20 research outputs found
âDark am I, yet lovelyâ: Tracing diabolical evil and femininities in gothic fusion tribal belly dance
While belly dance as a dance genre has been recognised for its âambivalenceâ (Downey et al, 2010: 379) in terms of its empowerment of womenâs identities and body types and essentialising of narrowly constructed femininities, it has nonetheless in the research literature generally been regarded positively in its influence on womenâs spiritualities, corporalities, sexualities and overall well-being. But what about its attraction and allure in its âdarkerâ forms, as a way of empowering women, especially older women, and enabling them to negotiate and traverse a range of difficult, deviant, damaged and/or otherwise negative experiences? Based primarily on a participant observation of a six-week series of dance workshops held in the north of England and drawing on my other experiences as a dancer of other belly dance forms, this paper references Julia Kristevaâs psychoanalytic theory of horror and the monstrous feminine to explore the meanings, experiences and performances of âdarknessâ in what is belly danceâs darkest genre, Gothic Fusion Belly Dance (GFBD)
Life in the pen : subject representation in political prisoner auto/biography, 1963-1983
EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Prison(er) auto/biography, 'true crime', and teaching, learning, and research in criminology
The main aim of this essay is to explore prisoner life writing within the specific, richly and multiply dependent context of teaching and learning undergraduate criminology at an English university, from the authorial viewpoint of a teacher and her students as budding criminologists and co-authors. This article seeks to redress a continuing resistance to life history approaches in the teaching of criminology, despite the discipline being formally devoted to the understanding of the meaning and experience of imprisonment in all its forms and consequences. What follows is a trucated narrative of what students had to say on the fascinating subjects of prisoner auto/biography and its place in popular and expert discourses on crime, criminality, and punishment, contextualised within the academic discipline of criminology
Choreography, controversy and child sex abuse: Theoretical reflections on a cultural criminological analysis of dance in a pop music video
This article was inspired by the controversy over claims of âpedophilia!!!!â undertones and the âtriggeringâ of memories of childhood sexual abuse in some viewers by the dance performance featured in the music video for Siaâs âElastic Heartâ (2015). The case is presented for acknowledging the hidden and/or overlooked presence of dance in social scientific theory and cultural studies and how these can enhance and advance cultural criminological research. Examples of how these insights have been used within other disciplinary frameworks to analyse and address child sex crime and sexual trauma are provided, and the argument is made that popular cultural texts such as dance in pop music videos should be regarded as significant in analysing and tracing public perceptions and epistemologies of crimes such as child sex abuse
Dealing with metaphysical evil : the Banker as evil genius in the British game show 'Deal or no deal?'
âNormal happy girlâ interrupted: An auto/biographical analysis of Myra Hindleyâs public confession
Responding to the need to develop the range and scope of narrative criminology, this paper provides an empirical demonstration of how auto/biographical analysis can be used for criminological purposes. More specifically, the paper explores how British serial killer Myra Hindley sought to construct, (re)present and rehabilitate her own identity in the face of the âmad, bad, or evilâ discourse that she was typically associated with. Using her auto/biographical letter to The Guardian newspaper as the main source of data, supplemented with material taken from her prison files available in The National Archive, the paper examines how she sought to develop her own causation narrative in the face of massive public derision. It demonstrates how the ânormal happy girlâ interrupted narrative which Hindley constructs is neither an accurate account of her life, nor an invention of her imagination. Instead, it is a product of the immediate local context which she found herself in; the conventions of criminal autobiography; the rules and regulations that govern prisoners; the redemptive requirements of the penal process; and, the generalized causation narratives of serial killers that were being reconfigured by various lay commentators for use in the âMoors murdersâ story
Rik Coolsaet (ed.), Jihadi Terrorism and the Radicalisation Challenge in Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008. 212 pp. ISBN: 9780754672173, ÂŁ55.00 (hbk)
Radicalization: the life writings of political prisoners
Expanding the influence of auto/biography studies into cultural criminology, Radicalization: The Life Writings of Political Prisoners addresses the origins, processes and cultures of terrorist criminality and political resistance in a globalized world. Criminologists and penologists have long been aware of the sheer volume of autobiography emerging from our prisons. Political prisoners, POWs, freedom fighters and terrorists have been consistently and strongly represented in this corpus of work, including such authors as Bobby Sands, Wole Soyinka, Nelson Mandela, Moazzam Begg, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Angela Davis, George Jackson, and Aung San Suu Kyi among others. For many of those who have been detained for ostensibly politically motivated crimes, life writing has proven to be indispensable in explaining the causes and processes which account for their situation. Embedded with these life writings are narratives of radicalization or resistance. Melissa Dearey here undertakes an international and comparative analysis of such narratives, where the 'life story' is considered as a mode of expressing and transmitting 'radical' cultural values