Legality as a meaning effect: a discursive analysis of/in women's prison

uma análise discursiva do/no cárcere feminino

Abstract

From the Extension Project “Mulheres Sim - Empoderar é libertar mulheres: educação integral, arte e trabalho”, carried out by the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina, in 2018, at the Women’s Prison of Tubarão – SC, this article presents as a corpus an excerpt of a narrative interview carried out with a woman in situation of deprivation of liberty participating in the project. As a general objective, the action of analyzing the Conditions of Production of the prison and its effects of meaning on the incarcerated subject is established and, for that, a theoretical-analytical path of investigation is traced, relying on the Pêcheuxtian Discourse Analysis as a contribution theory, as well as some assumptions of contemporary political philosophy. Faced with a clash between the corpus and legal documents referring to the functioning of the prison, the investigation highlighted legality as an effect of meaning that maintains rights: for some, it ensures them; for others – inserted in a prison system understood as legal –, its missing.