Writing Resistance, Writing the Self: Literary Reconstruction in United States Prison Witness

• Doran Larson ^[1]
  1. [1] Hamilton College

     Hamilton College

     Town of Kirkland, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Revista crítica de ciencias sociais, ISSN-e 2182-7435, ISSN 0254-1106, Nº. 120, 2019, págs. 161-182
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.4000/rccs.9840
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Écrire la résistance, écrire le moi: reconstruction littéraire en témoignages de prison aux États-Unis
  • Escrever a resistência, escrever o eu: reconstrução literária em testemunhos de prisão nos Estados Unidos
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • English

    Based in a digital archive of first-person witness by people currently incarcerated in the United States (U.S.), this paper discusses witness texts that document and grieve the experience of alienation of self-identity, fight that alienation, and that together map both the degradation of human dignity at the center of current U.S. penality and how it can be resisted in restoring sociality with other incarcerated people. Writing from inside often represents a moment not only of resistance to the prison regime, but of reconstruction of the self that is the premise for all further resistance. After placing prison witness today against the background of such witness from an earlier penal era, the paper looks at patterns across the essays currently posted in the American Prison Writing Archive (APWA). The paper suggests that the very availability of the APWA could re-ground future U.S. prison scholarship.

  • français

    Fondé sur une archive numérisée de témoignages à la première personne par d' actuels déténus aux États-Unis (EUA), cet article se penche sur des textes qui documentent et reflètent la souffrance de ceux qui traversent l'expérience d'aliénation de l'identité de soi, qui luttent contre cette aliénation et qui, ensemble, géographisent et tracent les contours de la dégradation de la dignité humaine au sein de l'actuel système pénal des EUA et la façon dont elle peut être combattue pour récupérer la sociabilité avec d'autres détenus. Écrire de l'intérieur représente souvent un moment, non seulement de résistance au régime carcéral, mais aussi de reconstruction du moi, prémisse de toute résistance sous-jacente. Après avoir placé le témoignage actuel de la prison d'aujourd'hui dans le contexte d'un témoignage d'une époque pénale antérieure, cet article examine les tendances observées dans les essais publiés aujourd'hui dans l'American Prison Writing Archive (APWA). L'analyse suggère que la mise à disposition de l'APWA pourra re-définir les futures recherches académiques sur les prisons des EUA.

  • português

    Baseado num arquivo digital de testemunhos na primeira pessoa de reclusos atualmente encarcerados nos Estados Unidos (EUA), este artigo discute textos que documentam e refletem o sofrimento daqueles que passam pela experiência de alienação da autoidentidade, que combatem essa alienação e que, juntos, mapeiam a degradação da dignidade humana no seio do atual sistema penal dos EUA e como esta pode ser combatida para recuperar a sociabilidade com outros reclusos. Escrever do seu interior representa muitas vezes um momento não apenas de resistência ao regime prisional, mas também de reconstrução do eu, que é a premissa de toda a resistência subsequente. Confrontando o testemunho atual ao contexto de um testemunho de uma era penal anterior, o artigo analisa os padrões dos textos publicados nos dias de hoje no American Prison Writing Archive (APWA). A análise sugere que a própria disponibilização do APWA poderá re-definir os futuros estudos académicos sobre as prisões dos EUA.

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