THROUGH THE SYNTACTIC WEAVE, THE SIMULACRUM: “SHE’S LIKE FAMILY”

Abstract

Recent cases of slavery-like labor in Brazil reveal a persistent pattern: Black and poor women serving white and wealthy families for generations without access to fundamental rights. This article analyzes news reports published between 2021 and 2023 on the rescue of women in such conditions, using the framework of Materialist Discourse Analysis. It examines the expression “She is like part of the family,” often used to justify the absence of labor rights. This formulation functions as a simulacrum, disguising a labor relationship as an affective bond without corresponding to a real family relationship. The use of the subjunctive mood in “as if she were” highlights this contradiction and reveals the ideological nature of the utterance. The disintagmatization of such structures allows access to discursive processes and memory domains that sustain the reproduction of naturalized social practices of exploitation.

Keywords:
Materialism; Discourse; Labor analogous to slavery