Full Description
The cultural fantasy of twins imagines them as physically and behaviorally identical. Media portrayals consistently offer the spectacle of twins who share an insular closeness and perform a supposed alikeness--standing side by side, speaking and acting in unison.
Treating twinship as a cultural phenomenon, this first comprehensive study of twins in American literature and popular culture examines the historical narrative--within the discourses of experimentation, aberrance and eugenics--and how it has shaped their representations in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: A History of Twins in the United States
One—"A Chill of Similitude": Disturbing Likeness in Photographic and Literary Representations of Twins
Two—The Sexual Fantasy of Twins: Twincest and Triangulated Desire
Three—Keeping It in the Family: Twins and Race in William Melvin Kelley's dem and Toni Morrison's Paradise
Four—Twins as Goodwill Cultural Ambassadors: The Educational Goals of Lucy Fitch Perkins's
Foreign Twins Series
Five—The Twin Companion: Twins Branding in Juvenile Media
Six—Wombmates for Life: Inside the Subculture of Twinship
Conclusion
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
