Identity can only be understood through difference, never self-sameness

Evidence

Now what I wanted to say about this strategy is that, of course, by taking the “detour through thought,” one sees all sorts of things about one’s self and one’s own thinking, connections in one’s work, the patterns behind the patterns, which one could not possibly see for oneself in any other way. In that sense, one is always unconsciously escaping the attempt to self-knowledge, the attempt to become identical with oneself. That is not possible. I cannot become identical with myself. That is the paradox of identity which I have tried to write about elsewhere—one can only think identity through difference. To think is to construct that inevitable distance between the subject that is thinking and the subject that is being thought about. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 1189

Categorization

• XREF: Directly builds the concept toolkit for the Islamophobia readings: identity-through-difference underpins how the ‘Other’ is constructed — connects to Orientalism’s Self/Other binary. — connects to: Identity is positional and processual, never reducible to one fixed position; Identity is constructed through opposition to a continuously reinterpreted other; Identity is constituted through exclusion of what it is not (+12 more)
• DEFINE: Establishes the hallmark Hall formulation that identity is constituted differentially, a foundational scaffold for the field.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 1189

Broader Connections

• Identity is constructed through opposition to a continuously reinterpreted other #corroborates (0.92)
• Identity is formed through contrast with difference #expands (0.90)
• Identity is constituted through exclusion of what it is not #corroborates (0.88)
• Identity is positional and processual, never reducible to one fixed position #corroborates (0.85)
• Identity is constituted through splitting and an interiorized Other, not pure difference. #qualifies (0.78)