Hannah Arendt theorizes that public spaces for thought and private spaces of reflection are constitutive components necessary for the production of a robust political world of thinkers, story-tellers and meaning-makers. Arendts conception of the transformative potential of public and private spaces can be particularly illuminating when applied to the context of the modern American prison, where prisoners are often subjected to both severe forms of social deprivation on the one hand, and lack of privacy on the other. That prison spaces exist as such is not a coincidenceor, as the rhetoric often goes, necessary or practicalbut rather stands as the literal, spatial verification of the prisoners status as one in exile. The prisoner, as a subject that has violated the social contract, and has as a consequence lost her right to flourish in a community. Prison spaces are designed to limit the ability of insiders to reflect, privately, and to act and communicate, publically. Analyzing prison spaces through an Arendtian lens, I argue, can be helpful for understanding the very real stakes of subjecting prisoners to such conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-11242014-105356 |
| Date | 01 December 2014 |
| Creators | Allen, Lana Michelle |
| Contributors | Lisa Guenther, Kelly Oliver |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-11242014-105356/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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