Se raconter une histoire...

Based on various accounts of conversion experiences, this study first attempts to go beyond an analysis of conversion as a change in affiliation. But unable to verify the experience of change, the author is led to revise his method in order not to be trapped by the " commemorative naturalness " of the conversion accounts. So he stresses the retroactive dimension of the accounts in relation to the experience by paying particular attention to their speech patterns (Sorokin). The research then shows that the conversion account is a reproductive, even a productive, remembering. And as for this reproduction, it is seen that the converted talk about their conversion according to already transmitted narrative models which depend on their socio-economic, and consequently their cultural situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]