“The Sunlit Prison of the American Dream”: Representing Carcerality in Contemporary American Fiction

Abstract

This thesis argues that contemporary American literary authors are reconfiguring the genre of prison writing to better represent and encompass the ever-extending reach of the carceral State in the twenty-first century. This new form of prison writing can be better understood as carceral writing, as its focus extends beyond the prison cell, and aligns with the newly established field of carceral studies, to which this thesis aims to contribute. Taking as its starting point Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness (2010), this thesis explores how contemporary authors and artists utilize the space and iconography of the criminal justice system to expound on carcerality’s increasing reach beyond the physical prison in the form of surveillance, poverty, and exploitation under late-stage capitalism. My study diverges from typical discussions of carceral writing in that the authors examined have not been incarcerated but recognize carcerality as an issue that impacts our sociopolitical reality and the literary tradition. Consequently, this study questions the relationship between writing – typically a form of free expression – and the repressive context of the carceral State and what can be realized from this productive tension. Each chapter explores a different dimension of the contemporary US carceral experience and how the novel, as a form, represents the carceral turn. I begin with an analysis of the roots of carcerality in slavery through selected works by Jesmyn Ward and Colson Whitehead, exploring how the genre of the slave narrative was shaped by its historical context and how it has influenced contemporary writing about prisons. I then discuss the impact of incarceration on family units, as seen in Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage (2018) which engages in dialogue with James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk (1974). I examine how this theme is also treated in film through Garrett Bradley’s documentary Time (2020). I then shift to examine the experience of incarcerated women, focusing on Rachel Kushner’s The Mars Room (2018) and the ethics of representation and testimony in these works of fiction that are inspired by true stories. The final chapter analyses at the works of Sergio De La Pava, whose writing critiques carcerality through experimental narrative techniques that broaden the artistic possibilities of prison writing. These authors are paving the way for a new form of carceral writing that is socially conscious, while maintaining a sense of artistic integrity, utilizing past forms and genres to better represent and elucidate our current moment.