Reading is my window : books and the art of reading in women's prisons / Megan Sweeney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sweeney, Megan, 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women prisoners--Books and reading--United States.

Women prisoners.

Books and reading.

African American women--Books and reading.

African American women.

African American women--Study and teaching (Higher).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (351 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Drawing on extensive interviews with ninety-four women prisoners, Megan Sweeney examines how incarcerated women use available reading materials to come to terms with their pasts, negotiate their present experiences, and reach toward different futures. Foregrounding the voices of African American women, Sweeney analyzes how prisoners read three popular genres: narratives of victimization, urban crime fiction, and self-help books. She outlines the history of reading and education in U.S. prisons, highlighting how the increasing dehumanization of prisoners has resulted in diminished priso

Contents:

Tell me what you read, I will tell you what you are : reading and education in U.S. penal history

The underground book railroad : material dimensions of reading

Between a politics of pain and a politics of pain's disavowal

Fear of books : reading urban fiction

To set the captives free : self-help reading practices

Encounters : the meeting ground of books

Conclusion. This really isn't a rehabilitation place : policy considerations.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

979-88-908850-5-0

979-88-9313-417-9

1-4696-0436-1

0-8078-9835-X

OCLC:

609694689