Cruel and Unusual: Punishment and U.S. CultureFrom the excesses of Puritan patriarchs to the barbarism of slavery and on into the prison-industrial complex, punishment in the US has a long and gruesome history. In the post-Vietnam era, the prison population has increased tenfold and the death penalty has enjoyed a renaissance. Few subjects in contemporary US society provoke as much controversy as punishment. In this context, Cruel and Unusual aims to offer the first comprehensive exploration of the history of punishment as it has been mediated in American culture. Grounding his analysis in Marxist theory, psychoanalysis and Foucault’s influential work on discipline, Brian Jarvis examines a range of cultural texts, from seventeenth century execution sermons to twenty-first century prison films, to uncover the politics, economics and erotics of punishment. This wide-ranging and interdisciplinary survey constructs a genealogy of cruelty through close reading of novels by Hawthorne and Melville, fictional accounts of the Rosenberg execution by Coover and Doctorow, slave narratives and prison writings by African Americans and the critically neglected genre of American prison films. In the process, Cruel and Unusual unmasks a fundamental conflict between legends of liberty in the Land of the Free and the secret, silenced histories of sadomasochistic desire, punishment for profit and social control. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Contents
The Birth of a Prison Nation | 1 |
The Scarlet Letter and the Long Forever of Puritan | 15 |
The Public Burning | 55 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
African-American Alcatraz alongside American appears associated attempts authority Bartleby becomes Billy body capital cell Cited close colonial confinement contemporary continued convict corrections crime criminal culture Dead designed desire developments discipline drama economic escape established execution experience father figure Following genre guards Hand Hawthorne Hester House images included increased inmates insists institution involves John justice labour Last less liberty live Luke male masochism master Melville Melville's moral mother murder narrative nature offers opening pain penal penitentiary performance plantation play political practice Press prison film produced punishment punitive Puritan Quakers recognises references relation Report resistance role Rosenbergs sadism Scarlet Letter scene seems seen sentence sexual Show slave slavery social society subsequent suggests symbolic takes torture Truman victim violence walls warden whilst whip White-Jacket women York
Bibliographic information
| Title | Cruel and Unusual: Punishment and U.S. Culture |
| Author | Brian Jarvis |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Pluto Press, 2004 |
| ISBN | 0745315437, 9780745315430 |
| Length | 287 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / United States / General Law / Criminal Law / General Social Science / Criminology |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |