Criminological Pursuits in Arkas' The Lifer (From Images of Crime: Representations of Crime and the Criminal in Science, the Arts and the Media, P 247-261, 2001, Hans-Jorg Albrecht, Afroditi Koukoutsaki, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-192094)

• NCJ Number: 192101
• Author(s): Adolfo Francia
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Max-Planck-Institute Fur Auslandisches und Internationales Strafrecht
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Case Study
• Language: English
• Country: Germany (Unified)

Annotation

This article presents a criminologist's view of a Greek comic strip series, "The Lifer," which depicts the adventures of a convict sentenced to life imprisonment.

Abstract

The analysis of prison in the sense of space--of the social and personal psychological space--facilitates and understand of underlying meaning. The prison, with its quality of an object coated with ambivalence, represents both the externalization of sorrow and persecution and the ultimate place of emotional confinement. The narrative reconstruction that the artist produces by means of comic exaggeration and the concise effectiveness of the dual technique of image and text is one of the finest examples that may be used to broaden one's knowledge in this field. Crime is often used in literature, theater, and cinema, and comics have also often portrayed crimes and criminals. The article claims that this is the first attempt to describe the adversities of prison and of its inmates using comic means. Notes, figures