This book examines the representation of penal colonies both historically and in contemporary culture, across an array of media. Exploring a range of geographies and historical instances of the penal colony, it seeks to identify how the 'penal colony' as a widespread phenomenon is as much 'imagined' and creatively instrumentalized as it pertains to real sites and populations. It concentrates on the range of 'media' produced in and around penal colonies both during their operation and following their closures. This approach emphasizes the role of cross-disciplinary methods and approaches to examining the history and legacy of convict transportation, prison islands and other sites of exile. It develops a range of methodological tools for engaging with cultures and representations of incarceration, detention and transportation. The chapters draw on media discourse analysis, critical cartography, museum and heritage studies, ethnography, architectural history, visual culture including film and comics studies and gaming studies. It aims to disrupt the idea of adopting linear histories or isolated geographies in order to understand the impact and legacy of penal colonies. The overall claim made by the collection is that understanding the cultural production associated with this global phenomenon is a necessary part of a wider examination of carceral imaginaries or 'penal spectatorship' (Brown, 2009) past, present and future. It brings together historiography, criminology, media and cultural studies.

During August 1942 several women jumped to their deaths from a second story window at the tile factory in the small town of Milles near Aix-en-Provence. Between 1939 and 1942 the factory assumed various roles as internment camp, transit camp and ultimately deportation camp. This book is about the view from the ‘suicide window’ as it is presented within the Camp des Milles memorial museum which opened in 2012. It explores how this view might help us to understand and imagine the world of internment and deportation camps operating in France during the Second World War and their memorial today. The book uses the views framed by the window to think critically about the museography of the memorial within the wider context of France’s relatively late acknowledgment of its role in the persecution of the Jews during the Second World War.