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A figure from ancient folklore, the doppelganger--in fiction a character's sinister look-alike--continues to appear in literature, television and film. The modern-day version (of the Doppelganger, or "double-goer" in German) is typically depicted in a form adapted to reflect present-day social anxieties.
Focusing on a broad range of narratives, the author explores 21st century representations in novels (such as Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry, Jose Saramago's The Double), television shows (Orphan Black, Battlestar Galactica, Ringer) and movies (The Island, The Prestige, Oblivion).
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: The Monster in the Mirror
Section I. Literature
¿1.¿Twinning in Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry
¿2.¿The Pursuit of Self? José Saramago's The Double
¿3.¿The Ethics of Cloning in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go
¿4.¿Through a Machine Darkly: Blake Crouch's Dark Matter
¿5.¿Technology and the Self in Dexter Palmer's Version Control
¿6.¿Clones (and Crime) in Space: Mur Lafferty's Six Wakes
Section II. Television and Film
¿7.¿The Twin Formula in Ringer and The Lying Game
¿8.¿The Motif of the Double in Fringe and Battlestar Galactica
¿9.¿Westworld, the 21st Century Technoculture Take on Doubles
10.¿Clones and Cultural Anxieties in Orphan Black
11.¿Cinematic Clones in The Island and Oblivion
12.¿Monstrous Doubling and Magical Illusion in The Prestige
Conclusion: Cultural Anxieties and Doppelgangers in the 21st Century
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Heather Duerre Humann teaches in the Department of Language and Literature at Florida Gulf Coast University. She is the author of multiple books and has contributed essays to edited collections and published articles, reviews and short stories in African American Review, Women's Studies, South Atlantic Review and Studies in American Culture.
