铁窗里的声音:美国监狱文学概述

Voice behind the Bar: A Review of American Prison Literature

监狱文学是一国文学的重要组成部分,往往反映出社会权力最底层的声音和挣扎,折射出历史的进步与苦痛。简要回顾美国监狱文学发端、发展与高峰的历史,对各个时期监狱文学的特点、影响以及代表作家和作品进行初步的梳理和介绍,以为进一步的研究打下基础。

The representative writers and works in different periods of American prison literature and their features as well as influences are summarized and introduced in this paper,which argues that American prison literature originated in the Colonial Period,and developed through the ensuing historical periods to become an important part of American literature,till it matured during two world wars and achieved great accomplishment in the turbulent American society of 1960s and 1970s.Through the brief retrospection and study of the history of American prison literature,the paper shows that prison literature of a nation always echoes the changes of the society,embodies the struggle of the lowest social stratum,and mirrors the progress and pain of a nation＇s history.