Identity is always impure because repetition identifies by altering

Evidence

But repetition is the basis of identification. Thus, if repetition alters, it has to be faced that alteration identifies and identity is always impure. Thus iterability—like the trace structure—is the positive condition of possibility of identification, the very thing whose absolute rigor it renders impossible. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 723

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to strategic essentialism: if identity always forms through impure repetition, holding an essentialist identity ironically or strategically may inherently destabilize from within. — connects to: Word identity and meaning are effects of paradoxical sameness within repetition.; Repetition necessarily alters what it repeats — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 721; Iterability names the process by which repetition both enables and corrupts identity — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 721 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: This suggests the bind Spivak later grapples with — whether strategic essentialism necessarily feeds back into genuine essentialist belief — may be rooted in iterability itself.

Broader Connections

• Repetition necessarily alters what it repeats #expands (0.95) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 721
• Iterability names the process by which repetition both enables and corrupts identity #expands (0.93) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 721
• Word identity and meaning are effects of paradoxical sameness within repetition. #corroborates (0.92)
• Authenticity as full self-identity is impossible because iterability makes self-presence unattainable in principle #expands (0.82) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 767
• Identity is internally mediated by the non-identical #corroborates (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1223
• A word’s identity requires repeatable difference with a trace of sameness #corroborates (0.78) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 458
• Identity can only be understood through difference, never self-sameness #complicates (0.73) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 1189
• Identity is constructed through opposition to a continuously reinterpreted other #qualifies (0.72)