European University Institute Library

Romantic outlaws, beloved prisons, the unconscious meanings of crime and punishment, Martha Grace Duncan

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-262) and index

index present

non fiction

Romantic outlaws, beloved prisons

bibliography

34676250

Martha Grace Duncan

the unconscious meanings of crime and punishment

"An ex-convict struggles with his addictive yearning for prison. A law-abiding citizen broods over his pleasure in violent, illegal acts. A prison warden loses his job because he is so successful in rehabilitating criminals. These are but a few of the intriguing stories Martha Grace Duncan examines in her bold, interdisciplinary book Romantic Outlaws, Beloved Prisons. Duncan writes: 'This is a book about paradoxes and mingled yarns -about the bright sides of dark events, the silver linings of sable clouds'. She portrays upright citizens who harbor a strange liking for criminal deeds, and criminals who conceive of prison in positive terms: as a nurturing mother, an academy, a matrix of spiritual rebirth, or a refuge from life's trivia. In developing her unique vision, Duncan draws on literature, history, psychoanalysis, and law. Her work reveals a nonutopian world in which criminals and non-criminals -while injuring each other in obvious ways-nonetheless live together in a symbiotic as well as an adversarial relationship, needing each other, serving each other, enriching each other's lives in profound and surprising fashion."--, Provided by publisher

I. Cradled on the sea: positive images of prison and theories of punishment -- II. A strange liking: our admiration for criminals -- III. In slime and darkness: the methapor of filth in criminal justice -- Conclusion: the romanticization of criminals and the defense against despair