It's about this: Lesbians, prison, desire

Millbank, J

It's about this: Lesbians, prison, desire

Millbank, J

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Social and Legal Studies, 2004, 13 (2), pp. 155 - 190
Issue Date:: 2004-06-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Millbank, J https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8934-7945	en_US
dc.date.issued	2004-06-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Social and Legal Studies, 2004, 13 (2), pp. 155 - 190	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0964-6639	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/5528
dc.description.abstract	This article explores three narratives of violently transgressive lesbians in a prison setting. The stones are two English novels, Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter (1985), Affinity by Sarah Waters (1999) and an English TV series, Bad Girls (1999-ongoing). A number of disruptive and counter-hegemonic aspects run through these stories including their portrayal of violence as a reasonable response to oppressive social conditions, a distinct problematizing of heterosexuality and the metaphor of a prison panopticon to explore the constraints imposed on all women's lives. The article argues that the representation of lesbian desire in all three tales is truly radical in that it acts to dissolve unequal power dyads, although it also comes to question the extent to which it is possible, even in fiction, to sustain such rupture in the face of dominant cultural imperatives to 're-capture' and 'domesticate' homo-normative images.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Social and Legal Studies	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1177/0964663904042550	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Criminology	en_US
dc.title	It's about this: Lesbians, prison, desire	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	2	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	13	en_US
utslib.for	1801 Law	en_US
utslib.for	1602 Criminology	en_US
utslib.for	1608 Sociology	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - HJ - Health Justice
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.issue	2	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	13	en_US

Abstract:

This article explores three narratives of violently transgressive lesbians in a prison setting. The stones are two English novels, Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter (1985), Affinity by Sarah Waters (1999) and an English TV series, Bad Girls (1999-ongoing). A number of disruptive and counter-hegemonic aspects run through these stories including their portrayal of violence as a reasonable response to oppressive social conditions, a distinct problematizing of heterosexuality and the metaphor of a prison panopticon to explore the constraints imposed on all women's lives. The article argues that the representation of lesbian desire in all three tales is truly radical in that it acts to dissolve unequal power dyads, although it also comes to question the extent to which it is possible, even in fiction, to sustain such rupture in the face of dominant cultural imperatives to 're-capture' and 'domesticate' homo-normative images.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/5528