
The Art of Identification
Forensics, Surveillance, Identity
Pennsylvania State University Press
Published on 29. October 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
262 pages
978-0-271-09058-0 (ISBN)
Description
Since the mid-nineteenth century, there has been a notable acceleration in the development of the techniques used to confirm identity. From fingerprints to photographs to DNA, we have been rapidly amassing novel means of identification, even as personal, individual identity remains a complex chimera. The Art of Identification examines how such processes are entangled within a wider sphere of cultural identity formation.
Against the backdrop of an unstable modernity and the rapid rise and expansion of identificatory techniques, this volume makes the case that identity and identification are mutually imbricated and that our best understanding of both concepts and technologies comes through the interdisciplinary analysis of science, bureaucratic infrastructures, and cultural artifacts. With contributions from literary critics, cultural historians, scholars of film and new media, a forensic anthropologist, and a human bioarcheologist, this book reflects upon the relationship between the bureaucratic, scientific, and technologically determined techniques of identification and the cultural contexts of art, literature, and screen media. In doing so, it opens the interpretive possibilities surrounding identification and pushes us to think about it as existing within a range of cultural influences that complicate the precise formulation, meaning, and reception of the concept.
In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Dorothy Butchard, Patricia E. Chu, Jonathan Finn, Rebecca Gowland, Liv Hausken, Matt Houlbrook, Rob Lederer, Andrew Mangham, Victoria Stewart, and Tim Thompson.
Against the backdrop of an unstable modernity and the rapid rise and expansion of identificatory techniques, this volume makes the case that identity and identification are mutually imbricated and that our best understanding of both concepts and technologies comes through the interdisciplinary analysis of science, bureaucratic infrastructures, and cultural artifacts. With contributions from literary critics, cultural historians, scholars of film and new media, a forensic anthropologist, and a human bioarcheologist, this book reflects upon the relationship between the bureaucratic, scientific, and technologically determined techniques of identification and the cultural contexts of art, literature, and screen media. In doing so, it opens the interpretive possibilities surrounding identification and pushes us to think about it as existing within a range of cultural influences that complicate the precise formulation, meaning, and reception of the concept.
In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume include Dorothy Butchard, Patricia E. Chu, Jonathan Finn, Rebecca Gowland, Liv Hausken, Matt Houlbrook, Rob Lederer, Andrew Mangham, Victoria Stewart, and Tim Thompson.
Reviews / Votes
"While there is now a growing literature on identification, there is no volume, as far as I know, so firmly rooted in literary studies, as compared to historical approaches. The Art of Identification makes a significant, original, and novel contribution to the literature."-Simon Cole, author of Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification "In a world increasingly dominated by technological forms of human surveillance, identification, and profiling, it is ever more important to examine how such processes affect how we feel and understand ourselves and others. The exciting essays in The Art of Identification are a signal contribution to this task. The collection will fascinate humanities scholars, scientists, and AI ethicists alike."
-Edward Higgs, author of Identifying the English: A History of Personal Identification 1500 to the Present "The collection provides thoughtful examinations of the Western surveillance state and how individuals are defined within it, with applications ranging from government to the arts and sciences."
-Sara Collins Biography
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
University Park
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
3 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
434 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-271-09058-0 (9780271090580)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Rex Ferguson is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Birmingham.
Melissa M. Littlefield is Professor in the Department of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
James Purdon is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of St Andrews.
Melissa M. Littlefield is Professor in the Department of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
James Purdon is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of St Andrews.
Editor
Senior LecturerUniversity of Birmingham
ProfessorUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
LecturerUniversity of St Andrews
Content
Introduction
Rex Ferguson, Melissa M. Littlefield, and James Pardon
Part 1: Genres of Identification
1. Charming Faces and the Problem of Identification
Matt Houlbrook
2. Identity Noir
James Pardon
3. "The Ghosts of Individual Peculiarities": Murder and Interpretation in Dickens
Andrew Mangham
4. "A Puzzle of Character": Francis Iles and Narratives of Criminality in the 1930s
Victoria Stewart
Part 2: The Body Captured
5. The Art of Identification: The Skeleton and Human Identity
Rebecca Gowland and Tim Thompson
6. Becoming More Biological: Ruth Ozeki and the Postgenomic Ethnoracial Novel
Patricia E. Chu
7. Identification Made Visible: Photographic Evidence and Russell Williams
Jonathan Finn
Part 3: Surveillant Technologies
8. The Face in the Biometric Passport
Liv Hausken
9. The Bourne Identification
Rex Ferguson
10. Identification and the "Intelligent City"
Dorothy Butchard
11. Jennifer Egan and the Database
Rob Lederer
Contributors
Index
Rex Ferguson, Melissa M. Littlefield, and James Pardon
Part 1: Genres of Identification
1. Charming Faces and the Problem of Identification
Matt Houlbrook
2. Identity Noir
James Pardon
3. "The Ghosts of Individual Peculiarities": Murder and Interpretation in Dickens
Andrew Mangham
4. "A Puzzle of Character": Francis Iles and Narratives of Criminality in the 1930s
Victoria Stewart
Part 2: The Body Captured
5. The Art of Identification: The Skeleton and Human Identity
Rebecca Gowland and Tim Thompson
6. Becoming More Biological: Ruth Ozeki and the Postgenomic Ethnoracial Novel
Patricia E. Chu
7. Identification Made Visible: Photographic Evidence and Russell Williams
Jonathan Finn
Part 3: Surveillant Technologies
8. The Face in the Biometric Passport
Liv Hausken
9. The Bourne Identification
Rex Ferguson
10. Identification and the "Intelligent City"
Dorothy Butchard
11. Jennifer Egan and the Database
Rob Lederer
Contributors
Index