Estudos discursivos à brasileira: uma introdução [Discursive studies a la Brazil: An Introduction] is edited by Roberto Leiser Baronas, with a preface by Diana Luz Pessoa de Barros and an afterword by Kátia Menezes de Souza. It is composed of six studies about discourse, using different theoretical approaches adopted by Brazilian researchers: French discourse analysis, French semiotics, and dialogical discourse analysis.
Signed by the book editor, the title of the book, with the expression a la Brazil,1 1 TN: The book editor uses some words in order to refer to being Brazilian or to having Brazilian characteristics, such as a la Brasil, brasílica, brasilidade. and of the introduction, Ciências brasileiras de lingua(gem): teorias de discurso [Brazilian Sciences of Language: Discourse Theories], arise curiosity and perplexity that are satisfied as we read the chapters.
According to Baronas, the proposal of the book is inspired mainly by Marcelo Módulo and Henrique Braga's article for scientific dissemination titled Uma teoria brasileira do idioma [A Brazilian Theory of Language] (Uma teoria brasileira do idioma [A Brazilian Theory of Language]. Revista Língua Portuguesa. n. 78, 2012). The article highlights the research done by Ataliba Teixeira de Castilho, especially his Nova gramática do português brasileiro [New Grammar of Brazilian Portuguese] (São Paulo: Editora Contexto, 2010) and Rodolfo Ilari's conference during GEL (Grupo de Estudos Linguísticos do Estado de São Paulo [Group of Linguistic Studies from the State of Sao Paulo]) 2013 in which he pays tribute to the Brazilian professor Isaac Nicolau Salum. Ilari acknowledges the originality of Salum's method to analyze texts syntactically, using the scheme of "forks."
Considering that these ideas reflect the "existence not only of linguistics in Brazil, but also of a Brazilian linguistics" (BARONAS, 2015, p.16),2 2 Text in original: “existência não só de uma linguística no Brasil, mas também de uma linguística do Brasil.” Baronas focuses on the field of discourse to highlight the teorias brasílicas do discurso [Brazilian theories of discourse].
It is common knowledge that there are French trends of discourse analysis in which the country's name is used as a family name. However, the name is not given by the father to the son who is born, but to a grown up, by the other, who establishes and legitimizes it. Nonetheless, it seems almost inevitable that, within the domains of knowledge and of science, we would respond to the call of our present context and its centrifugal forces in order to affirm our identity, differences, and heterogeneities.
Baronas himself recognizes the "manifesto tone" of his introduction, in which as he makes reference to Mario de Andrade's Gramatiquinha,3 3 TN: The title of Mario de Andrade’s book is A gramatiquinha da fala brasileira, which can be translated as The Little Grammar of Spoken Brazilian Portuguese. he justifies his point of view that we should be Brazilian, without being nationalists.
However, in relation to this Brazilianness, the first footnote in the introduction is elucidating and timely: "When we refer to Brazilian sciences of language, we are not denying the universal character of science, but trying to highlight the singularity of the sciences developed by Brazilian scholars in the field of language" (BARONAS, 2015, p.15; emphasis in original).4 4 Text in original: “Quando utilizamos a designação Ciências brasileiras de lingua(gem), não o fazemos com o intuito de negar o caráter universal da ciência, mas buscamos dar destaque à singularidade das ciências desenvolvidas por pesquisadores brasileiros no âmbito da linguagem.”
This is precisely the objective achieved: the collection of chapters shows the singularity of Brazilian research in the field of discourse. Baronas invites scholars who work with - following the order of the chapters in the book - Eni Orlandi's Theory of Silence, Luiz Tatit's Semiotic of Songs, Eduardo Guimarães's Event Semantics, Sírio Possenti's Theory of Basic and Opposing Stereotypes, Beth Brait's Dialogic Analysis of Verbal-Visual Discourse, and Foucault's approach to discourse proposed by Maria do Rosário Gregolin and her study group, Grupo de Estudos de Análise do Discurso de Araraquara [Study Group of Discourse Analysis from Araraquara] - GEADA (BARONAS, 2015, p.22). The introductory reflections upon these theories also offer accurate developments, always followed by analytical representation.
