“In this world, out of the world”: stigma and literature in recent texts written by prisoners

Abstract

This article discusses literature produced by prisoners. I argue that the material framework of books by prisoner-authors, published between the years 2000 and 2002, and the manner in which the narrative substance is construed, show that this kind of narrative evidences the sociability of that environment. These authors make claims both to their prisoner condition and to a writer status. Ervin Goffman’s concept of “stigma” is applied for an understanding of these writings.