Pictures from a Drawer: Prison and the Art of Portraiture. By Bruce Jackson. (Philadelphia: Templ... more Pictures from a Drawer: Prison and the Art of Portraiture. By Bruce Jackson. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009. Pp. 204, acknowledgments, notes, photographs. $87.00 cloth, $35.95 paper.)In November 1975, Bruce Jackson was conducting fieldwork at the Cummins State Farm, a penitentiary in southeastern Arkansas, when an inmate showed him a drawer containing hundreds of yellowing prisoner identification photographs. When told to "Help yourself," Jackson hesitated: "Don't they belong to somebody?" The inmate replied, "Just the state. Fuck 'em. Help yourself (19). And so Jackson started stuffing the photographs into the pockets of his jacket. A prison guard suddenly entered the room and sat down to smoke a cigarette. Jackson left, but planned to "grab the rest of the photographs" on a subsequent visit (19).Jackson never returned to Cummins, but this outstanding book makes the most of the 1 78 photographs that he stuffed into his pockets thirty-four years ago. Pictures from a Drawer is part philosophical discourse on the meaning of photography, part technical treatise on the restoration and digitization of photographic prints, and part expose of the horrors of prison life (in the form of a memoir handwritten by a longtime inmate and presented to Jackson in 1973). However, what most strongly draws the reader into the book are the full-page portraits of prisoners, which Jackson has sensitively restored and contextualized.Indeed, Jackson has no peer when it comes to documenting and analyzing the folklife of prisons, as measured by his pioneering articles in Western Folklore and the Journal of American Folklore (1965, 1967a, 1967b), his monograph and documentary film on Texas prison songs (1972, Jackson, et al. 1966), and his two books of photographs from Arkansas prisons (1977, 2008).Jackson estimates that the photographs he collected in 1975 were taken between 1915 and 1940. They range in size from roughly 2x3 inches to 3.5 ? 5 inches. Most are double portraits, containing one profile view and one frontal view staring directly into the camera. Of the 178 portraits, 116 are male and 62 are female. Both blacks and whites are represented among the men, but only one of the women is African American. Some of the inmates are wearing prison stripes; others are dressed in free-world clothing. A few photographs have typed notes pasted on the back; most have no identifying data whatsoever. Whether the photographs that Jackson had to leave behind in that prison drawer in 1975 would have yielded more answers is a matter for speculation only.Ironically, these photographs remained in one of Jackson's cigar boxes - an equivalent to the prison drawer - for many years. …
Page 1. The Rise and Fall of the Houses of Ushers: Teenage Ticket-Takers in the Twenties Theaters... more Page 1. The Rise and Fall of the Houses of Ushers: Teenage Ticket-Takers in the Twenties Theaters James I. Deutsch The motion picture madness of the 1920s, often attributed to the powerful appeal of such glamorous celebrities ...
Page 1. Music in Bulgaria: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, and: Embroidered with Gold, St... more Page 1. Music in Bulgaria: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, and: Embroidered with Gold, Strung with Pearls: The Traditional Ballads of Bosnian Women James Deutsch Journal of American Folklore, Volume 121, Number 482, Fall 2008, pp. 501-502 (Review) ...
