Since its invention in the late nineteenth century, the penetrating gaze of the X-ray has changed our vision of the inside of the human body. After we started to see inside ourselves, the relationship between ourselves and our bodies changed forever. As a progression in medical science, X-ray technology was fashioned to maintain and save life. However, as the contributors to this volume show, it has been a device of ruination as well. They visualise the traces and the pattern of violence, practised by the states, racial capitalism, colonial racism and sexism. By juxtaposing different cases across time and space, this collection demonstrates a set of relations between civilization and ruination.
Price: $35.00
Pages: 194
Publisher: transcript publishing
Imprint: transcript publishing
Series: Corporeal Matters
Publication Date:
03 June 2025
Trim Size: 9.45 X 6.10 in
ISBN: 9783837670486
Format: Paperback
»[Der Band liefert] einen eindrücklichen Beweis für die Kraft des situierten Wissens und der persönlichen (Körper-)Erfahrung für den wissenschaftlichen Umgang mit medialen Phänomenen und deren biopolitischen Verstrickungen.«
Shahram Khosravi is a professor of anthropology at Stockholm University. His research interests include the anthropology of Iran, forced displacement, border studies, and temporality. He has been an active writer in the international press. He is a co-founder of Critical Border Studies, a network for scholars, artists and activists to interact.
Frontmatter 1
Content 4
Wayward X-ray Photos 10
The Racialized X-ray Code 32
Moving Shades: X-ray Mobility in Southeast Asian Labour Migration 42
Suspicious Bodies 56
The Ancestral Document 64
The Bloodiest Border. A Photo Essay 72
In the Dermis of the Body 86
A Scarf, a Sewage Pipe and a Settler: On Tactics, X-ray, and the Right to Opacity 98
Silent Agony 112
A Ray in Five Folds 118
Deep Visions and Superficial Desires: X-rays as Science and Popular Culture 134
Bothering the X-ray 146
Listening to X-ray Images. A Family Album 166
Contributors 184
Acknowledgements 190
Imprint 192
