The Epistemic Status of Cultural Identity: On "Beloved" and the Postcolonial Condition

everal closely related practical and theoretical questions concerning identity emerge from current debates about cultural diversity. If multiculturalism is to be a goal of educational and political institutions, we need a workable notion of how a social group is unified by a common culture, as well as the ability to identify genuine cultural differences (and similarities) across groups. Whether cultures are inherited or consciously and deliberately created, basic problems of definition-who belongs where or with whom, who belongs and who doesn't-are unavoidable the moment we translate our dreams of diversity into social visions and agendas. Debates about minority literatures, for instance, often get bogged down in tedious disputes over genuineness or authenticity. But it is difficult to eliminate these disputes entirely because they point to what is in many cases a practical problem-who can be trusted to represent the real interests of the group without fear of betrayal or misrepresentation? Every "obvious" answer (such as "it'll have to be one of us, of course!") is itself question-begging, and that indicates the reason our views