Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAlison Griffiths's examination of how movie exhibition came into prisons is truly groundbreaking. No one has studied the culture of moviegoing 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 FilmCarceral 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 HistoryCarceral Fantasies paints a complex, rich portrait of the historical relationship between cinema and the American penal system that crosses disciplinary borders and engages with a diverse body of scholarship. Groundbreaking in its historical exploration, rigorous and acrobatic in its theoretical intervention, and provocative in its call to action,
Carceral Fantasies is a rewarding and important read for anyone interested in the history of American cinema. * Film & History *
Griffiths’s work uncovers hidden and rarely considered aspects of penal practice, media consumption and film history. * Prison Service Journal *
A timely, challenging, and always thought-provoking text,
Carceral Fantasies will become necessary reading for all working to map the medial administration of state terror and to imagine cinema’s capacities to glimpse beyond it. * Canadian Journal of Film Studies *
Carceral Fantasies is a fascinating look at the history of cinema and the penitentiary. * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books *
The original research she has performed, especially in understanding the nature of the carceral spectator, makes a significant contribution to film history, particularly film as a cultural artifact. She provides a glimpse of a nearly invisible audience that may have discovered in film their only connection to the world at large. In doing so, Griffiths brings light to what remains one of the most hidden places in our society. * Wide Angle *
Carceral Fantasies will certainly attract scholars who are interested in the development of this scholarship about the silent era. The book will also be of value for those who are interested by nontheatrical film exhibition and the unique experience of watching films in prison. * Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television *
Carceral Fantasies is a provocative and engrossing read. Griffiths’s study also makes a significant contribution to histories of cinema-going and early twentieth-century visual culture, and to our understanding of the complexities that underpin the dynamics between spectator and spectacle. * Alphaville *
Table of ContentsList of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: The Carceral Imaginary1. Tableaux Mort: Execution, Cinema, and Carceral Fantasies
2. Prison on Screen: The Carceral Aesthetic
Part II: The Carceral Spectator3. Screens and the Senses in Prison
4. "The Great Unseen Audience": Sing Sing Prison and Motion Pictures
Part III: The Carceral Reformer5. 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
