Containment: a team of linguists from Dijon collects testimonies from residents

Has Dijon (Golden Coast) in April 2020, the streets were deserted and the inhabitants confined. For a few weeks, boxes have sprung up in the city, in order to collect the intimate word and the feelings of each one on the first confinement. Geraldine Kobayashi, participant in the survey, has just taken part in the action. She slipped a note, in which she remembers that she missed her family and friends, and that she used this moment to reconnect with herself. “I would say it was not binding, because suddenly it taught me to put things into perspective, to see what was really essential in life”, she confides.

Behind the call for testimonials, a team of linguists from the University of Burgundy, including Cécile Iglesias, co-manager of the “Intime” team. They are specialized in the intimate and in the expression of feelings. “Is it the positive that wins, or ultimately what is most painful? (…) It is interesting to take stock, two years later, of what remains of this experience “, she explains. The researchers hope to be able to return the testimonies to the general public as early as March 2022.