Table Of ContentThe Art of Identifi cation
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Lucinda Cole and Robert Markley, General Editors Published in collaboration with the Society for
Literature, Science, and the Arts, AnthropoScene
Advisory Board:
presents books that examine relationships
Stacy Alaimo (University of Texas at Arlington)
and points of intersection among the natural,
Ron Broglio (Arizona State University)
biological, and applied sciences and the literary,
Carol Colatrella (Georgia Institute of Technology)
visual, and performing arts. Books in the series
Heidi Hutner (Stony Brook University)
promote new kinds of cross-disciplinary thinking
Stephanie LeMenager (University of Oregon)
arising from the idea that humans are changing
Christopher Morris (University of Texas at Arlington)
the planet and its environments in radical and
Laura Otis (Emory University)
irreversible ways.
Will Potter (Washington, DC)
Ronald Schleifer (University of Oklahoma)
Susan Squier (Pennsylvania State University)
Rajani Sudan (Southern Methodist University)
Kari Weil (Wesleyan University)
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The Art of Identifi cation
Forensics, Surveillance, Identity
Edited by The Pennsylvania
Rex Ferguson, State University Press
University Park,
Melissa M. Littlefi eld,
Pennsylvania
and James Purdon
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Library of Congress Cataloging- Copyright © 2021 Th e Pennsylvania State
in-Publication Data University
All rights reserved
Names: Ferguson, Rex, 1977– editor. | Littlefi eld, Printed in the United States of America
Melissa M., 1979– editor. | Purdon, James, Published by Th e Pennsylvania State
1983– editor. University Press,
Title: Th e art of identifi cation : forensics, University Park, PA 16802-1003
surveillance, identity / edited by Rex
Ferguson, Melissa M. Littlefi eld, and James Photography by Eric Fong
Purdon.
Other titles: AnthropoScene. Th e Pennsylvania State University Press is
Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : a member of the Association of University
Th e Pennsylvania State University Press, Presses.
[2021] | Series: AnthropoScene: the SLSA
book series | Includes bibliographical It is the policy of Th e Pennsylvania State
references and index. University Press to use acid-free paper.
Summary: “A multidisciplinary collection of Publications on uncoated stock satisfy
essays exploring current scholarship on the the minimum requirements of American
history of human identifi cation. Examines National Standard for Information Sciences—
how techniques of identifi cation are Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
entangled within a wider sphere of cultural Material, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
identity formation”—Provided by publisher.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2021021596 |
ISBN 9780271090573 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Identity (Philosophical
concept) in literature—History. | Identity
(Philosophical concept)—History. |
Identifi cation—History. | Identifi cation—
Social aspects—History. | LCGFT: Essays.
Classifi cation: LCC PN56.I42 A78 2021 |
DDC 111/.82—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov
/2021021596
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Contents
Acknowledgments | vii
Introduction | 1
Rex Ferguson, Melissa M. Littlefi eld,
and James Purdon
Part 1 | G enres of Identifi cation
1 Charming Faces and the Problem
of Identifi cation | 23
Matt Houlbrook
2 Identity Noir | 49
James Purdon
3 “The Ghosts of Individual Peculiarities”:
Murder and Interpretation in Dickens | 65
Andrew Mangham
4 “A Puzzle of Character”: Francis Iles and
Narratives of Criminality in the 1930s | 82
Victoria Stewart
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Part 2 | T he Body Captured
5 The Art of Identifi cation:
The Skeleton and Human Identity | 101
Rebecca Gowland and Tim Thompson
6 Becoming More Biological: Ruth Ozeki
and the Postgenomic Ethnoracial Novel | 121
Patricia E. Chu
7 Identifi cation Made Visible: Photographic
Evidence and Russell Williams | 139
Jonathan Finn
Part 3 | S urveillant Technologies
8 The Face in the Biometric Passport | 159
Liv Hausken
9 The Bourne Identifi cation | 182
Rex Ferguson
10 Identifi cation and the “Intelligent City” | 202
Dorothy Butchard
11 Jennifer Egan and the Database | 223
Rob Lederer
Contributors | 245
Index | 249
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Acknowledgments
Th e Art of Identifi cation began life as a series of workshops held at the Uni-
versity of Birmingham, the University of St. Andrews, and the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that could not have taken place without
the support of a research networking grant from the Arts and Humanities
Research Council. Th e conversations begun at those workshops shaped the
overall design of this volume and informed the majority of its chapters. Th e
editors are therefore indebted to all workshop contributors, including Jess
Woodhams, Lee Rainbow, Warren Hines, Dan Vyleta, Richard House, Deb-
orah Jermyn, Jane Caplan, Kamilla Elliott, Spencer Schaff ner, Jonathan Finn,
Kate West, Charlotte Bilby, Annie Ring, Dawn Stobbart, Simon Cole, Stephen
Cartwright, Kenworthey Bilz, Fabienne Collignon, Ian Burney, Malthe Boye
Bjerregard, June Jones, and Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen. Meeting the artist Eric
Fong (www.ericfong.com) in the fi nal workshop was one of the wonderful dis-
coveries of the series, and we gratefully acknowledge his contribution to the
volume of the images found on the front cover and on the introductory pages
to parts 1, 2, and 3. In pursuing publication, we were fortunate to have the sup-
port of Lucinda Cole and Bob Markley, series editors at Penn State Univer-
sity Press, who championed the project. At the press, our thanks go to Kendra
Boileau, Alex Vose, and our anonymous readers, whose perceptive suggestions
helped to strengthen the fi nal manuscript in numerous ways.
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Introduction
Rex Ferguson,
Melissa M. Littlefi eld,
and James Purdon
Ronald Pinn was born in Bermondsey, London, on 23 January 1964 and died on
9 August 1984, aged twenty years. And he would have remained deceased had
British writer Andrew O’Hagan not assumed Pinn’s identity during a twenty-
fi rst-century experiment in contemporary self-invention. While research-
ing covert practices developed by the London Metropolitan Police beginning
in the 1960s, O’Hagan had found that, in the dangerous work of infi ltrating
extremist groups and passing as members of these groups, undercover Met
offi cers had to become masters at mimicking the authentic behaviors, looks,
and language of credible members of the group. But what was equally intrinsic
to a successful impersonation was the creation of what the police and intelli-
gence services refer to as a “legend”: a verifi able backstory that connects with
the present and validates a subject’s inhabitation of a particular community.1
Rather than begin with a blank slate, offi cers preferred to base their identities
on real people who had died, ideally deceased children whose offi cial records
were sparse enough to be added to without fear of contradiction, thus giving
a stronger internal coherence to the offi cers’ legends. Proceeding on this basis,
“Met offi cers, without informing the families of the children, and using . . .
original birth certifi cates, built a profi le for themselves that would pass for an
actual person.”2 Following this model, O’Hagan constructed a profi le for Pinn,
beginning with his birth certifi cate, which was obtained with disarming ease
from the General Register Offi ce. Th is initiated a “process of legitimisation” in
which further documentation, such as a driver’s license, was applied for, and
in which the legend was further “grounded” by O’Hagan’s rental of a fl at in
Pinn’s name.3 In collusion with an acquaintance in fi lm production, O’Hagan
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