UNIVERSITY OF CHICHESTER An accredited institution of the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON Department of English & Creative Writing ‘The Blood-Self’: Reflections on Prison Writing David Swann Thesis to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy PhD by Publication, featuring a Reflective Commentary upon selected extracts from a Body of Original Research This thesis has been completed as a requirement for a higher degree at the University of Southampton February, 2017 2 3 UNIVERSITY OF CHICHESTER An accredited institution of the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH & CREATIVE WRITING Doctor of Philosophy PhD by Publication, featuring a Reflective Commentary upon selected extracts from a Body of Original Research. ‘The Blood-Self’: Reflections on Prison Writing David Swann This thesis analyses the development of an original body of creative work written in response to experiences gained during the 14-month period when I was employed by the Arts Council of England as a Writer-in-Residence at HMP Nottingham Prison (housing mainly lifers and long-term inmates). The creative work arose from a specific jail environment, described in the thesis as being formed from an uneasy combination of punitive, managerial, and rehabilitative concepts. The thesis argues that the creative work owes a direct debt to the ideas and practises that confronted me while I was attempting to build literacy skills in the prison. However, jail is stultifying for both teacher and student – and, ultimately, the thesis goes on to identify the additional, unexpected imaginative prompts that were necessary before the creative work could cohere into a collection. As well as offering analysis of the work’s slow evolution, the thesis incorporates a selection of 23 creative prices that emerged. Many of these were collected, a decade after my residency, as a hybrid of prose, poetry, and wood-carvings, entitled The Privilege of Rain (Waterloo Press, 2010), shortlisted in 2011 for the Ted Hughes Award. The creative work was fuelled by a growing desire to pay witness to the ‘Prison Works’ programme, which transformed the jail. This desire was influenced by my journalistic training, but the thesis describes how I began to discover poetry’s potential, and analyses a transformation from reporter to poet. In tracing this transformation, the thesis considers ways in which journalism and poetry differ from, and resemble, each other. Further, it considers the beneficial ‘aura’ (Parini, 2009: 89) of writers who proved influential in the transformation, including Smith, Colburn, Parker, Liardet, Robison, Swift, and Lawrence. The thesis holds out a measure of hope. As well as discussing poetry’s vital part in my own ‘human flourishing’ (Hesmondhalgh, 2013: 17), it considers the role that Creative Writing may play in the rehabilitation of offenders. First-hand instances of rehabilitation, and verbal evaluations of the efficacy of my residency, are combined with inmate writing to suggest that it is possible for individuals to develop imaginative paths through the jail’s ‘forest’. However, fear and inertia are identified as two pressures upon the incarcerated imagination. And the thesis argues that these pressures are connected to societal attitudes and policies that are adding to, rather than diminishing, our problems with crime. Underlying the discussion are three main questions: (1) What pressures does jail exert upon the imagination, and creative expression? (2) What forces operated to create the specific prison environment I encountered? (3) Can writing help in the rehabilitation of offenders? 4 ‘Fear of crime is closely related to fear of strangers.’ – David Garland, The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society , p. 153. ‘It is the hour of the stranger. Let the stranger now enter the soul.’ – D.H. Lawrence, Fantasia of the Unconscious , p. 105. ‘We the old, the young, The sons of all tongues, We, the strong, the weak, The sleepers, the wakeful, We the poor, the rich, Alike in misfortune, The good, the bad, Whatever we have been, We men of many scars, We the witnesses of those who died, We, the defiant, we the despondent, The innocent and the much accused, Deeply tormented by long isolation, Brother, we are searching, we are calling you! Brother, do you hear me?’ – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Prayers from a Prison: Prayers and Poems , p. 20. 5 Table of Contents Author’s declaration .................................................................................................. 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 7 1. ‘The Spiral’: Prison and the Failure of the Rehabilitative Imagination ............. 29 2. ‘The Black Flower’: The Impact of ‘Prison Works’ upon ‘Human Flourishing’ Includes consideration of the following piece published in The Privilege of Rain : ‘No Need for Rivers’ (596 words) .............................................................................. 50 3. ‘The Legend on the License’: First Attempts at Poetry and Nonfiction Narrative Includes consideration of the following pieces published in The Privilege of Rain : ‘A lifer offers me a cup of tea’ (62 words); ‘Seizure’ (72); ‘First Day’ (1,890 words) .... 75 4. ‘Life after Life’: The Influence of Tony Parker Includes consideration of the following pieces published in The Privilege of Rain : ‘I am going out with the rubbish’ (117 words); ‘Denial’ (99 words); ‘Apology’ (41 words). Includes a transcript of my interview with a lifer, ‘Jamaican Childhood’, (1,260 words), published in Beyond the Wall: Words Set Free from Prison ....................................... 99 5. ‘A Cross-Training’: Working as Both Poet and Journalist Includes consideration of the following pieces published in The Privilege of Rain : ‘Safe’ (146 words); ‘Bunker’ (233 words) ................................................................ 121 6. ‘The Great Mask Project’: The Influence of Ken Smith Includes consideration of the following pieces published in The Privilege of Rain : ‘Tale’ (110 words); Longing’ (97 words); ‘Number’ (153 words); ‘Not like this (162 words) ............................................................................................................. 137 7. The Blood-Self’: Case Studies in the Writing of Poetry Includes consideration of the following pieces published in The Privilege of Rain : ‘Prison Ballad of the Prison Ballad’ (371 words); ‘The Shell in the Yard’ (282 words); ‘Refused’ (108 words) ............................................................................................... 154 8. ‘What is Not There’: Case Studies in the Writing of Prose Includes consideration of the following piece published in The Privilege of Rain : ‘The Privilege of Rain’, Parts I and II (4,742 words), and the following poems: ‘Gone’ (93 words); The Spin’ (108 words). Also included is the Foreword from Beyond the Wall: Words Set Free from Prison (583 words) .................................................................. 172 9. ‘A Choir of Trees’: Discovering the ‘Voice’ of a Poetry Collection Includes consideration of: ‘When it rained’(90 words), ‘Sherwood’ (53 words), and ‘Cursed earth’ (122 words) ....................................................................................... 202 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 216 References ............................................................................................................... 224 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. 235 6 Author’s declaration I, David Swann, declare that the thesis entitled The Blood Self , and the published book whose evolution it discusses, The Privilege of Rain , are both wholly my own work, and that they were generated from my own original research. I confirm that: • This thesis was wholly completed while in candidature for a research degree at the University of Chichester. • No part of this thesis, or the published book, has been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution. • Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed. • In the thesis, where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, the thesis is entirely my own work. I have acknowledged all main sources of help. • An early version of Chapter Nine was published as an article in 2012. The article’s title was ‘A Choir of Trees’: Discovering the ‘Voice’ of a Poetry Collection’. It was published in Poetry and Voice: A Book of Essays , ed. S.Norgate & E. Piddington (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 2012). An enhanced version of the article forms Chapter Nine here. The article was based upon an informal talk given at a conference in 2010, and intended as the first step in my PhD, which began that year. • A section of Chapter Eight have been adapted for a book chapter titled‘Mary Robison’s Signs of Absence’. The chapter will feature in Critical insights: Flash Fiction , ed. S.D. Emmert & M. Cocchiarale (Amenia, NY: Grey House Publishing: 2017) . • None of the other work has been published, with the exception of creative pieces from The Privilege of Rain: Time among the Sherwood Outlaws , and Beyond the Wall: Words Set Free from Prison , all used to illustrate wider points, and always attributed. • The total word-count of the