Kim Akass (University of Hertfordeshire) will be presenting a Guest Lecture on ‘Killers, Thieves, and Perverts: The Women of Wentworth Correction Centre’ on 11 April 4.30 – 6.30pm at LHA Research Hub (19.2072), co-hosted by the Feminist Research Network (FRN) and Research Centre for Critical Creative Practice (C3P). Refreshments will be provided after the lecture.
ABSTRACT:
The female prisoners in the iconic Australian drama Prisoner: Cell Block H (1979-86), and its contemporary reboot, Wentworth (2013-), clearly bear the scars of their familial history. Prison guard or inmate, Governor or top dog, the women’s narratives are indelibly and inextricably linked to the way they were parented, and their parenting skills. It should be no surprise that with women front and centre, the focus should be on the domestic. This paper will argue that both Prisoner and Wentworth offer hitherto unseen perspectives on female causes of crime, how female crimes are shaped by the family, and how maternity is central to the lives of these women, whether mothers or not.
Kim Akass is a Senior Lecturer in Film and TV in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire. She has co-edited and contributed to numerous collections focusing on feminism and contemporary television, including Reading Sex and the City (2004), Reading The L Word: Outing Contemporary Television (2006) and Quality TV: Contemporary American TV and Beyond (2007). She is co-founding editor of the television journal Critical Studies in Television (MUP), and is currently researching the representation of motherhood on television for forthcoming book From Here to Maternity: Representations of Motherhood in the Media.
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