Identity in the Postmodern Psychosocial Context: A Study of Nicola Yoon’s The Sun Is Also a Star

Abstract

This textual analysis of Nicola Yoon’s novel, The Sun Is Also a Star theorises the contentious issue of the transcultural identity of teenage immigrants in the postmodern psychosocial context. The study contributes to the heated discussion on identity formation in biracial and diasporic young adult literature by using Erikson’s concepts of psychosocial relativity, identity formation and identity crisis, and Jean Baudrillard’s concepts on postmodern identity. This article contends that in an effort to maintain one ethnic identity by erasing her previous Jamaican identity in Trump’s era in the United States, the protagonist Natasha experiences anti-Black racism, discrimination, and biracial identity formation. Conversely, another character in the novel, Daniel relishes dynamic identities to fit in the USA. However, his biracial identity results in an identity crisis. Thus, Yoon’s novel validates a postmodern condition, where teenagers’ multiple identities are regulated on the basis of ethnicity and their struggle for independent identities remains futile. Hence, the study shows that the USA
does not allow biracial people to experience or adapt to Americanness easily.

Keywords: adolescence; cultural identity; identity crisis; psychosocial
relativity; postmodernism