Prison Letters as Counter-Prison Liminal Space: Archival Sources and Activism

Keywords: letters archive, scholar-activism, prison
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 2

Abstract

Letter-writing connects the opacity of the inside with the outside, creating a counter-carceral liminal space. This connection has created narratives by different identities, regardless of their background, united despite the collision with a power that want to erase, individualize and control them.
This contribution discusses insights and limitations I have encountered in conducting research from an archive of letters from "prisoners engaged in the struggle". These letters (1097 overall) are published in booklets (from 2006 to 2021) produced by a Milanese collective of which I am a part. The booklets consist of letters, news, and reports of social struggles (in and out of prison). This archive provides the means to talk about sensitive issues, such as criticism of prison governmentality, using texts that have already been published and therefore without running the risk of possible personal retaliation. It is not an outsider researcher who decides who gets a voice and when to respect the silences. The content is fostered by the narrative environment from which it comes, my experience as an editor, and discussion with the collective, inmates, and ex-inmates.
Nonetheless, I continuously challenged my position by thinking about the limits of scholar-activism and the problem of speaking for others because I direct a certain flow of discourse, interpret the material with personal nuance, and choose how to present. Moreover, I am vulnerable, I am still at the mercy of others and the stories that others give