Escaping Our Shitty Reality: Counterpublics, Orange Is the New Black, and Religion

Recognizing popular culture as an increasingly valuable discursive site, this article argues that Orange Is the New Black, the popular Netflix series, intentionally attempts to operate as a counterpublic discursive engagement to challenge tacitly held opinions about female prisoners and the carceral...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and popular culture
Main Author: Shoemaker, Terry (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: University of Saskatchewan [2017]
In: Journal of religion and popular culture
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Orange is the new black / USA / Imprisonment / Imprisoned person / Creativity / Religion
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
CG Christianity and Politics
CH Christianity and Society
KBQ North America
Further subjects:B disidentification
B Orange Is the New Black
B private / public
B Film
B counterpublic
B Religion
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Recognizing popular culture as an increasingly valuable discursive site, this article argues that Orange Is the New Black, the popular Netflix series, intentionally attempts to operate as a counterpublic discursive engagement to challenge tacitly held opinions about female prisoners and the carceral system of the United States. To unfold this counterpublic discourse, this article explores the utility of religion within the third season of Orange Is the New Black as a means of constructing the counterpublic. Through characters of the series using religion as a creative means of resistance, consumers of the series come to understand the humanity of female prisoners, the complexity of prisoner narratives, and the injustice of the American carceral system. At the end, I explore why religion might be a space of creative agency for depictions pertaining to the American carceral system.
ISSN:1703-289X
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and popular culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3138/jrpc.2016-0013.r2