The Culture of the Copy - 9781935408451

The Culture of the Copy is a novel attempt to make sense of theWestern fascination with replicas, duplicates, and twins. In a work that is breathtaking in itssynthetic and critical achievements, Hillel Schwartz charts the repercussions of our entanglementwith copies of all kinds, whose presence alternately sustains and overwhelms us. This updatededition 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 onceabbreviated and refined, it will be of interest to anyone concerned with problems of authenticity,identity, and originality. Through intriguing, and at times humorous, historical analysis and casestudies in contemporary culture, Schwartz investigates a stunning array of simulacra: counterfeits,decoys, mannequins, and portraits; ditto marks, genetic cloning, war games, and camouflage; instantreplays, digital imaging, parrots, and photocopies; wax museums, apes, and art forgeries -- not tomention the very notion of the Real McCoy.

Working through a range of theories onbiological, mechanical, and electronic reproduction, Schwartz questions the modern esteem forauthenticity and uniqueness. The Culture of the Copy shows how the ethicaldilemmas 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. The book is an innovativeblend of microsociology, cultural history, and philosophical reflection, of interest to anyoneconcerned with problems of authenticity, identity, andoriginality.

Praise for the firstedition

"[T]he author...brings his considerable synthetic powers tobear on our uneasy preoccupation with doubles, likenesses, facsimiles, replicas and re-enactments. Idoubt that these cultural phenomena have ever been more comprehensively or more creativelychronicled.... [A] book that gets you to see the world anew, again." -- The New YorkTimes

"A sprightly and disconcerting piece of culturalhistory" -- Terence Hawkes, London Review of Books

"In The Culture of the Copy, [Schwartz] has written the perfectbook: original and repetitive at once." -- Todd Gitlin, Los Angeles Times Book Review