Fake Identity?

The Impostor Narrative in North American Culture

Rosenthal Caroline, Schafer Stefanie

In North America, where the sociocultural history and national mythologies of the United States and Canada are especially fertile ground for the invention of identities both fake and "real" impostor narratives of all kinds abound. From ethnic impersonation to racial passing, going native, and confidence tricks, when it is discovered, imposture incites fascination and scandal – yet it also showcases how identities are made. The essays in this book examine both real and fictional renditions of North American imposture, placing these narratives in historical context even as they shed light on larger currents such as identity as performance and the cultural value attributed to authenticity in Western societies. From the narrator of colonial travelogues to postmodernist author and narrator voices, and from the urban con game to trickster shamanism, fake identities are shown to be a negative lens through which the performance of self is revealed.

About the Author

Caroline Rosenthal is professor of North American literature at Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena, Germany. She is the author, most recently, of "New York and Toronto Novels After Postmodernism: Explorations of the Urban".

Stefanie Schafer is assistant professor of American studies at Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena, Germany. She is the author of "Just the Two of Us: Self-Narration and Recognition in the Contemporary American Novel".

Back to the list of books