Prison and the American Imagination

Informationen zum Autor Caleb Smith is Associate Professor of English at Yale University. He lives in New Haven! CT. Klappentext 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. Zusammenfassung Argues that the dehumanization inherent in captivity has always been at the heart of American civil society. This title 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.

Product details

• Authors: Caleb Smith, Smith Caleb
• Publisher: Yale University Press Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 03.05.2011
• EAN: 9780300171495
• ISBN: 978-0-300-17149-5
• No. of pages: 272
• Series: Yale Studies in English; Yale Studies in English
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; USA, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Penology, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, United States of America, USA, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Penology and punishment, Penology & punishment, LITERARY CRITICISM / Novel as Form