Navigating the Historiography of African-American Political Prison Writing
Prison narratives are commonly understood to be inherently individualistic in nature. Yet the cause of imprisonment not only changes the generic attributes of the text produced by the prisoner but also transforms it into a collective text. This is the case with political prisoners’ autobiographies w...
Guardado en:
| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Lenguaje: | Anglais |
| Publicado: |
European journal of American studies
2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sumario: | Prison narratives are commonly understood to be inherently individualistic in nature. Yet the cause of imprisonment not only changes the generic attributes of the text produced by the prisoner but also transforms it into a collective text. This is the case with political prisoners’ autobiographies which question the state’s attempt at isolating political activists under the pretext of taming social unrest. This article deals with the historiographical relevance of political prison writing in the US through a cultural analysis of the autobiography of Angela Davis. The focus on this particular text sheds light on the evolution of Black radicalism and African-American anti-carceral struggle. It also connects with conceptual frameworks that accentuate the historiographical merit of political prison literature in countering official narratives that attempt to impose a form of historical amnesia. The atricle also shows how this sub-genre activates racial memory and leads to discussions of carcerality and Prison-Industrial Complex profiteering in the US today. |
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