Abstract
Alcatraz Island exists as a site of public memory—a location for which understanding is formed and persists from the shared experiences of many individuals. As with most sites of public memory and monuments of public history, the privileging of certain information and neglect of others in the construction of historical narrative is a necessary, if regrettable, part of the process. With Alcatraz, however, that omission is not only detrimental to a complete understanding of the varied and layered significance of the place, but also acts to dispossess Native Americans of the importance of Alcatraz Island in their history and ongoing struggle for civil and sovereign rights. Since the 1973 opening of Alcatraz Island to tourists, the allure of dark tourism has worked to perform a historical erasure at this site, sublimating a narrative that runs counter to dominant cultural ideologies of government righteousness, in favor of the spectacle of suffering that many endured, and few tried to escape.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
John F. Sears, Sacred Places: American Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 88.
- 2.
Ibid., 90.
- 3.
Michael Welch, Escape to Prison: Penal Tourism and the Pull of Punishment (Oakland: University of California Press, 2015), 1.
- 4.
John J. Lennon and Malcolm Foley, Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster (London and New York: Continuum, 2000), 10.
- 5.
A. J. Burkart and S. Medlik, Tourism: Past, Present, and Future (London: Heinemann, 1981).
- 6.
Jacqueline Z. Wilson, Prison: Cultural Memory and Dark Tourism (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2008), 9.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
Lennon and Foley, Dark Tourism, 162.
- 9.
Welch, Escape to Prison, 4.
- 10.
Alcatraz Is Not an Island, directed by James M. Fortier (2001; Public Broadcasting Service), Streaming.
- 11.
“Discover Alcatraz: A Tour of the Rock” (Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, 1996). Brochure.
- 12.
Ibid.
- 13.
Cynthia Duquette Smith and Teresa Bergman, “You Were on Indian Land: Alcatraz Island as Recalcitrant Memory Space,” in Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric Museums and Memorials, ed. Carol Blair, Greg Dickerson, and Brian L. Ott (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press), 161.
- 14.
Ibid., 182.
- 15.
Marita Sturken, Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007). Marita Sturken’s use of the term kitsch is one tied to both her concepts of innocence and tourism of history which are extensively developed in her work. In short, Sturken theorizes kitsch as a souvenir aesthetic imbibed with a distance from and innocence of historical events. In this context, I use kitsch to describe those stylized artifacts and souvenirs which might be described as more playful, sensationalized, tacky, or cheap that may be appreciated by some for their irony. These items are often mass-produced. I do not wish to confuse my more traditional use of the term with Sturken’s, which carries other implications about tourist consumerism’s relationship to history.
- 16.
Kenneth E. Foote, Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003 Revised edition), 174.
- 17.
Ibid., 179 & 187.
- 18.
“Upcoming Events,” Alcatraz Cruises, https://www.alcatrazcruises.com/website/pprog-upcoming-events.aspx, Accessed February 12, 2016.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, Modern Militant Indian, Postcard © 2012.
- 21.
Wayne Franklin and Michael Steiner, Mapping American Culture (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1992), 4.
Bibliography
Alcatraz Is Not an Island. Directed by James M. Fortier. 2001. Public Broadcasting Service. Streaming.
Burkart, A.J., and S. Medlik. 1981. Tourism: Past, Present, and Future. London: Heinemann.
Discover Alcatraz: A Tour of the Rock. Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Copyright 1996. Brochure/Pamphlet.
Foote, Kenneth E. 2003. Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy. Rev. ed. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Franklin, Wayne, and Michael Steiner. 1992. Mapping American Culture. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.
Gordon, Avery. 1997. Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Lennon, John J., and Malcolm Foley. 2000. Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster. London and New York: Continuum.
Sears, John F. 1989. Sacred Places: American Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press.
Smith, Cynthia Duquette, and Teresa Bergman. 2010. You Were on Indian Land: Alcatraz Island as Recalcitrant Memory Space. In Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums Memorials, ed. Carol Blair, Greg Dickerson, and Brian L. Ott, 160–188. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
Sturken, Marita. 2007. Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Welch, Michael. 2015. Escape to Prison: Penal Tourism and the Pull of Punishment. Oakland: University of California Press.
Wilson, Jacqueline Z. 2008. Prison: Cultural Memory and Dark Tourism. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Barber, J. (2020). Captive Memories: Alcatraz Island and the Cultural Work of Prison Tourism. In: Dawes, J. (eds) Dark Tourism in the American West. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21190-5_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21190-5_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-21189-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-21190-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)