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Cloning Terror: The War of Images, 9/11 to the Present. W.J. T. Mitchell. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 201 1 .
In Cloning Terror, W.J.T. Mitchell examines the confluence of two historical periods he has identified as the "War on Terror" and the "Clone Wars" - which he has described as a "national . . . debate over cloning, stem cell research, and all the related issues in bioethics and biopolitics" (xiv). More accurately, "Clone Wars" is the expression of anxieties over the inter-related concepts of human reproductive processes and biotechnology, and questions of authenticity and facsimile. The Clone Wars manifests itself in anxiety over everything from organ snatching to homosexual passing and corporate groupthink. Here, Mitchell is using the concept of "cloning" as an entry point into the broader discussion of modern image-making technologies and contemporary terrorism.
Specifically, Mitchell wants to survey the archive of images born out of the War on Terror across media and trace how they become powerful when invested with meaning beyond their specific historical context. This is, methodologically speaking, consistent with the practice of "iconology" for which Mitchell is known. His goal is not iconoclasm,...