03201nam 2200685Ia 450 991082093550332120240418003714.01-282-35324-197866123532460-300-15630-810.12987/9780300156300(CKB)2430000000010764(StDuBDS)AH23050108(SSID)ssj0000306904(PQKBManifestationID)11192728(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000306904(PQKBWorkID)10308646(PQKB)10509184(DE-B1597)486219(OCoLC)586098252(DE-B1597)9780300156300(Au-PeEL)EBL3420588(CaPaEBR)ebr10348485(CaONFJC)MIL235324(OCoLC)923594793(MiAaPQ)EBC3420588(EXLCZ)99243000000001076420090122d2009 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtccrThe prison and the American imagination /Caleb Smith1st ed.New Haven Yale University Pressc20091 online resource (320 p.) Yale Studies in EnglishBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-300-14166-1 Includes bibliographical references and index.Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Introduction -- Part One. Buried Alive -- Part Two. Born Again -- Part Three. Afterlives -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- IndexHow did a nation so famously associated with freedom become internationally identified with imprisonment? After the scandals of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and in the midst of a dramatically escalating prison population, the question is particularly urgent. In this timely, provocative study, Caleb Smith argues that the dehumanization inherent in captivity has always been at the heart of American civil society.Exploring legal, political, and literary texts-including the works of Dickinson, Melville, and Emerson-Smith shows how alienation and self-reliance, social death and spiritual rebirth, torture and penitence came together in the prison, a scene for the portrayal of both gothic nightmares and romantic dreams. Demonstrating how the "cellular soul" has endured since the antebellum age, The Prison and the American Imagination offers a passionate and haunting critique of the very idea of solitude in American life.American literatureHistory and criticismImprisonment in literaturePrisonersUnited StatesIntellectual lifePrisons in literatureAmerican literatureHistory and criticism.Imprisonment in literature.PrisonersIntellectual life.Prisons in literature.810.9/9206927Smith Caleb1977-1617135MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910820935503321The prison and the American imagination4076092UNINA