The Existential Movement from Lament to Hope: How Identity is Formed through Spaces of Sacredness

Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Nietzsche each attend to the role of identity in their existential thoughts. However, what is the role of space – physical and social – in relationship to identity? How does space function and affect identity in the depths of absurdity, in the midst of liberation? In seeking to discern identity in the midst of absurdity, a consistent movement from lament to hope is detected. Looking to postmodern existential thinkers, such as Mariana Ortega, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Toni Morrison, this paper will explore the importance of recognizing the development of one’s identity in this existential movement of lament to hope – an identity that is able to be discerned through spaces of sacredness beyond religion proper. I yearn to turn exclusively to women of color existential thinkers who offer critical viewpoints of euro-centered aestheticism, bringing to the forefront the effects of the diaspora space on those who have multifaceted identities.