The Forging of One’s Self: Inauthentic Signatures and the Privacy of Handwriting

Abstract

The article examines the ambiguous relationship between the handwritten signature and privacy. Read as an expression of individuality, the signature serves as a means of (public) representation and documentation; at the same time, its appearance is said to be connected to a person’s character and their specific manners that are developed and acted upon most freely in private. Based on the examples of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s autograph collection and Thomas Mann’s designs for the signatures of two characters from his novel Die Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull, this article explores inauthentic signatures—signatures displaying a name other than the signatory’s—as a practice of performing individuality through writing. It concludes that the relationship between individuality and handwriting is not dependent on notions of authenticity, but instead is established through diverse practices involving (among others) posing and imitation. Thus, privacy not only provides a space for the enactment of “authentic” self-expression, but also for the exploration of personality through playful and imaginative practices.