About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press

ISBN-100802098460

ISBN-139780802098467

eBay Product ID (ePID)63908287

Product Key Features

Number of Pages277 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameImpersonations : Troubling the Person in Law and Culture

Publication Year2009

SubjectCriminal Law / General, Acting & Auditioning, Legal History, Gender & the Law

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaLaw, Performing Arts

AuthorSheryl Hamilton

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1 in

Item Weight21.2 Oz

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width6.3 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2009-292086

Reviews'Impersonationsis a brilliantly conceived and beautifully executed book. Sheryl Hamilton is a wonderful storyteller, and the stories she has chosen to tell are as captivating as they are edifying.' --David Howes, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University 'Impersonationsis a terrific book: engaging, well-written, and thought-provoking. Its subject matter and quality make it an important contribution to legal scholarship. I enjoyed reading it immensely.' --Theresa Scassa, Canada Research Chair in Information Law, University of Ottawa

Grade FromCollege Graduate Student

SynopsisPersonhood is considered at once a sign of legal-political status and of socio-cultural agency, synonymous with the rational individual, subject, or citizen. Yet, in an era of life-extending technologies, genetic engineering, corporate social responsibility, and smart technology, the definition of the person is neither benign nor uncontested. Boundaries that previously worked to secure our place in the social order are blurring as never before. What does it mean, then, to be a person in the twenty-first century? In Impersonations, Sheryl N. Hamilton uses five different kinds of persons - corporations, women, clones, computers, and celebrities - to discuss the instability of the concept of personhood and to examine some of the ways in which broader social anxieties are expressed in these case studies. She suggests that our investment in personhood is greater now than it has been for years, and that our ongoing struggle to define the term is evident in law and popular culture. Using a cultural studies of law approach, the author examines important issues such as whether the person is a gender-neutral concept based on individual rights, the relationship between personhood and the body, and whether persons can be property. Impersonationsis a highly original study that brings together legal, philosophical, and cultural expressions of personhood to enliven current debates about our place in the world., Sheryl N. Hamilton uses five different kinds of persons - corporations, women, clones, computers, and celebrities - to discuss the instability of the concept of personhood and to examine some of the ways in which broader social anxieties are expressed in these case studies., Personhood is considered at once a sign of legal-political status and of socio-cultural agency, synonymous with the rational individual, subject, or citizen. Yet, in an era of life-extending technologies, genetic engineering, corporate social responsibility, and smart technology, the definition of the person is neither benign nor uncontested. Boundaries that previously worked to secure our place in the social order are blurring as never before. What does it mean, then, to be a person in the twenty-first century? In Impersonations, Sheryl N. Hamilton uses five different kinds of persons - corporations, women, clones, computers, and celebrities - to discuss the instability of the concept of personhood and to examine some of the ways in which broader social anxieties are expressed in these case studies. She suggests that our investment in personhood is greater now than it has been for years, and that our ongoing struggle to define the term is evident in law and popular culture. Using a cultural studies of law approach, the author examines important issues such as whether the person is a gender-neutral concept based on individual rights, the relationship between personhood and the body, and whether persons can be property. Impersonations is a highly original study that brings together legal, philosophical, and cultural expressions of personhood to enliven current debates about our place in the world., Personhood is considered at once a sign of legal-political status and of socio-cultural agency, synonymous with the rational individual, subject, or citizen. Yet, in an era of life-extending technologies, genetic engineering, corporate social responsibility, and smart technology, the definition of the person is neither benign nor uncontested. Boundaries that previously worked to secure our place in the social order are blurring as never before. What does it mean, then, to be a person in the twenty-first century? In Impersonations , Sheryl N. Hamilton uses five different kinds of persons - corporations, women, clones, computers, and celebrities - to discuss the instability of the concept of personhood and to examine some of the ways in which broader social anxieties are expressed in these case studies. She suggests that our investment in personhood is greater now than it has been for years, and that our ongoing struggle to define the term is evident in law and popular culture. Using a cultural studies of law approach, the author examines important issues such as whether the person is a gender-neutral concept based on individual rights, the relationship between personhood and the body, and whether persons can be property. Impersonations is a highly original study that brings together legal, philosophical, and cultural expressions of personhood to enliven current debates about our place in the world.

LC Classification NumberBD450.H2535 2009