Abstract:
This essay is an exploration of identity formation and expression. Humanity's
identity formations create the orientations and languages with which we use to
create our knowledge and understanding of the surrounding external environment
(both social and physical) and our internal environment (psychological). This
essay traces the sources of identity formation to the mythological creation of
ancient poets and seeks to develop an understanding of the ideas behind
mythological thinking and expression. 'Poetry' is a term derived from the ancient
Greek word for 'maker,' 'shaper,' and 'former;' serving in this essay as a guide
through history's mythological structures of identity formation in the various
historical manifestations of art, philosophy, religion, and psychology. Identity's
value lies in its personal and communal modes of expression used to form practical
definitions for the development of knowledge and understanding of the internal
world of our being and the external world outside and/or related to our being.
Identity also holds an inherent danger as our identity formations, once becoming
objective realities, can begin to dominate and repress other identities or our ability
to create alternate identities. The later scenario is represented in current cultural,
psychological, and epistemological theories based upon 'domination' while a
counter trend could be seen in 'relational' systems based upon reciprocity: hostile
dualisms which privilege one side over another or a more harmonious system of
balance and mutual definition. It is the author's claim that the later, more
harmonious system is the core 'value' found within poetic thought and he tries to
present an outline to a 'philosophy of poetry,' which would further develop this
idea. Poetry is not only an external manifestation, but also a state of being, and
tenets for the understanding of poetic sensibility are outlined and unified under a
terminology of 'Vision' and 'Unity.' Mythological thinking and expression are held
to be the roots of the various social manifestations of the terms 'Vision' and 'Unity'
found within poetic philosophies recorded throughout human history. This essay is
the framework for a larger work in progress by the author, and should be read and
understood as such.
