Prison Subjects: appointments and effects of meaning

Abstract

This article analyzes different ways of nominating that the Brazilian prison system establishes to mention the subject that lives in a freedom deprived prison system. Furthermore, we are mainly guided by the theoretical basis of the French Discourse Analysis, in an attempt to understand the meaning effects that arise from each lexical choice. The focus is on the Extension Project of the Law Course at the University of the West of Santa Catarina entitled “Law and Jail - Remission by Reading”, established and supported by the Criminal Execution Law (BRAZIL, 2011), Recommendation n. 44 (CNJ, 2013), Guiding Principles of the National Guidelines for Education in Criminal Establishments (BRAZIL, 2010) and the State Prison Education Plan 2016-2026: Education, Prison and Freedom, Possible Dialogues (SANTA CATARINA, 2017). Thus, these normative frameworks for Education in Prisons in Brazil and in Santa Catarina are analyzed discursively, regarding the nomination of the subjects behind bars, seeking to understand the implication of making sense in the discursive processes of the nominations on law textuality choices. Through the linguistic analysis of the corpus materiality, there are signs of how the nominations are marked by power structures, rooted, crystallized and naturalized in society, which are perpetuated for centuries.