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This study offers a critical reading of several contemporary modalities of engagement outlined in the socio-literary trajectories of writers Annie Ernaux and Chahdortt Djavann. In the works of these writers, the dimensions that arise from a desire to renew how the writer intervenes are visible through a writing style which continually blurs the borders between fiction and documentary, individual perceptions of the world and the collective dimension of events. In doing so, it will interrogate the power of witnessing as a means of making possible the interchangeability of that which is private and that which is public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the issue of female possession in Zinder schools in Niger, a phenomenon that most often results in collective trance scenes (Soumana, 2010). In this regard, the objective is to analyze the social representations of this phenomenon in the secondary schools of Zinder in Niger. On the basis of semi-structured interviews with the parents of the possessed, the student witnesses and the teachers, the analysis made it possible to understand the social representations of the chatter genius (idea of the supernatural of the appearance of the chatter genius in schools, origin of semantics), in Niger. However, some quantitative data collected from possessed women shows that the phenomenon affects young college girls more. The analysis also shows that the perceptions of students and teachers, religious beliefs and practices pertaining to animism and Islam influence the emergence of the nosology of the chatting genius (Aljanni me auran mata in Hausa). Since its appearance in Niger and mainly in Zinder, the chatter genius has first affected the regions acquired by the cult of possession, notably Niamey and Maradi, then that of Zinder. In addition, the analysis made it possible to understand that the existing interactions between heterosexual peers at school, most often resulting in chatting and romance, are at the origin of the concept of chatting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between memory and history, the stories of Jewish deportees and Spanish refugees detained at the Rivesaltes camp are rich and complex discursive objects. We will try to bring to light and describe in language and in speech the verbs to remember, to recall, to forget on which the process of recollecting and the life stories of witnesses are based. This will involve examining the memory verbs used and then analyzing how they work in speech before concluding on the place and role played by these verbs in the testimony account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]