based on her examination of these self-impersonators, Doniger ultimately concludes that people are in fact many selves.  Our identities are defined purely by our relations with others: for each situation, each of us presents a different face.  Our personalities therefore have no "monolithic core" (70).  Indeed, a person's many masks are valid aspects of his or her identity--parts of his or her "composite self" (70), both past and present--rather than the empty deception they are often assumed to be.  The multiplicity of selves in each of us gives human life interest and forward momentum.