Hospitality in the Prison Writings of Kim Dae-Jung

Abstract

Introduction:  It is not difficult to understand why prisoners write letters. They write because it is often the only means they have to communicate with others. Visits are rare and frustrated by delays and sudden changes in administrative policy. Prisoners write because prisons tend to be in isolated parts of a country and because visiting someone is prison is treated by society as a form of shame. Prisoners write to relieve the tedium of incarceration and they write to justify their actions or plead their cause.