prison narratives

[Alfred Thomas]

Kafka's "In der Strafkolonie" (In the Penal Colony) is more about torture than incarceration per se, but it is short-- and powerful. Tadeusz Borowski's Auschwitz stories are also short and devastating. If you want to go back to the beginnings of the genre of prison writing, Boethius' "Consolation of Philosophy" deserves a mention. 

Sounds like a great course.
 
AT
 

________________________________
 From: Sasha Spektor <xrenovo at GMAIL.COM>
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU 
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2012 5:43 PM
Subject: [SEELANGS] prison narratives
  

Dear Sealanders, 

Through a local think-tank I am planning to teach a course in the TN correctional institution next semester that focuses on prison narratives.  God knows, Russian lit has some good ones:  Dostoevsky's ZMD, Solzhenitsyn's One Day, Shalamov's stories.  With a friend's excellent suggestion I'm thinking to include The Death of Ivan Ilyich (as matter imprisoning the soul) and Ward 6.

But more heads are better than two, and I wanted to ask everyone for suggestions.  It doesn't have to be Russian, nor even East European.  It doesn't have to be fiction.  The only consideration that it shouldn't be too long -- a long story, a novella, a short novel at most.  Like Tolstoy's story it doesn't have to deal only with literal imprisonment, but can address incarceration as a metaphor as well.  Perhaps you know of an especially interesting article on the subject (my theoretical knowledge of it is pretty much circumscribed by Foucault).  

Please respond off the list and I'll compile a list afterwards to post it here.  
Thank you in advance,

Sasha Spektor.  
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