From Criminal to Rehabilitated Prison Reformer: Gradual Identity Transformation in Charles McGregor's Prison Autobiography "Up from the Walking Dead"

Authors

  • Katharina Matuschek University of Regensburg

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5283/copas.290

Keywords:

prison, autobiography, identity transformation, criminal role, Charles McGregor

Abstract

This article examines how social roles are narratively constructed in Charles McGregor’s prison autobiography Up from the Walking Dead“ (1978) and investigates which significance the protagonist’s prison experiences have for this process. The construction of a criminal role which is reinforced by the prison experience is analyzed, and it is argued that the transformation process the protagonist undergoes is constructed as occurring despite the institution of prison.

Author Biography

Katharina Matuschek, University of Regensburg

Katharina Matuschek is a research assistant at the Department for American Studies at the University of Regensburg, where she completed her first state exam in English and Spanish in 2015. Since 2016, she has been working on her dissertation project tentatively titled “The Narrative Construction of Post-WWII Prison Experience in U.S.-American Prison Autobiographies of the 1970s and 1980s.” Her research interests include life writing, prison studies, African American studies, and American literature of the 20th and 21st century.

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Published

2018-05-23

How to Cite

Matuschek, Katharina. “From Criminal to Rehabilitated Prison Reformer: Gradual Identity Transformation in Charles McGregor’s Prison Autobiography ‘Up from the Walking Dead’”. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, May 2018, doi:10.5283/copas.290.

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 1 (2018)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.