identity is about how we define who we are. literally, both identity and the self mean the same as in cultural theory identity is used to describe the consciousness of self found in the modern individual.the modern self is understood to be autonomous and self-critical. the german philosopher G.W.F. hegel saw individualism, the right to criticism and autonomy of action as the three main characteristics of modern subjectivity. this self-reflexive aspect of identity that, in the modern age, identity is understood to be a project. it is not fixed. the autobiographical thinking that characterises modern identity creates a coherent sense of a past identity, but that identity has to be sustained in the present and remade in the future. the constant remaking of identity reveals that the sense of self is to some extent an illusion, because the making of the self requires a constant interaction with the not-self or non-identity: the external world