Les « souvenirs emprisonnés » pour traduction de l’expérience carcérale d’anciens détenus

Abstract

In this case study, the aim is to better understand how the former prisoners I interviewed testified about their prison experience, through their "imprisoned memories". To do this, I show that, even if some memories are real "black boxes", emotions often play an essential role in the construction of the prison past, as it appears in the testimonies of former prisoners. To grasp this phenomenon, I first had to look for, and then propose, an operational definition of the concept of "translation", to bring to light both the intentional part of these memories, and the emotions they arouse, and the social part of this autobiographical memory.

Keywords

• prison
• former prisoners
• prison experience
• testimony
• memory
• emotion