Lucília Maria Abrahão e Souza's O silêncio existe para poder (não) dizer [Silence Exists to Make it Possible (Not) to Say] points out that Orlandi, in As formas do silêncio, o movimento dos sentidos [The Forms of Silence, the Movement of Senses] (Campinas, SP: Editora da UNICAMP, 1997), opens a field in discourse theory founded by M. Pêcheux. The objective of the chapter is to problematize and reflect on the forms of silence, which operate in the constitution of the subject and of sense. In this broader theoretical context and in relation to her concepts, such as subject-position and discursive formation, Orlandi proposes three forms of silence: founding silence, constitutive silence, and local silence. They are different ways to denote silence, which the author presents and exemplifies.
In Semiótica e canção: uma paixão brasileira [Semiotics and Songs: A Brazilian Passion], Flávio Henrique Moraes and Mônica Baltazar Diniz Signori consider the semiotics of songs, developed by L. Tatit (Semiótica da canção: melodia e letra [Semiotics of Songs: Melody and Lyrics]. São Paulo: Escuta, 1994), "an important and original branch of Greimasian semiotics," an advance in the theory. Therefore, with the objective of exposing it, with rigor and clarity they tread upon a theoretical path that goes from the basis of semiotics, mainly with F. Saussure and L. Hjelmslev, to the consolidation theory, with A. J. Greimas, to recent contributions of tensive semiotics by C. Zilberberg. Moreover, they consider Tatit's semiotics of songs, which, being theoretically coherent, allows for the description of the melody and the lyrics of the song.
In Semântica do acontecimento: princípios teóricos, metodológicos e análises [Event Semantics: Theoretical and Methodological Principles and Analyses], Soeli Maria Schreiber da Silva and Carolina de Paula Machado reveal Guimarães's (Semântica do acontecimento: um estudo enunciativo da designação [Event Semantics: An Enunciative Study of Designation]. Campinas, SP: Pontes, 2002), presentation of the development of Event Semantics in interlocution mainly with French discourse analysis and enunciative theories by E. Benveniste and O. Ducrot. The chapter presents an interpretative analysis of senses, in which enunciation is the central concept, understood as a historical, social and political event.
In Teoria dos estereótipos básicos e dos estereótipos opostos: a piada levada a sério [Theory of Basic and Opposing Stereotypes: The Joke Taken Seriously], Fernanda Góes de Oliveira Ávila and Roberto Leiser Baronas highlight, from Possenti's great contribution to discourse studies, his elaboration on stereotypes (Humor, Língua e Discurso [Humor, Language, and Discourse]. São Paulo: Contexto, 2010), which unveils Maingueneau's concept of simulacrum and uncovers how humor and jokes work. The authors try to explore the theory of stereotypes by analyzing a series of jokes based on Joãozinho [Little John], a known joke character in Brazil.
In the chapter De presidentes a presidenciáveis: verbo-visualidade na esfera jornalística e político-partidária [From Presidents to Presidential Candidates: Verbal-Visuality in the Journalistic and Political-Party Spheres], Maria Helena Pistori shows the pertinence of a dialogical analysis of verbal-visuality. She visits several works in which Brait (cf. among others, Looking and Reading: Verbal-Visuality from a Dialogical Perspective]. Bakhtiniana. Revista de estudos do discurso, São Paulo, v. 8, n. 2, pp.42-64, 2013), proposes and defends this thesis by putting into evidence the broad concept of language of the Bakhtin Circle, by listing the several moments in which the visual - but not the verbal-visual - is considered, or by investigating Bakhtin's works on related themes. Being engaged in the dialogical analysis of verbal-visuality, Pistori is able to present a dense characterization of dialogic discourse analysis in the reduced space of a book chapter and to show it in activity by analyzing a verbal-visual object.