Every chapter is organized around a few themes, the explication of which is well supported by ana... more Every chapter is organized around a few themes, the explication of which is well supported by analysis of specific comics as well as references to the critical literature and analogies drawn between the world of the comics and “the real world” (or at least what we believe to be the real world). For instance, the chapter on gender and sexual orientation notes that news reports mainly cover violent and sensational crimes (a minority of all crimes), and that crime victims mentioned in the news are most often white women (a minority of all victims—in fact, young minority men are much more likely to be the victims of violent crime). Similarly, Phillips and Strobl argue, in the comic book world women exist primarily as real or potential victims, in need of protection or rescue by the hypermasculine heroes. You could say that comics simply draw on stereotypes already present in our culture, but Phillips and Strobl argue that as cultural objects comic books also participate in the construction of gender expectations. Phillips and Strobl have not only read a lot more comics than you have, they have thought about them deeply, and related them to contemporary social concerns. Comic Book Crime is definitely worth reading, both for those interested in its subject, and as a model of how to approach thematic surveys of popular culture. Sarah Boslaugh Kennesaw State University
own ends. The first part of Che Bella Figura! addresses issues of methodological concern and prov... more own ends. The first part of Che Bella Figura! addresses issues of methodological concern and provides a stimulating look at how the ideas of bella and brutta figura have played themselves out in different periods of Italian history. The second part of Nardini’s study firmly situates her work within the broader theoretical literatures of the ethnography of communication and women’s language studies, and explores the issues of gender and power as well as the relationship between language and culture. In the final chapter, Nardini offers an excellent linguistic analysis of a conversation between the treasurer of the Collandia Ladies’ Club and the president of the Men’s Club. This detailed transcript lays bare the elaborate ways in which the female members of this speech community manipulate formal dimensions of language (intonation, repetition, and prosody) in order to achieve social power. Attending to the often unrecognized work of women, Nardini’s study is a corrective to scholarship that has centered itself exclusively upon men’s experience in immigrant contexts. By focusing on the network of female volunteers whose diligent service and “feminine touches” contribute to the growth and vitality of the Collandia Club, Nardini provides a more balanced and realistic portrait of how such ethnic organizations operate. In a particularly interesting section of chapter 3, Nardini deconstructs the formal history of the Collandia Ladies’ Club that she was asked to write in the mid 1990s and, in so doing, recovers the conflicting voices that she had excluded from her earlier account. This brief but illuminating discussion highlights how the rhetoric of gentility and cooperation that the “Ladies” strive so hard to maintain occasionally cracks under the pressure to accept the authority of the men in their society. Here, the gender politics of the club become readily apparent and the anger and resentment that exists behind the happy patina of female compliance is revealed. In her tightly organized, systematic, and engaging book, Nardini clearly demonstrates that while the men of the Collandia Club enjoy both a sense of entitlement and greater formal privileges within their organization, the women are by no means docile, subservient, or lacking in power. While the rules of proper decorum compel them to participate in a discourse that celebrates male dominance, their skillful use of bella figura in situated practice ultimately allows them partially to subvert a patriarchal ideology that defines women as powerless.
Pictures from a Drawer: Prison and the Art of Portraiture. By Bruce Jackson. (Philadelphia: Templ... more Pictures from a Drawer: Prison and the Art of Portraiture. By Bruce Jackson. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009. Pp. 204, acknowledgments, notes, photographs. $87.00 cloth, $35.95 paper.)In November 1975, Bruce Jackson was conducting fieldwork at the Cummins State Farm, a penitentiary in southeastern Arkansas, when an inmate showed him a drawer containing hundreds of yellowing prisoner identification photographs. When told to "Help yourself," Jackson hesitated: "Don't they belong to somebody?" The inmate replied, "Just the state. Fuck 'em. Help yourself (19). And so Jackson started stuffing the photographs into the pockets of his jacket. A prison guard suddenly entered the room and sat down to smoke a cigarette. Jackson left, but planned to "grab the rest of the photographs" on a subsequent visit (19).Jackson never returned to Cummins, but this outstanding book makes the most of the 1 78 photographs that he stuffed into his pockets thirty-four years ago. Pictures from a Drawer is part philosophical discourse on the meaning of photography, part technical treatise on the restoration and digitization of photographic prints, and part expose of the horrors of prison life (in the form of a memoir handwritten by a longtime inmate and presented to Jackson in 1973). However, what most strongly draws the reader into the book are the full-page portraits of prisoners, which Jackson has sensitively restored and contextualized.Indeed, Jackson has no peer when it comes to documenting and analyzing the folklife of prisons, as measured by his pioneering articles in Western Folklore and the Journal of American Folklore (1965, 1967a, 1967b), his monograph and documentary film on Texas prison songs (1972, Jackson, et al. 1966), and his two books of photographs from Arkansas prisons (1977, 2008).Jackson estimates that the photographs he collected in 1975 were taken between 1915 and 1940. They range in size from roughly 2x3 inches to 3.5 ? 5 inches. Most are double portraits, containing one profile view and one frontal view staring directly into the camera. Of the 178 portraits, 116 are male and 62 are female. Both blacks and whites are represented among the men, but only one of the women is African American. Some of the inmates are wearing prison stripes; others are dressed in free-world clothing. A few photographs have typed notes pasted on the back; most have no identifying data whatsoever. Whether the photographs that Jackson had to leave behind in that prison drawer in 1975 would have yielded more answers is a matter for speculation only.Ironically, these photographs remained in one of Jackson's cigar boxes - an equivalent to the prison drawer - for many years. …
Page 1. The Rise and Fall of the Houses of Ushers: Teenage Ticket-Takers in the Twenties Theaters... more Page 1. The Rise and Fall of the Houses of Ushers: Teenage Ticket-Takers in the Twenties Theaters James I. Deutsch The motion picture madness of the 1920s, often attributed to the powerful appeal of such glamorous celebrities ...
