1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910815500803321

Autore

Sweeney Megan <1967->

Titolo

Reading is my window : books and the art of reading in women's prisons / / Megan Sweeney

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chapel Hill, : University of North Carolina Press, 2010

ISBN

1-4696-0436-1

0-8078-9835-X

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (351 p.)

Disciplina

365/.66

365.66

Soggetti

Women prisoners - Books and reading - United States

Books and reading

African American women - Books and reading

African American women - Study and teaching (Higher)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Tell me what you read, I will tell you what you are : reading and education in U.S. penal history -- The underground book railroad : material dimensions of reading -- Between a politics of pain and a politics of pain's disavowal -- Fear of books : reading urban fiction -- To set the captives free : self-help reading practices -- Encounters : the meeting ground of books -- Conclusion. This really isn't a rehabilitation place : policy considerations.

Sommario/riassunto

Drawing on extensive interviews with ninety-four women prisoners, Megan Sweeney examines how incarcerated women use available reading materials to come to terms with their pasts, negotiate their present experiences, and reach toward different futures. Foregrounding the voices of African American women, Sweeney analyzes how prisoners read three popular genres: narratives of victimization, urban crime fiction, and self-help books. She outlines the history of reading and education in U.S. prisons, highlighting how the increasing dehumanization of prisoners has resulted in diminished priso