Description
Book SynopsisPrison: Cultural Memory and Dark Tourism discusses decommissioned Australian prisons currently or potentially functioning as tourist attractions. In particular, it addresses a fundamental question: Do the interpretations and presentations of the sites include and fairly represent the personal stories and experiences associated with those prisons? The author argues that the conventional understanding of most of Australiaâs historical prisons fosters a radical othering of inmates, and with it the exclusion, distortion and historical neglect of their narratives. This book examines avenues via which neglected narratives may be glimpsed or inferred, presenting a number of examples. This remedies the imbalance in some degree â and tests such avenuesâ potential as resources for inclusive interpretations by public historians and curators. The book also focuses on the influence of celebrity prisoners , whose links to the penal system are exploited as promotional features by the sites and in
