THE PRISON AND THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION by Caleb Smith ( 9780300141665 )

Item Details

Title:

THE PRISON AND THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION

By:

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£30.00
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ISBN 10:

0300141661

ISBN 13:

9780300141665

Publisher:

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

8 September, 2009

Series:

Yale Studies in English

Pages:

272

Description:

Argues that the dehumanization inherent in captivity has always been at the heart of American civil society. Exploring legal, political, and literary texts, this book shows how alienation and self-reliance, torture and penitence came together in the prison, a scene for the portrayal of both gothic nightmares and romantic dreams.

Synopsis:

How did a nation so famously associated with freedom become internationally identified with imprisonment? After the scandals of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and in the midst of a dramatically escalating prison population, the question is particularly urgent. In this timely, provocative study, Caleb Smith argues that the dehumanization inherent in captivity has always been at the heart of American civil society. Exploring legal, political, and literary texts - including the works of Dickinson, Melville, and Emerson - Smith shows how alienation and self-reliance, social death and spiritual rebirth, torture and penitence came together in the prison, a scene for the portrayal of both gothic nightmares and romantic dreams. Demonstrating how the 'cellular soul' has endured since the antebellum age, "The Prison and the American Imagination" offers a passionate and haunting critique of the very idea of solitude in American life.

Illustrations:

4 black-&-white illustrations

Publication:

Imprint:

Yale University Press

Returns:

Returnable

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