Introduction: Notions of Surveillance

The introduction articulates the manner in which cultural productions have been complicit in watching, seeing, and purporting to ‘know’ race, examining some of the ways in which surveillant technologies are involved in the definition of race categories. This chapter brings together examples of literary, cultural, and filmic depictions of race, providing a critical lens with which to examine the multidisciplinary contributions to this collection, whilst also providing the rationale for the chosen methodology. The chapter also includes a brief outline of each chapter’s contribution to the scope of the collection.