The main argument of this thesis is that the rewriters of the story of the Guantánamo Bay Detainee Library, namely journalists and filmmakers, engage differently with primary source material about the detention facility; what they omit and include in their narratives varies and depends largely on their pre-established ideologies. In the field of translation studies, this thesis contributes a new case study; it considers the problematic interplay between law, libraries, and multilingual information access in detention facilities. My research also demonstrates the challenges of examining a library that belongs to a highly controversial military system. In the first chapter I review previous studies of detainee libraries, and I introduce the concepts of rewriting, power, patronage, and ideology. In the second chapter I evaluate how reading material is unevenly distributed across nineteen language groups in the Guantánamo Bay Detainee Library. In the third chapter I reflect on the ways in which news articles written by civilian and military journalists about the Guantánamo Bay Detainee Library are rooted in disparate ideologies. In the fourth chapter I parse the story of the Guantánamo Bay Detainee Library as it is told through the fictitious lens of the film Camp X-Ray (2014). In the fifth and final chapter I summarize the logistical challenges of studying the Guantánamo Bay Detainee Library from afar and imagine what future might await its books.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:masters_theses_2-1484 |
| Date | 07 November 2016 |
| Creators | McCammon, Muira N |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Masters Theses |
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