We argue that the prevailing constructivist stance on identity ^ the
attempt to ``soften'' the term, to acquit it of the charge of ``essentialism''
by stipulating that identities are constructed, £uid, and multiple ^
leaves us without a rationale for talking about ``identities'' at all and
ill-equipped to examine the ``hard'' dynamics and essentialist claims of
contemporary identity politics. ``Soft'' constructivism allows putative
``identities'' to proliferate. But as they proliferate, the term loses its
analytical purchase. If identity is everywhere, it is nowhere. If it is
£uid, how can we understand the ways in which self-understandings
may harden, congeal, and crystallize? If it is constructed, how can we
understand the sometimes coercive force of external identi¢cations? If
it is multiple, how do we understand the terrible singularity that is
often striven for ^ and sometimes realized ^ by politicians seeking to
transform mere categories into unitary and exclusive groups? How can
we understand the power and pathos of identity politics?