In the last chapter of the book, Por uma análise arquegenealógica do discurso [For an Archegenealogical Analysis of Discourse], Pedro Navarro deals with the domain of research fostered by Gregolin( cf., among others, GREGOLIN, M. Discurso, história e a produção de identidades na mídia [Discourse, History and the Production of Identities in the Media]. In: FONSECA-SILVA, M.; POSSENTI, S. (Orgs.). Mídia e rede de memória [Media and Memory Network]. Vitória da conquista, BA: Edições UESB, 2007, pp.39-60), the domain that brings Foucault's thoughts to discourse analysis. This is precisely the proposal of the chapter: to examine the archegenealogical method as a possibility to study discourse and to explore it by analyzing magazine covers. For that matter, the author uses Foucault's works and writes about the relationship established between history and power. Following this path, he takes some issues into consideration, such as subject decentering, history as a monument, the constitution of enunciative series, and processes of subjectivation.
Thus, the chapters that compose the book show different theoretical trends that consider discourse as an object. Given this diversity - recently dealt with in the work edited by Brait and Souza-e-Silva (Texto ou discurso? [Text or Discourse?]. São Paulo: Contexto, 2012) -, we can ask ourselves what makes it possible to recognize a field of study, besides the unity given by a name. Barros starts her preface reflecting on this: discourse studies "recover the instability of language itself." Thus, they are situated at an inflection point of linguistics, one that problematizes its axioms (manifested in the selection of one of the pairs of its dichotomies: langue vs. parole, competence vs. performance, enunciation vs. utterance, linguistic vs. extra-linguistic). Based on Barros's reflection, we also consider the issue of the level of abstraction, which is not satisfying any more. The interest in instability, as well as in stability, in the event (a word that, apropos, is at the center of the configuration of all discursive theories mentioned herein), as well as in the structure is not an appanage of the discursive object (not even of linguistics as a subject). However, it is certainly an object more susceptible to instabilities and, therefore, to the need of seizing them.
Still agreeing with the thoughts expressed by Barros in the preface (Also in BARROS, D. Estudos do texto e do discurso no Brasil [Text and Discourse Studies in Brazil]. DELTA. Documentação de Estudos em Linguística Teórica e Aplicada. São Paulo, v. 15, n. especial, pp.183-199, 1999), discourse studies in Brazil have institutional roots and contribute to the constant training of professionals whose intellectual production is of indisputable importance to the field of discourse and to the theory of language in general. When examining the Brazilian scenario of this field study, Barros points out our willingness to broaden objects already developed, face new corpora, innovate methods, or, in other words, face instabilities. She understands that this is how we have been moving, without creating another theory or another paradigm, staying on course, "adequately accommodated between novelty and tradition."
The set of chapters organized by Baronas offers a balance of Brazilian discursive studies, displaying adopted theories, their fruitful interlocutions with other trends, their developments and advances. It is most certainly a representative work, one that deserves careful reading by researchers of the field.
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1
TN: The book editor uses some words in order to refer to being Brazilian or to having Brazilian characteristics, such as a la Brasil, brasílica, brasilidade.
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2
Text in original: “existência não só de uma linguística no Brasil, mas também de uma linguística do Brasil.”
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3
TN: The title of Mario de Andrade’s book is A gramatiquinha da fala brasileira, which can be translated as The Little Grammar of Spoken Brazilian Portuguese.
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4
Text in original: “Quando utilizamos a designação Ciências brasileiras de lingua(gem), não o fazemos com o intuito de negar o caráter universal da ciência, mas buscamos dar destaque à singularidade das ciências desenvolvidas por pesquisadores brasileiros no âmbito da linguagem.”
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Translated by Grazyna Anna Bonomi – ginabonomi@gmail.com
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
Sep-Dec 2016
History
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Received
24 Jan 2016 -
Accepted
22 May 2016
