ENGL348  Crime and Punishment in American Culture

Description

How is it that the very same Americans who favor "law and order" politics spend their leisure time engrossed in murder, from CSI to Dexter to Serial Killer Sunday? How come, in the US, there seems to be a "Crime of the Century" every decade? How do we make sense of the fact that the US, amongst the world’s most affluent nations, has the single largest prison system ever amassed in the history of the world? What’s up with America and crime? This course will focus on representations - in films, literature, true crime narratives, television dramas and news media - of crime and punishment with particular emphasis on the role class, race, gender, and sexuality play in shaping Americans’ conceptions of crime.

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