The aesthetics of redemption

Released prisoners in American film and literature

Bibliographic Data

ID5810376
AuthorsMike Nellis (University of Strathclyde, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume13
Issue1
Pages129-146
Publication date2009-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTheoretical Criminology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1362-4806 • E-ISSN: 1461-7439
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1362480608100176
OpenAlexW2040810330
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited5

The released prisoner was a stock figure in American popular culture throughout the 20th century, and there is an enduring aesthetic associated with such narratives. Despite the artifice of the aesthetic, the best of them attempt to say serious things about the perils and pleasures of `straight time'. This paper explores the way in which a cluster of books and films, dating from the 1990s, has addressed the experiences of released prisoners and notes an emergent focus on the personal agony of redemption. This has a contingent rather than an integral relation to the concern with rehabilitation and control espoused by criminal justice officials, but none the less enables the communication of culturally enriching stories to audiences who might not otherwise be interested in the problems of released prisoners. Academic criminology should take heed of these stories, and make more use of them, pedagogically and politically

Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending

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