Performing the Self offers a cross-disciplinary dialogue about fundamental issues related to identity construction and identity performance. Written by linguistic and literary scholars, the present collection of essays argues against an essentialist view of the self and demonstrates in various ways how identities – whether they are defined as national, sexual, gendered, cultural, professional, virtual, linguistic or in some other way personal – are the products of multiple constructions and interconnected performances. Indeed, ‘performing the self' is shown to be an act of constant questioning and staging, a relentless process which one perpetually revises and readjusts.