LACHLAN WHALEN is Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, USA.

"An original study. In addition to using his readings of prison literature to highlight the continuing influence of a subtly conservative modernist aesthetic within the academy, Whalen also refutes elements of the poststructural theory that has represented new criticism s most widely-accepted alternative, rejecting in particular poststructuralism s pessimism concerning the possibility of human agency. Whalen s readings are superb; he deftly balances descriptions of the overall pieces he explicates, the historical and material conditions under which they were created, and the telling details on which he founds his surprisingly weighty arguments." - Margot Backus, University of Houston

• Introduction: Taoibh Amuigh agus Faoi Ghlas: The Counter-aesthetics of Republican Prison Writing "Our Barbed Wire Ivory Tower": The Cages of Long Kesh "Comrades in the Dark": Writing in the H Blocks, 1976–1981 "Silence or Cell?": Women Writing in Armagh, Maghaberry, and Durham "Captive Voices": Post-1981 Republican Prison Writing Postscript: "You Look Like Jesus Christ": Images of Republican POWs in Contemporary Cinema