Enunciative praxis and ways of life in Rubem Fonseca

Abstract

Using the theoretical assumptions of French semiotics, the corpus of this research comprises selected short stories of contemporary Brazilian author Rubem Fonseca.These texts are in the books Feliz ano novo (2010) and Amálgama (2013). One of the recurrences of the short stories, our objects of analysis, lies in the construction of the main actors. They have performances that break with the required behaviors and institute a singular way of being. We can notice that there is a disagreement between the being and the appearing of these subjects, as well as a conflict between the collective morality and the individual ethics, which places conventional ways of life in relation to subversive ones. Therefore, the aim of the study is to analyze the relation between the concepts of "Way of life" and "Enunciative Praxis", observing how the dynamics of the Enunciative praxis puts in contrast traditional ways of life, which have been stabilized in the routine, and inventive ways of life. We take into consideration the hypothesis that such dynamics enables the recognition of ways of life stored in the cultural system, as well as those that transgress the cultural codes and the required behaviors. For proceeding with the analysis, we prioritize the underlying narrativity of any text, as predicted by the tradition in Semiotics. We also focus on the studies of the concept "Way of Life" and "Enunciative praxis", in order to enrich the theoretical approach dedicated to these notions in the context of French Semiotics. (AU)