AMCL 181b - The Criminal and the Carceral

Institution:

Vassar College

Subject:

Description:

Possibly the most cherished national value of the United States-and the principle that most swiftly enchants both native and immigrant to celebrate themselves as American citizens-is the notion of personal freedom. Yet the recent announcement by justice experts that the U.S. prison population threatens to exceed 2 million inmates suggests that there is an unsavory and desperate underside of U.S. freedom and that in the grand design of U.S. institutions lurks an imperative to confine its citizens as well as liberate them. The criminal and the carceral, however, serve as our muse. In addition to carefully considering the reigning critique of the burgeoning prison-industrial complex in the first portion of the course, we meditate on Enlightenment penological theory and the history of U.S. incarceration to better understand why our society has embraced the prison as a punishment practice and how it goes about administering the institution's discipline. The second portion features a study on literary and documentary representations of the prison experience. We explore how writers and other creative artists have imagined or personally negotiated the challenge of confinement. The third section offers additional meditations on the workings of the justice system and culminates in an exploration of how the U.S. increasingly remakes itself into a carceral society wherein governmental politics, public space, and popular television reveal the extent to which policing and social control have become the defining features of our national culture. In short this inquiry into the nature of American justice, goes beyond critical analysis of literary texts toward a broader understanding of cultural history, cultural change, and cultural ideology. Mr. SimpsoOpen only to freshmen; satisfies college requirement for a Freshman Writing Seminar.

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.vassar.edu

Phone Number:

(845) 437-7000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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