Title Prisons, race, and masculinity in twentieth-century U.S. literature and film / Peter Caster

Published Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2008] ©2008

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Description 1 online resource (xx, 279 pages) : illustrations Series Black performance and cultural criticism Black performance and cultural criticism. Contents Imprisonment in U.S. history and the cultural imagination -- Literary execution: race, crime, and punishment in three Faulkner novels -- Soul on ice, schizoanalysis, and the subject of imprisonment -- The executioner's song and the narration of history -- The contradictions of documentary realism in American history X -- "Based upon a true story": the hurricane and the problem of prison redemption -- The farm: "This is no dream or nothing made up, this is for real" -- Staging prisons and the performance of history Summary In Prisons, Race, and Masculinity, Peter Caster demonstrates the centrality of imprisonment in American culture, illustrating how incarceration, an institution inseparable from race, has shaped and continues to shape U.S. history and literature in the starkest expression of what W.E.B. DuBois famously termed "the problem of the color line." A prison official in 1888 declared that it was the freeing of slaves that actually created prisons: "we had to establish means for their control. Hence came the penitentiary." Such rampant racism contributed to the criminalization of black masculinity in the cultural imagination, shaping not only the identity of prisoners (collectively and individually) but also America's national character. Caster analyzes the representations of imprisonment in books, films, and performances, alternating between history and fiction to describe how racism influenced imprisonment during the decline of lynching in the 1930s, the political radicalism in the late 1960s, and the unprecedented prison expansion through the 1980s and 1990s. Offering new interpretations of familiar works by William Faulkner, Eldridge Cleaver, and Norman Mailer, Caster also engages recent films such as American History X, The Hurricane, and The Farm: Life Inside Angola Prison alongside prison history chronicled in the transcripts of the American Correctional Association. This book offers a compelling account of how imprisonment has functioned as racial containment, a matter critical to U.S. history and literary study Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-272) and index Notes Print version record SUBJECT Bibel Philemonbrief gnd Subject Imprisonment in literature. American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism Imprisonment in motion pictures. Masculinity in literature. Masculinity in motion pictures. African Americans -- Race identity. Motion pictures and literature -- United States American literature -- Film adaptations Executions and executioners in literature. African Americans -- Race identity American literature Executions and executioners in literature Imprisonment in literature Imprisonment in motion pictures Masculinity in literature Masculinity in motion pictures Motion pictures and literature Ethnische Identität Motiv Literatur Männlichkeit Motiv Schwarze Motiv Strafvollzug Motiv Film Mann -- Motiv -- Literatur -- USA. Gefängnis -- Motiv -- Literatur -- USA. Rasse -- Motiv -- Literatur -- USA. Literatur -- USA -- Motiv -- Mann. Literatur -- USA -- Motiv -- Gefängnis. Literatur -- USA -- Motiv -- Rasse. Film -- Motiv -- Mann -- USA. Film -- Motiv -- Gefängnis -- USA. Film -- Motiv -- Rasse -- USA. Gefängnis -- Motiv -- Film -- USA. Rasse -- Motiv -- Film -- USA. Mann -- Motiv -- Film -- USA. Amerikansk litteratur -- historia -- 1900-talet. Fängelsestraff. Manlighet i filmen. Manlighet i litteraturen. Film och litteratur -- Förenta staterna. Amerikansk litteratur -- film- och TV-bearbetningar. Fängelser på film, USA. Mansrollen på film, USA. Svarta på film, USA. United States USA Schwarze <Motiv> Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. Film adaptations Film adaptations. Adaptations cinématographiques. Form Electronic book

Other Titles Prisons, race and masculinity in twentieth-century United States literature and film

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