Penitentiary Pleasures: Queer Understandings of Prison Paradoxes

• In Event: Queer Criminology Research in Prisons

Abstract

In this presentation I draw from my work on pleasure and resistance in prison settings (Vasiliou, 2020) and I argue for the application of queer and decolonial methodologies as a means of deconstructing the binary formation through which pain and pleasure in prison is understood. This exploration follows Ball’s invitation to use queer theory as a methodology tool in order to deconstruct binary forms of knowledge in relation to criminal justice system. To do that, I explore how formerly incarcerated people’s narratives might reveal (queer) moments of pleasure and complement existing criminological scholarship that has neglected such an issue. My starting point is Foucault’s theory of pleasure as a productive force that renders it akin to power. Furthermore, I draw on Edelman’s concept of “futurity” and Halberstam’s “failure” to bring criminology and queer theory into a productive dialogue. The research is situated in the periphery of Europe. My presentation posits a question about the possibility and productivity of pleasure in conditions of resisting, failing, and suffering. I argue that this framework goes beyond normative criminological approaches to reveal how prison experience is not only a struggle between power and resistance, but a complex nexus which also involves self-destruction and pleasure.

Author

• Elena Vasiliou, University of Warwick