A cenografia e o ethos discursivo no Instagram: o discurso da branquitude nas redes sociais

Abstract

Discourse Analysis allows reflections on the meanings, subjects and society, considering their historical inscription. The interest of this research is in the race relations, mainly in the place occupied by the whiteness, as a way to question the action of the white subjects in the inequalities. To analyze this, we sought to constitute a corpus of analysis based on the interaction of subjects in virtual social networks. Social networks have taken on a large proportion in recent decades, and social issues often generate discussions between subjects in this space. Thus, this research brings together the study of discourse and virtual space, and seeks to problematize the place of the white subject in race relations, that is, the discourse of whiteness in social networks. In the theoretical contribution, the studies of Maingueneau's Discourse Analysis (2007; 2015; 2016) were used, as well as the studies of important Social Sciences researchers, such as Bento (2002; 2014) and Cardoso (2008; 2010; 2014; 2017). The main question for the development of this research is how the discourse of whiteness perpetuates, symbolically and materially, racism, the privilege of white people and all the inequalities surrounding race relations. The main objective is to verify, on Instagram, how the whiteness discourse is constituted, based on the notions of discursive ethos and scenography. In addition, as specific objectives, it was intended to define the characteristics of the whiteness discourse; how subjects belonging to the white social group can be identified, using the concepts of critical whiteness and uncritical whiteness; how the discourse of whiteness crosses the discourse of social networks; and the interdiscursive relation that supports the ideals of maintaining the social place of whites. The theoretical-methodological and qualitative analysis was made from the corpus that consisted of a post on Instagram and some comments published by subjects (co-enunciators) who interacted in this publication. The results of the analysis showed discursive strategies that emerged in favorable scenographies for the construction of an ethos of whiteness, modalizing racist actions and propagating the discourse of whiteness that is ensured in the racist social structure.