Fieldnotes: a forensic

Abstract

This poetic investigation probes the linguistic and epistemological effects of the increasingly widespread circulation of forensic discourses in the media and popular culture. Further consideration is given to the disproportionate availability of forensic expertise and technologies when the bodies under investigation are White and located in industrialized nations. A brief preface, “Notes on an Investigation,” situates this project in relationship to the tradition of investigative poetics. The selection of poems that follow features four scenes of forensic investigation explored from various standpoints, including the standpoints of the ethnographer, forensic anthropologist, victim, and perpetrator of violence. The poems reflect their disarticulated content, incorporating fragments of texts collected and reassembled from anthropology textbooks, newspaper articles, court reports, crime novels, and CSI scripts.

Keywords

Investigative poetics forensics fieldnotes

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