A Study Of Identity Problems In Dick Hebdige’s Youth Subculture Theory

In the 1950 s and 1960 s,the post-war British youth subculture sprang up,and its shocking style and vague meaning attracted the attention of the public and cultural scholars.The Birmingham School was the school that had the greatest influence on its research and produced the most abundant results.As a representative of the Birmingham School of cultural studies,Dick Hebdige also takes youth subculture as one of the main research fields and makes many theoretical contributions to it.Among them,identity is one of the key words in youth subculture research,which also runs through Hebdige’s theory.Hebdige provides interpretation of identity in youth subculture theory from different dimensions,and endows it with rich connotation and diversified interpretation.This paper discusses the identity in Hebdige’s youth subculture theory from the following aspects.Paper main body is composed of five chapters.The first chapter focuses on the background of the generation of identity in Hebdige’s youth subculture theory.After the war,the vigorous reform of Britain provided conditions for the rise and development of youth subculture.It has become an urgent problem to interpret this cultural phenomenon and its underlying causes and cultural mechanism.Hebdige continued and further developed this idea,and made innovations such as deepening the application of structuralism,expanding the scope of research objects,promoting the turn of postmodernism,and studying the collectivism,resistance and isomorphism of identity problems in youth subculture and social relations.The second chapter is the class dimension of identity in Hebdige’s youth subculture theory.The Birmingham school emphasizes the close relationship between the youth subculture and the maternal culture of the working class and the culture of the class structure.Hebdige believes that on this basis,the historical particularity of the youth subculture in a specific period should be seen,and see its class appeal and style performance and the father’s culture is different.This identity is embodied in style.From the perspective of semiotics,Hebdige holds that countermainstream cultural resistance and identity expression are based on deep class confrontation."Style" is not only the representation of subculture,but also an important way to realize identity and class confrontation.Such class identity and status are not invariable,but in the confrontation with the dominant culture of "resistance and integration",and the power confrontation with the dominant force,with fluidity.The third chapter is the racial dimension of identity in Hebdige’s youth subculture theory.Britain attracted a large number of immigrants because of the early colonial system established worldwide and the construction of post-war welfare society.The difficult living environment and weak position of immigrants in the society made them meet the white working class,who were also marginalized groups.Hebdige keenly discovered the close relationship between the white youth subculture and the immigrant culture.Immigrants construct their own ethnic identity through Rastafari,ethnic clothing,music,etc.,which is precisely the heterogeneity required by white resistance.The two influence and blend with each other,resulting in similar styles and ideological resonance,with a symbolic isomorphic relationship.Hebdige introduced the racial dimension into the study of youth subculture of Birmingham School for the first time,broke through the class essentialism and historical essentialism of subculture interpretation,and saw the influence of multiple factors on subculture at present.The fourth chapter is about Hebdige’s identity in the post-Birmingham era.With the disappearance of punk culture,the resistance model in Hebdige’s early youth subculture theory also lost its language.He reflected on this and introduced Foucault’s theory to reconstruct the interpretation model of subculture from two perspectives of physical pleasure and discourse construction.On the one hand,pleasure patched up after subculture "style" and"political between cracks,the body is the carrier of pleasure is,at the same time body and the bottom line of youth identity and power;On the other hand,Hebdige found that the image and identity of teenagers are not only established by themselves,but also monitored and extensively constructed by the mainstream political ideology,commercial capital and mass media.Hebdige makes up for the deficiency of hegemonic theory by supplementing in two aspects,and tries to explore and understand the living conditions and identity expression of young people more objectively and accurately.The fifth chapter is the significance and limitations of Hebdige’s identity issues.Hebdige made theoretical and visual innovation on identity issues,and made contributions to deepening structuralism,promoting post-modern transformation,incorporating racial dimensions for the first time,and incorporating various social differences and contemporary factors.Hebdige’s theory has some limitations,such as insufficient empirical research,excessive political tendency and neglect of gender dimension,but the flaws do not hide the advantages.Hebdige’s theory has laid an ideological foundation for subcultural identity and provided valuable theoretical resources for future generations,with strong inspiration and reference.