Prelims

Half Title Page

Haunting Prison

Series Page

EMERALD STUDIES IN CULTURE, CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND THE ARTS

Series Editors:

Yvonne Jewkes

University of Bath, UK

Travis Linnemann

Kansas State University, USA

Sarah Moore

University of Bath, UK

This series aims to take criminological inquiry in new and imaginative directions, by publishing books that represent all forms of criminal justice from an ‘arts’ or ‘cultural’ perspective, and that have something new to tell us about space, place and sensory experience as they relate to forms of justice. Building on emergent interest in the ‘cultural’, ‘autoethnographic’, ‘emotional’, ‘visual’, ‘narrative’ and ‘sensory’ in criminology, books in the series will introduce readers to imaginative forms of inspiration that deepen our conceptual understanding of the lived experience of punishment and of the process of researching within the criminal justice system, as well as discussing the more well-rehearsed problems of cultural representations of justice.

Specifically, this series provides a platform for original research that explores the myriad ways in which architecture, design, aesthetics, hauntology, atmospheres, fine art, graffiti, visual broadcast media and many other ‘cultural’ perspectives are utilized as ways of seeing and understanding the enduring persistence of, and fascination with, the formal institutions of criminal justice and punishment.

Title Page

Haunting Prison: Exploring the Prison as an Abject and Uncanny Institution

By

Tea Fredriksson

Stockholm University, Sweden

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2023

Copyright © 2023 Tea Fredriksson.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Excerpts from PRISON MEMOIRS OF AN ANARCHIST by Alexander Berkman have been used with permission from Forgotten Books.

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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80455-369-5 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80455-368-8 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80455-370-1 (Epub)

Dedication

For mom and dad

Contents

Preface

This study that makes up this book began as my doctoral thesis, which I started working on in 2016 and completed in 2021. When I first started analysing prison stories from different times, places, and points of view, I was surprised by how coherent they were in terms of theme and imagery despite being historically, geographically, or socially distant from one another. While narrators in this genre are often both literally and literarily confined, even when they were free from incarceration they still depicted prison in much the same way as those who were imprisoned by it. The same held true across regions and historical time. Moreover, it did not take long to note how the themes and images these novels conjured were closely tied to the ghost- and horror stories of Gothic literary conventions.

Commercially published prison autobiographies create a grey area between fact and fiction. Their stories are framed as true, but at the same time they are edited for entertainment purposes and mass-market appeal. While their truth claim is clear, the extent of the truth itself in these stories is not. Nor does it really matter how true these stories are. What matters is that they are presented as true, while also presenting a horror-storied picture of prison for readers to experience through imaginative engagement. As a result, these truth claims become part of how prison stories use a Gothic frame of narration.

This discovery was the starting point for seeing how prison stories are not only bound by prison, but they are also bound by a gothicized literary tradition. To explore how this overlap of prison and gothicity speaks to the cultural anxieties that underpin them both, I turned to the uses of psychoanalytical theory found in sociology and the humanities. What quickly became clear was just how much these stories present abject and uncanny encounters that showcase anxieties about selfhood, life, and death. The prevalence of such themes made these prison stories an intriguing case for the study of a social unconscious. The way content with documentary ambitions uses horror tropes gives rise to so many questions, and so many possibilities for interdisciplinary research.

Rewriting my doctoral thesis to suit the book format has been a bit of a challenge, but it is a challenge I am very happy to have been offered. I especially want to thank Yvonne Jewkes for encouraging me to go for it, and the editorial team at Emerald for making the process of reworking this study so enjoyable. My deepest thanks also go out to those who read, listened to, and commented on this research while I was pursuing my degree, including – but by no means limited to – Frida Beckman, Eamonn Carrabine, Michael Fiddler, Kristina Fjelkestam, Robin Gålnander, Keith Hayward, Magnus Hörnqvist, Ingrid Lander, Anders Nilsson, and Tove Pettersson.

Last but not least, I want to thank my friends and family for always being there, offering snacks and sympathy whenever things got stressful. Like everything else in life, this project would have been way less fun without you.

Tea Fredriksson

September 2022