Research Catalog

Title

The victim as criminal and artist : literature from the American prison / H. Bruce Franklin.

Author

Franklin, H. Bruce (Howard Bruce), 1934-

Publication

New York : Oxford University Press, 1978.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xxii, 337 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

"This first history of prison literature, featuring the first extensive bibliography of works by American convicts, presents a revealing view of America as seen from the bottom. Franklin redefines American literature, its history, and literary criteria. Arguing that Afro-American culture is central rather than peripheral to our literature, Franklin traces the influence of slave songs and narratives from the convict work song through I am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang to the Autobiography of Malcolm X to the poetry of the Attica rebels. In addition to rediscovering dozens of first-rate unknown or forgotten authors, Franklin shows the impact of imprisonment on such major writers as Jack London, Chester Himes, Malcolm Braly, Julian Hawthorne, Agnes Smedley, and especially Herman Melville, whose fiction is given a striking reinterpretation. Here is a landmark work for anyone interested in American literature, Afro-American culture, Marxist theory, penology, and the relations between crime and art"--Jacket.

Subject

• Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 > Criticism and interpretation
• X, Malcolm, 1925-1965
• Himes, Chester B., 1909-1984 > Criticism and interpretation
• Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer Bitterfeld
• Geschichte 1800-1960
• American literature > History and criticism
• Prisoners' writings, American > History and criticism
• American literature > History and criticism
• Prisons in literature
• Slavery in literature
• Criminals' writings, American > History and criticism
• Slaves' writings, American > History and criticism
• Prisoners > United States > Intellectual life
• Slaves > United States > Intellectual life
• African Americans in literature
• Victims in literature
• Crime in literature
• Canon (Literature)

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Note

• Includes index.

Bibliography (note)

• Bibliography: p. 291-323.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. The first literary genre of the United States : the slave narrative -- 2. The worker as criminal and artist : Herman Melville -- 3. Plantation to penitentiary : songs of slavery, peonage, and prison. A. Songs of slavery ; B. Songs of an imprisoned people -- 4. A history of literature by convicts in America -- 5. Two novelists of the American prison. A. Malcolm Braly ; B. Chester Hines -- 6. From Malcolm X to Attica and beyond : contemporary American prison literature -- Appendix: An annotated bibliography of literature by American convicts: 1800-1977.

ISBN

0195022440 :

LCCN

^^^76057284^//r896

OCLC

• 3090135
• SCSB-10170857

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library