The Culture of the Copy
eBook - PDF

The Culture of the Copy

Striking Likenesses, Unreasonable Facsimiles

  1. 472 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Culture of the Copy

Striking Likenesses, Unreasonable Facsimiles

About this book

The Culture of the Copy is an unprecedented attempt to make sense of the Western fascination with replicas, duplicates, and twins. In a work that is breathtaking in its synthetic and critical achievements, Hillel Schwartz charts the repercussions of our entanglement with copies of all kinds, whose presence alternately sustains and overwhelms us.

Through intriguing, and at times humorous, historical analysis and case studies in contemporary culture, Schwartz investigates a stunning array of simulacra—counterfeits, decoys, mannequins, and portraits; ditto marks, genetic cloning, war games, and camouflage; instant replays, digital imaging, parrots, and photocopies; wax museums, apes, and art forgeries, not to mention the very notion of the Real McCoy.

Working through a range of theories on biological, mechanical, and electronic reproduction, Schwartz questions the modern esteem for authenticity and uniqueness. The Culture of the Copy shows how the ethical dilemmas central to so many fields of endeavor have become inseparable from our pursuit of copies—of the natural world, of our own creations, indeed of our very selves.

This updated edition takes notice of recent shifts in thought with regard to such issues as biological cloning, conjoined twins, copyright, digital reproduction, and multiple personality disorder. At once abbreviated and refined, it will be of interest to anyone concerned with proglems of authenticity, identity, and originality.

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Yes, you can access The Culture of the Copy by Hillel Schwartz in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Social History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Recapitulation
  2. Refrain, Again
  3. Chapter One: Vanishing Twins
  4. Chapter Two: Doppelgängers
  5. Chapter Three: Self-portraits
  6. Chapter Four: Second Nature
  7. Chapter Five: Seeing Double
  8. Chapter Six: Ditto
  9. Chapter Seven: Once More, With Feeling
  10. Chapter Eight: Discernment
  11. Acknowledgments: Encore
  12. Notes: The Parallel Universe
  13. Index