TELEVISION AND THE REFLEXIVE PROJECT OF THE SELF - SOAPS, TEENAGE TALK AND HYBRID IDENTITIES

The purpose of this paper is to report on qualitative research into th e role of television soap opera as a resource employed by teenagers in identity work. The central methodological strategy has been to enable young people to do the research themselves. Twenty groups of young pe ople (aged 14-15) were recruited to talk about soap opera without an a dult presence. The stress in the paper is on the formative nature of l anguage in lending form to ourselves from the disorderly flow of every day talk and practice. I argue that the girls construct reflexive iden tities in two grammatical forms. Identities are instanciated in the fl ow of language as well as in the self-narrative of 'I'. I am centrally concerned with the production of multiple, hybrid identities amongst British Asian girls. They see themselves as Asian yet distance themsel ves from aspects of tradition by virtue of their participation in othe r domains of British culture. They are both in and out of British soci ety and Asian culture. These identities are complicated by gender rela tions so that ethnic and gender identities 'cross-cut or dislocate eac h other'.