Entre os nós do discurso e os modos de enunciar o brasileiro trabalhador no novo Avenida Brasil 1

Abstract

This research investigates the modes of enunciation of the Brazilian working subject present in the textbook Novo Avenida Brasil 1 (2008), a material intended for teaching Portuguese to foreigners. The choice of this textbook is justified by the political and economic context of Brazil in the years 2000-2010, a period in which the government sought to project a specific image of the country and its identity on the international stage (Moreira, 2018). The main objective of this work is to analyze how this subject is enunciated (Foucault, 2008a), and the power mechanisms that permeate its possibility of emergence. The theoretical foundation is based on Michel Foucault's archeogenealogy, articulating archaeology – to unveil the conditions of emergence of this subject – and genealogy – to trace the power relations that sustain its constitution and permanence. From a methodological point of view, we selected a corpus composed of 11 statements that make up the New Avenida Brasil 1, present, respectively, in lesson 1, in the exercise book, in lesson 6, lesson 5, and lesson 6, which form three enunciative series (Foucault, 2008a) representative of the discursive constitution of the Brazilian working subject. These series construct an archive divided into three axes: the high-income Brazilian working subject, the low-income Brazilian working subject, and the silenced workers. The results show that the Brazilian subject is enunciated above all as a young, skilled, privileged, and white worker, reflecting and reinforcing discursive strategies aligned with the Brazilian political project of that historical moment.