Projecting the prison: The depiction of the uncanny in The Shawshank Redemption

Abstract

The space of the prison is no longer on the margins in relation to societal `centres', but instead acts as an adjunct to the urban environment. With the disappearance of the Gothic prison from the archi-texture of contemporary cities, the meaning conveyed by its façade has lost much of its potency. It is now contemporary prison drama, as opposed to the physical façade, that represents the interface between the public and the prison. This article explores a dramatic representation of the prison ( The Shawshank Redemption) through the lens of Freud's (1919/1955) notion of the uncanny and Bachelard's (1958/1994) poetics of domestic space. Incarceration, as depicted in film and television, reinforces the `place myths' of the prison (Shields, 1991). Contemporary prison drama portrays the prison as a marginal space in much the way that the Gothic façades of the 19th-century prison projected a particular message. The prison, as depicted on screen, is a simulacrum. It is a facsimile of an architectural idea that only ever existed as a façade — a façade that occluded as much as it projected.

Depictions of correctional officers in newspaper media: an ethnographic content analysis

“…A growing body of literature has explored media depictions of correctional institutions and the people who work and live within their confines (Bennett, 2006;Bennett & Satre, 2000;Cecil & Leitner, 2009;Cheliotis, 2010;Fiddler, 2007;Levan et al, 2011;Mason, 2006). Most of this research explores the portrayal of corrections in Hollywood movies (O'Sullivan, 2001;Zanner, 1989), often focusing on the perspective of inmates.…”

Crime, History, and Hollywood: Learning Criminal Justice History through Major Motion Pictures

“…Many recent articles regarding film and criminal justice have focused their attention on a specific film and the elements of crime and criminal justice conveyed in those films, including Bowling for Columbine (Robbers 2005), Gangs of New York Yar 2005b), Chicago (O'Brien, Tzanelli, andYar 2005a), Catch Me If You Can (Tzanelli, Yar, and O'Brien 2005), Criminal Justice (Cheatwood and Petersen 2007), The Shawshank Redemption (Fiddler 2007), and the English film The Blue Lamp (McLaughlin 2005). Many articles have also dealt more directly with the teaching of specific criminal justice classes, describing how films can be incorporated into those courses (Nickoli, Hendricks, Hendricks, and Osgood 2003;Rockell 2009), such as crime scene investigations (Lacks 2007), the death penalty (Patenaude 2001), criminal justice ethics (Pino, Brunson, and Stewart 2009), and even criminal justice literature (Engel 2003).…”

Dartmoor: Penal and Cultural Icon

“…For observers, Dartmoor prison's imposing architecture, on a clear day visible for miles around, has been the embodiment of solidity, immutability and permanence, ‘a semi‐fortress’ (Rhodes , p.86); a ‘granite stronghold’ (Richardson , p.77) fronted by a simple but imposing archway which soon became the easily‐identifiable symbol of Dartmoor (Triston , p.9). Although the prison was originally built to hold prisoners of war, its exterior reflects that of prisons of the period which ‘reminded all who would enter, or even pass by, of confinement to alter the spirit through material representation’ (Bender , p.21) and is suggestive of the ‘dark’ or ‘iron’ soul (Fiddler , p.193; Richardson , p.77) that lay beyond. In its neo‐classical structure there is little of the visual extravagance of later prison building but, as Pratt (, p.39) observes, this form of architecture was just as impressive and awe‐inspiring.…”