Introduction -- The carceral imaginary -- Tableaux mort: execution, cinema, and carceral fantasies -- Prison on screen: the carceral aesthetic -- The carceral spectator -- Screens and the senses in prison -- The great unseen audience: Sing Sing Prison and motion pictures -- The carceral reformer -- A different story: recreation and cinema in women's prisons and reformatories -- Cinema and prison reform -- Conclusion: the prison museum and media use in the contemporary prison.
Summary
A groundbreaking contribution to the study of non-theatrical film exhibition, Carceral Fantasies tells the little-known story of how cinema found a home in the U.S. penitentiary system and how the prison emerged as a setting and narrative trope in modern cinema. Focusing on films shown in prisons before 1935, the book explores the unique experience of viewing cinema while incarcerated and the complex cultural roots of cinematic renderings of prison life. Considering a diverse mix of cinematic genres, from early actualities and reenactments of notorious executions to reformist exposés of the 19.