Always Becoming: (De-) (Re-)territorializing: A Social Studies Autoethnography as 'Minor Literature'

Abstract

In Always Becoming: (De-) (Re-)territorializing, De Jong begins to construct her work from the premise that identity is relational, by which she means that she views processes of identity formation not as the fixed result of a subject acting upon an inert object, but rather as interactional and negotiated amongst those involved. Her research is most immediately inspired by the work of Deleuze and Guattari, although it is not, therefore, Deleuzian. Instead, De Jong's own style unfolds throughout the writing of this book, a style that builds upon not only the work of Deleuze and Guattari, but also the Comaroffs' point of view in which the world develops as much from the ‘Global South’ as from the ‘Global North’; and Sampson’s postmodern understanding of humanhood as decentred and multiplicitous. De Jong does not simply ‘report’ on what happened. Rather, she attempts to articulate and develop what was felt in a certain moment, the possibilities that moment opened up, what came into being or went out of being in this space and time. This study is situated against the backdrop of globalization and, more specifically, globalization in the co-constructive relations of the Arabian Gulf.