Abstract
In this article I explore the ways in which identity is formed in late capitalism through the figure of the impostor as it is revealed in Orian Morris’s novel With My Little Eye. I show how the impostor is a hidden key concept in theories of work and psychology, and how the study of literature can utilize these theories to construct an interdisciplinary conceptual framework for understanding the impostor and the nature of subjectivity today. Reading with the impostor figure as an interpretive paradigm, I explore the contemporary self as an endless performance of impersonations, blurring the known boundaries between internal and external, truth and falsehood, source and representation, both in content and in form; a self that is shaped by impostures, conversions, and transformations as an attempt to deal with the grip of the economic language. I demonstrate how the tension between authenticity and falsehood, between imagination and fiction, is a gap that runs throughout the novel and argue that the impostor is a way to bear this conflict.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 140-161 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Shofar |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jan 2024 |
Keywords
- capitalism
- impostor
- labor
- neoliberalism
- the impostor syndrome
- work
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- History
- Religious studies