Prison Narratives and Surveillance Studies Sample Clauses

Prison Narratives and Surveillance Studies. Although this project originally stemmed purely from an interest in the GDR and German studies, research into the topics of prison narratives and surveillance studies was also necessary. Because prison narratives are a relatively specific genre of autobiographical texts there is also not much academic literature describing how to correctly approach analyzing a prison narrative. One useful work on the topic is Haslam’s Fitting Sentences: Identity in the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Prison Narrative (1971). For Haslam, “A history of prisons is a history of prisoners…Prison policy and practice are engaged in an extensive and constant construction of the prisoner, the mythic body and identity of the generic prison unfortunate enough to be incarcerated” (p. 3). Furthermore, “the modern prison and its practices are said to arise from a Protestant rhetoric of the individual’s ability to reform…” (p. 4). Haslam’s conclusions make this project’s analysis of prisoner’s narratives all the more significant because, as Haslam writes, their behavior and existence shaped prison policy. Furthermore, Haslam’s definition of the modern prison serves to identify the main purpose of a prison to be reform. For the Stasi, reform meant changing the minds and behaviors of its political prisoners. Furthermore, an understanding of the concepts of surveillance and observation in a prison setting is also essential to this project. Therefore, it is necessary to include a discussion on the writings and designs of Xxxxxxxx, twentieth-century French philosopher, and Xxxxxxx, nineteenth-century English philosopher. For the purposes of this project, Haslam’s (1971) discussion of Xxxxxxxx provides an effective summary of the central issues to consider when examining the control and surveillance practiced in prisons: “Xxxxxxxx uses Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx’x construction of the panopticon as a figure that demonstrates the effectiveness and pervasiveness of the disciplinary mechanisms of society. In general Xxxxxxx’x architectural design of this institution allowed for inmates to be constantly watched—or at least feel as if they were—while the inmates themselves could never see the officials in charge of them. This structure, according to Xxxxxxx, permits the exercise of complete and total discipline in that it makes those subject to its control feel as if any infraction of the rules will be noticed and the perpetrator punished […] Xxxxxxx writes that ‘the more constantly the persons to be inspecte...