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February 13, 2026Public Culture0 citations

Carcerally Speaking: Fact Patterns and Practices of Speech Unfreedoms

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EAEmily Apter

Key Points

  • The aim is to analyze how structural racism affects the concept of free speech and to introduce the idea of 'speech unfreedoms.'
  • Literary analysis of artistic works and writings
  • Examination of political struggles related to speech and due process
  • Critical review of current discourse on bodily autonomy and racism
  • Identifies conditions limiting the free exercise of speech among marginalized communities
  • Highlights the role of artists in challenging narratives around speech freedoms
  • Demonstrates the link between systemic racism and limitations on bodily autonomy in speech contexts

Abstract

Abstract This essay looks at the limitations of the legal purchase of “freedom of speech” in relation to what the author terms “speech unfreedoms” or “carcerally speaking,” both expressions understood as conditions of utterance inflected and curtailed by structural racism. The essay examines the work of artists and writers whose work speaks to current political struggles over free speech, due process, bodily autonomy, and racial pessimism.

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Cite This Study

Emily Apter (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/698ebf6985a1ff6a93016d54https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-12175787
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