Description
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking contribution to the study of non-theatrical film exhibition,
Carceral Fantasies tells the story of how cinema found a home in the U.S. penitentiary system and how the prison emerged as a setting and narrative trope. Focusing on films shown before 1935, the book explores the experience of viewing cinema while incarcerated.
Trade ReviewAlison Griffiths's examination of how movie exhibition came into prisons is truly groundbreaking. No one has studied the culture of movie-going behind bars in this fashion before. A unique and absolutely exciting work! -- Dana Polan, author of Scenes of Instruction: The Beginnings of the U.S. Study of Film Carceral Fantasies is a complex and highly original book that attends the intersections between various early cinema images of prisons and the real thing. Griffiths has a fascinating story to tell, in which she argues that we can view execution films as a kind of attraction-and in doing so are led to ponder: what constitutes an attraction? -- Jon Lewis, author of American Film: A History
Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: The Carceral Imaginary 1. Tableaux Mort: Execution, Cinema, and Carceral Fantasies 2. Prison on Screen: The Carceral Aesthetic Part II: The Carceral Spectator 3. Screens and the Senses in Prison 4. "The Great Unseen Audience": Sing Sing Prison and Motion Pictures Part III: The Carceral Reformer 5. A Different Story: Recreation and Cinema in Women's Prisons and Reformatories 6. Cinema and Prison Reform Conclusion: The Prison Museum and Media Use in the Contemporary Prison Notes Filmography Bibliography Index
