Subjectivation Against a Backlight. Scenes of Evidence Production, Ellis Island 1908

Abstract

Dressed in a dark suit and wearing a slouch hat set rakishly on a thatch of black hair showing gray about the temples, was how a certain Frank Woodhull appeared on 4 October 1908 before a Board of Special Inquiry on Ellis Island, New York.—Or rather, this is how the subject in question first appeared in the New York Times the following day. Starting from the example of the subjectivation process of Frank Woodhull, the article raises the question of what kind of place Ellis Island was. It asks what kind of dispositive is that, an immigration station, and in which way scenic configurations took part in subjectivation on Ellis Island? To address these questions the article first outlines the process of immigration registration on Ellis Island. In passing through the various stations of immigration controls, it becomes clear in which form the gouvernmental act of subject constitution was based on an ensemble of paper and architectural media and, at the same time, demanded a series of performative proofs of identity, which were scenographically arranged. In the focus on the Boards of Special Inquiry – these theaters of law – the scenic aspects of subjectivation become doubly evident: through the structure of the space and the dramaturgy of the hearing, as well as through the importance of a good performance and a convincing story, which determine the results of the hearings.