A GOTH REFLECTION: Self-Fashioning and Popular Culture – In English

“Agata Zarzycka argues “for a critical capacity of Goth tropes to evoke questions about identity projects involving interactions between audiences and texts of culture. Philosophies of self-fashioning offer an accurate framework for such an analysis, as they are able to contain a whole spectrum of factors affecting both the identities of fictionalized Goth figures and, potentially, consumers of popular culture. Among such factors are: identity-shaping potential of physicality, from appearance to somatic or performative practices; negotiation of identity following the mainstream–margin rhetoric; individual positioning within a minority group, cultural niche or discourse community; and identity-building potential of fiction, whether generated by a personal narrative or imagery coming from texts of culture.”