O cancelamento discursivo como forma de silenciamento : entre o poder e o não poder dizer(-se) (n)a diferença

Abstract

Cancellation works as a phenomenon of interaction between individuals on the internet, based on a game of meanings that classifies subjects as worthy or not of holding opinions and occupying positions in society. In this context, this research investigated virtual cancellation based on the studies of Discourse Analysis with a Pecheutian orientation. In this way, we focused on the discursive functioning of virtual cancellation in relation to policies of silencing the political subject, in a tense process between saying and not being able to say (in) the difference in or between discursive formations. Based on this, our central problem is the following question: How does virtual cancellation function discursively in the digital space as a form of silencing the political of/in the subject and of/in meaning? We therefore propose the following general objective: to investigate the discursive functioning of virtual cancellation on Twitter/X as a form of silencing the political subject. And as specific objectives: a) to characterise the movement of the political in the discourse of the cancelled subject based on the statements that trigger cancellation processes; b) to analyse, on Twitter/X, the production of cancellation effects on these discourses resulting from the silencing of the political; and finally c) to analyse, on the same network, the effects of stabilisation and destabilisation of the discursive process of cancellation in the discourses of commenting subjects. We base our theoretical and methodological approach mainly on the assumptions of Discourse Analysis (Pêcheux, 2014, 2013, 2008), Eni Orlandi's theoretical reflections on language and silence, and the authoritarian and polemical functioning of discourses (Orlandi 2023,2012, 2008, 2007, 1987). The conditions of production that enabled the construction of the archive on virtual cancellation were the 2022 presidential elections and the manifestation of public figures on the internet, such as their respective reactions on Twitter/X. In order to achieve our objectives, we analysed the tweets involved in the episode of the virtual cancellation of influencer and vlogger Rita Von Hunty, who declared her support for the candidates of the radical left in the first round, in opposition to the Lula-Alckmin ticket. As far as the analytical procedures are concerned, our interpretative device considered the observation of data based on i) characterising the movement of the politician in the statements of the cancelled subject in discourses that trigger cancellation processes; b) analysing the production of cancellation effects on these discourses on Twitter/x resulting from the silencing of the politician; and finally c) analysing, on the same network, stabilisation and destabilisation effects of the discursive process of cancellation in the discourses of commenting subjects. The results of the analysis were as follows: a) the movement of the political subject marking the difference/divergence in the discursive formation; b) the discourses that explore the effects of cancellation and their respective modalities, namely: (i) the interdiction of the movement of inscription of the subject in a position of its own (different, divergent); (ii) the de-signification of the subject's own position; (iii) the interdiction of the movement in the constitution of the subject's political-ideological identity and; (c) the discourses of identification and counter-identification with the political subject destabilise the effects of meaning of cancellation. Therefore, we understand that discursive cancellation functions, as a policy of silencing, in the conflict between the enunciation of the different and the interdiction of saying, that is, between being able and not being able to say (oneself) (in) the difference.