Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies 11(1) 24–37 © 2011 SAGE Publications Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1532708610386546 http://csc.sagepub.com Identity only becomes an issue when it is in crisis, when something assumed to be fixed, coherent and stable is dis- placed by the experience of doubt and uncertainty. (Mercer, quoted in Du Gay, 1996, p. 1) Judging from the ubiquitous presence of identity-related topics in communication research (i.e., gender, race, sexual- ity, etc.), it is apparent identity continues to be an issue wor- thy of investigation (and thus may be characterized as in crisis based on Mercer’s observation). Jackson (2002) has gone so far as to declare identity as the “primary crucible” of the current century (p. 359). Informed by poststructuralism, scholars have begun res- ponding to this crisis of identity by offering increasingly sop- histicated conceptualizations of identity and the processes of subjectification. These discursive theories of identity have each made contributions to our understanding of identity, tracing the relationships between our experiences of our selves and the language we have to constitute those selves. To use Butler’s phrase, identity has been revealed as a “nec- essary error” (1993, p. 230), one that is enabled and limited by the discursive resources we have at our disposal. This article offers the metaphor of mutants, and its attendant vocab- ulary, as a pragmatic and pedagogical extension in this post- structuralist project. I begin by recounting recent theories of intersectional, crystalline, and assemblage identities, and distilling three challenges that remain for a discursive approach to identity necessitating further theories. Drawing on cultural studies and rhetoric, I turn to mutants in popular culture as a productive and heuristic metaphor for understanding iden- tity in our time. From this cultural analysis, I construct a theoretical framework of mutational identity for interrogat- ing contemporary identity work. The article concludes by exploring the power of mutational identity to overcome the challenges faced by discursive approaches to identity. Identity Theory In this section, after illustrating the difference between sub- jectivity and identity, I offer a brief sketch of identity as int- ersectional (Crenshaw, 1991), crystallized (Tracy & Trethewey, 2005), and assemblage (Puar, 2005). These three theoretical perspectives are productive forays into the “messiness of identity” (Puar, 2005, p. 128) and represent the recent increase and variety of transdisciplinary work in identity theory. Before looking at these three approaches, it is important to differ- entiate between subjectivity and identity. Subjectivities are “the vectors that shape our relation to ourselves” (Rabinow & Rose, 2003, p. xx), the positions we recognize as intelli- gible and offer as discursively possible within the current 1 Governors State University Corresponding Author: Jason Zingsheim, PhD, Assistant Professor, College of Arts & Sciences, Governors State University, One University Parkway, University Park, IL 60484 Email: j-zingsheim@govst.edu Developing Mutational Identity Theory: Evolution, Multiplicity, Embodiment, and Agency Jason Zingsheim 1 Abstract This article extends poststructuralist theories of the self, expanding the discursive possibilities for (re)creating identities. Building on intersectionality, crystallized selves, and identity as assemblage, mutational identity theory works to increase the available discursive resources for conceptualizing identity as kinetic, diffuse, embodied, and contextual. Developed through a cultural analysis of contemporary mutants, mutational identity theory consists of a four-part framework— evolution, multiplicity, embodiment, and agency. Traversing multiple lines of flight and articulation, mutational identity faces the paradox of the self as generative and symptomatic of the radically contextual nature of existence within the (post) modern-day conjuncture. Keywords mutational identity theory, poststructuralism, subjectivity, X-Men, Heroes