GLOS3606

Prisons are noisy places: clanking of metal, echoing voices, violence, laughter, and all the sounds of people living their lives in overcrowded congregate facilities without privacy or control over their surroundings. But the sounds of prisons -- the voices, the stories - are not often heard outside the prison walls. This course is meant to provide a corrective - a small corrective - to that silence. In GLOS 3606, Art and Incarceration: Prison Voices and Visions, we will read, view, and listen to creative work by incarcerated artists from around the world, and we will consider:

(1) what these artists have to say about the(ir) world(s),

(2) how art provides a space for resistance and survival within the walls of the prison, and (3) how the conditions of incarceration impact the creative process and affect our access to this important body of work.

Because the purpose of this course is to amplify and analyze the voices and visions of incarcerated artists, this course requires substantial reading, viewing, and listening. There are weekly writing assignments, but they are short and informal. There are no longer papers. There is a final take-home essay exam.