Imagining the Penitentiary: Fiction and the Architecture of Mind in Eighteenth-Century England

By John B. Bender

Book Overview

This brilliant and insightful contribution to cultural studies investigates the role of literature-particularly the novel-and visual arts in the development of institutions. Arguing the attitudes expressed in narrative literature and art between 1719 and 1779 helped bring about the change from traditional prisons to penitentiaries, John Bender offers studies of Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, The Beggar's Opera, Hogarth's Progresses, Jonathan Wild, and Amelia as well as illustrations from prison literature, art, and architecture in support of his thesis.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226042286
• ISBN13: 9780226042282
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.0" x 0.8" x 7.3"