Twins and Recursion in Digital, Literary and Visual Cultures

The story of twins being reunited after a long separation is a trope that has been repeated and reworked across different cultures and throughout history. In this study, Edward King demonstrates how twins are a means of exploring the social implications of hyper-connectivity and the compromising relationship between humans and digital information, their environment, and their genetics.

Format: Hardback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 05 May 2022
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

The tale of twins being reunited after a long separation is a timeless and enduring theme that has been explored across diverse cultures and throughout history. Each iteration of this narrative adapts the twin plot to reflect the prevailing cultural tensions of the time. In his groundbreaking study, Edward King explores the profound implications of hyperconnectivity and the complex relationship between humans, digital information, their environment, and their genetics. Through the lens of twins, King reveals how they serve as a means to examine the evolving forms of connectivity and power in contemporary culture, presenting us with new conceptions of the human.

Entwined Being, a comprehensive exploration of the twin phenomenon, delves into a wide range of literary, cultural, and scientific practices. It examines discussions surrounding twins, including their appearance in behavioral genetics as a tool for identifying inherited predispositions to social media. It also explores how their faces interrupt biometric interfaces, such as facial recognition software, challenging advancements in neo-liberal surveillance systems. Moreover, the book examines how twins represent the uncanny and the weird in the horror genre, raising questions about ideologies of communications media and the connectivity it enables.

The study further explores the association of twins with telepathy and cybernetics in science fiction, as well as their construction as models for entangled beings in ecological thought. Drawing upon a diverse array of literary and filmic works, including the works of Ken Follet, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Bruce Chatwin, Shelley Jackson, Brian de Palma, Peter Greenway, and David Cronenberg, as well as science fiction literature and the television series Orphan Black, King illuminates how twins are employed across various disciplines to envision a critical re-conception of the human in times of digital integration and ecological crisis.

Through his meticulous analysis, King offers a thought-provoking exploration of the multifaceted roles of twins in shaping our understanding of the human condition. Entwined Being is a valuable contribution to the field of cultural studies, providing a fresh perspective on the complexities of our digital age and the urgent need for a re-imagining of our relationship with the natural world.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350169159