Ablali, Driss

When the voiceless speak - 2020.


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This work examines a tool aimed at giving a voice to the “voiceless” in a digital space run by a suicide prevention organization. It is the very activity of the chat, taking place between the voices of the suffering and the organization’s volunteers, that gives a social and public dimension to this listening space used by a group of isolated individuals. After a discussion of this textual genre, which is characterized by the intimate, by an egalitarian ethos, and by the brief nature of the chat, the study focuses on the way this genre creates a discourse of suffering.