“No Hostages Through These Doors”:
Thomas Bartlett Whitaker’s “Hell’s Kitchen” and the Politics of PEN
When: Wednesday, March 26, 12-1pm
Who: Professor Ira Wells
Where: JHB 719
Here is a brief abstract of Professor Wells’ talk, please join us for the final Brown Bag Lunch of the semester!
“PEN International, one of the world’s first human rights organizations, has long defended the free speech of persecuted artists. The PEN Prison Writing Program, however, has a slightly different agenda, which is to help convicted criminals become artists. The PEN Prison Writing Program ‘believes in the restorative and rehabilitative power of writing,’ and encourages ‘the use of the written word as a legitimate form of power.’
But what is the nature of the ‘power’ of the written word? And what, moreover, will this power restore and rehabilitate? When PEN proclaims the ‘power’ of the written word, are they honoring an important strand of America’s liberal intellectual heritage, are they pledging allegiance to a romantic coupling of art and freedom, are they inadvertently helping to bind prisoners ever more insidiously to the carceral regime, or are they claiming something that is actually true? This talk, part of a work in progress, addresses these questions through a discussion of Thomas Bartlett Whitaker’s prize-winning essay ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’ I’ll suggest that part of the power of Whitaker’s prison writing resides in its capacity to disrupt the place of the prison in the dreamlife of American power.”
Whitaker’s essay can be found here:
http://72.10.54.216/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5936/prmID/1641