IDENTITY AS A PHENOMENON OF THE POSTMODERN AGE

Abstract

This article has analyzed the influence of postmodern practices on the development and functioning of nation states, their culture and identity. It is shown that postmodernism is largely determined by the processes of globalization as the current defining civilizational progress, the content of which is the growing interconnection and interdependence of national economies, political and socio-cultural systems, as well as the identity of universalistic practices of regulating the activity of subjects of world-system relations in different spheres of being.
It was found that one of the problematic consequences of postmodernism is the radical transformation of traditional structures and principles of self-identification, both collective and personal wherever they happen, and whatever the institutional, cultural layers of society and patterns of behavior affect people. Close coexistence and even interpenetration of completely different, sometimes mutually exclusive, and sometimes simply disjointed value scales lead to total relativization of everything and everybody when even personal and collective identities lose the quality of metaphysical constants and are perceived as an unfinished project. That is why a person of the postmodern age is deprived of self-certainty. Therefore, there is a great need to rethink the content and consequences of postmodern practices of blurring traditional identities and the emergence of new ones, the role of the state in preserving and protecting the values, contents, ideals, cultural models and language that shape and reproduce the nation.
It is concluded that in post-totalitarian states of the European space (including Ukraine), processes of globalization and post-modern practices create two opposite tendencies. On the one hand, globalization unifies, internalizes and westernizes all aspects of society. On the other hand, in the way of bringing the elements of modern democracy into the life of the post-totalitarian state, globalization stimulates the processes of cultural and spiritual revival and the desire to form the collective «We», affirm its identity and individuality through consolidation around a common history, language, culture, values and orientations, life strategies. In Ukraine, it is also a consolidation of the efforts of all its citizens to repel Russian aggression, protect the sovereignty and independence of the state, integrate into European and Euro-Atlantic structures, achieve well-being for all citizens. Ukraine, as the newest unfinished civilization project, has all prospectives of avoiding the pitfalls of both «melting pot» and multiculturalism, as well as postmodern problems, since most of them have not yet attained a broad realization in its territory.