Journal Articles Global nineteenth-century studies Year : 2024

'Prison Echoes' : Composing Poetry to Compose Oneself in British Prisons (1830s-1910s)

Abstract

This paper intends to show how prison poems help paint a picture of the strategies of survival and dissent within British prisons. In a world where pencils and papers were at a premium, writing was at once subversive and vital, disruptive and essential. The study of Victorian and Edwardian prison poetry writing highlights strategies developed by prisoners to compose themselves. It contributes to a bottom-up history of prison life, as prisoners who wrote poetry sought to create - to borrow from Virginia Woolf - `a cell of their own'. While Victorian places of confinement may not immediately appear as a breeding ground for poetic endeavours, they are loci of creativity and means of expression for those who were, and have often been, voiceless. Behind bars, poems become ego-documents that compose personal stories and a common history of resignation, resistance, and resilience.
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Dates and versions

halshs-04594733 , version 1 (30-05-2024)

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Alice Bonzom. 'Prison Echoes' : Composing Poetry to Compose Oneself in British Prisons (1830s-1910s). Global nineteenth-century studies, 2024, 3 (1), pp.17-32. ⟨10.3828/gncs.2024.2⟩. ⟨halshs-04594733⟩
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