Forensic Traces

Abstract

Bøndergaard analyses Aleksandar Hemon’s novel The Lazarus Project in relation to the emergence of forensic science, and takes as a point of departure a parallel between the concern with risk and recognition of danger at the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Bøndergaard argues that the novel’s connection between disparate times and places serves to question the extent to which we still judge each other on signs on the surface of our bodies. Bøndergaard considers the use and development of visual evidence in early forensic practices in order to approach the function of photography and visual media in (forensic) literature, of which Hemon’s book again serves as an example.