Impostors and Impersonators

In this class, we will look at the fascination and the fear we have about impostors who construct false identities and impersonators who take on the identity of someone else—from folk and fairy tales to popular shows like Inventing Anna and the Tinder Swindler to conversations about identity deception in deep fakes and ChatGPT. We will examine the stories of con artists, doppelgängers, catfishers, identity theft fraudsters and those with impostor syndrome to understand: How do we construct what is real and what is fake? How do we determine what is deceptive and what is authentic? We will also look at current advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning and interrogate legal rulings on identity deception to understand how we authenticate and determine the originality of the self. Texts may include Fantomina by Eliza Haywood, Doppelganger by Naomi Klein, Passing by Nella Larsen, and The Fraud by Zadie Smith. Visual media may include Parasite, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Kagemusha.