Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale

Rivista | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale
Fascicolo | 57 | 2023
Articolo | Letteratura e carcere in America. Il caso Theo Padnos

Letteratura e carcere in America. Il caso Theo Padnos

Abstract

Theo Padnos published My Life Had Stood A Loaded Gun in 2004, when Prison Studies were burgeoning and gaining academic attention globally. Neglected by critics, the book relates the author's experience as literature instructor in an American prison. Engaging methods of pedagogical research and reader-response criticism, the paper investigates the role of literature in the cultural activities of young male inmates in a medium security jail in Vermont. An original amalgam of crime reports, pedagogy of literature, and autobiographical criticism, Padnos' study for the first time confronts young criminals with a literary canon dripping with violence. The experiment sheds light on the reading activities of prisoners, on their and the author's social background, and on the power of American literature to speak to marginal groups.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Presentato: 23 Marzo 2023 | Accettato: 01 Giugno 2023 | Pubblicato 30 Ottobre 2023 | Lingua: it

Keywords PedagogyHuckleberry FinnPrison librariesViolenceReader-response


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