Page 1. Music in Bulgaria: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, and: Embroidered with Gold, St... more Page 1. Music in Bulgaria: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, and: Embroidered with Gold, Strung with Pearls: The Traditional Ballads of Bosnian Women James Deutsch Journal of American Folklore, Volume 121, Number 482, Fall 2008, pp. 501-502 (Review) ...
Every chapter is organized around a few themes, the explication of which is well supported by ana... more Every chapter is organized around a few themes, the explication of which is well supported by analysis of specific comics as well as references to the critical literature and analogies drawn between the world of the comics and “the real world” (or at least what we believe to be the real world). For instance, the chapter on gender and sexual orientation notes that news reports mainly cover violent and sensational crimes (a minority of all crimes), and that crime victims mentioned in the news are most often white women (a minority of all victims—in fact, young minority men are much more likely to be the victims of violent crime). Similarly, Phillips and Strobl argue, in the comic book world women exist primarily as real or potential victims, in need of protection or rescue by the hypermasculine heroes. You could say that comics simply draw on stereotypes already present in our culture, but Phillips and Strobl argue that as cultural objects comic books also participate in the construction of gender expectations. Phillips and Strobl have not only read a lot more comics than you have, they have thought about them deeply, and related them to contemporary social concerns. Comic Book Crime is definitely worth reading, both for those interested in its subject, and as a model of how to approach thematic surveys of popular culture. Sarah Boslaugh Kennesaw State University
own ends. The first part of Che Bella Figura! addresses issues of methodological concern and prov... more own ends. The first part of Che Bella Figura! addresses issues of methodological concern and provides a stimulating look at how the ideas of bella and brutta figura have played themselves out in different periods of Italian history. The second part of Nardini’s study firmly situates her work within the broader theoretical literatures of the ethnography of communication and women’s language studies, and explores the issues of gender and power as well as the relationship between language and culture. In the final chapter, Nardini offers an excellent linguistic analysis of a conversation between the treasurer of the Collandia Ladies’ Club and the president of the Men’s Club. This detailed transcript lays bare the elaborate ways in which the female members of this speech community manipulate formal dimensions of language (intonation, repetition, and prosody) in order to achieve social power. Attending to the often unrecognized work of women, Nardini’s study is a corrective to scholarship that has centered itself exclusively upon men’s experience in immigrant contexts. By focusing on the network of female volunteers whose diligent service and “feminine touches” contribute to the growth and vitality of the Collandia Club, Nardini provides a more balanced and realistic portrait of how such ethnic organizations operate. In a particularly interesting section of chapter 3, Nardini deconstructs the formal history of the Collandia Ladies’ Club that she was asked to write in the mid 1990s and, in so doing, recovers the conflicting voices that she had excluded from her earlier account. This brief but illuminating discussion highlights how the rhetoric of gentility and cooperation that the “Ladies” strive so hard to maintain occasionally cracks under the pressure to accept the authority of the men in their society. Here, the gender politics of the club become readily apparent and the anger and resentment that exists behind the happy patina of female compliance is revealed. In her tightly organized, systematic, and engaging book, Nardini clearly demonstrates that while the men of the Collandia Club enjoy both a sense of entitlement and greater formal privileges within their organization, the women are by no means docile, subservient, or lacking in power. While the rules of proper decorum compel them to participate in a discourse that celebrates male dominance, their skillful use of bella figura in situated practice ultimately allows them partially to subvert a patriarchal ideology that defines women as powerless.
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