Abjection and condemnation
media representations of a transgender criminal in Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.33299Keywords:
travesti, gender identity, critical text analysis, multimodality, semiotic representationAbstract
This study investigates a series of news reports of a well-publicised crime in Brazil where a transgender person was involved and implicitly evaluated and condemned by the semiotic resources used in the reporting of the event. Theoretical tools from critical discourse analysis, systemic functional grammar and multimodal theory are applied to the data in order to investigate how verbal and other semiotic resources interpret the story. The findings point to partiality and manipulation when it comes to supporting one of the sides involved in the crime to the detriment of the transgender social actress. Her nonnormative gender identity is represented as a core part of her criminal identity. Through these representations, the media reinforces bias and reproduces biased discourses against travestis, a community that constitutes a permanent zone of abjection, a process through which those deemed unintelligible are excluded by identificatory regimes to delimit the boundaries of the self.
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Van Leeuwen, T. (2005) Introducing Social Semiotics. London: Routledge.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2007) Legitimation in discourse and communication. Discourse and Communication 1(1): 91–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481307071986
Van Leeuwen, T. (2008) Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323306.001.0001
Van Leeuwen, T. (2011) The Language of Colour: An Introduction. Abingdon: Routledge.
Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York: Routledge.
Butler, J. (1999) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (2nd edition). New York: Routledge.
Caldas-Coulthard, C. R. (1997) News as Social Practice. Florianópolis: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
Caldas-Coulthard, C. R., Machin, D. and Milani, T. (2016) Doing critical multimodality in research on gender, language and discourse. Gender and Language 10(3): 301–8. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v10i3.32037
Foucault, M. (1978) The History of Sexuality (vol. 1). New York: Pantheon Books.
G1 São Paulo (2015) Ataque de travesti a carcereiro só parou após tiros para o alto, diz polícia. G1. Retrieved on 30 April 2015 from http://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/noticia/2015/04/ataque-de-travesti-carcereiro-so-parou-apos-tiros-para-o-alto-diz-policia.html.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978) Language as Social Semiotic. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. and Hasan, R. (1989) Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. and Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2014) Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar (4th edition). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203783771
Hasan, R. (1984) What kind of resource is language? Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 7(1): 57–85. https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.7.1.03has
Kress, G. (2010) Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. New York: Routledge.
Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2001) Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold.
Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2006) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2nd edition). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203619728
Machado, L. (2015) Travesti é ouvida por promotores e juiz sobre suspeita de tortura em DP. G1. Retrieved on 30 April 2015 from http://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/noticia/2015/04/travesti-e-ouvida-por-promotores-e-juiz-sobre-suspeita-de-tortura-em-dp.html.
Machin, D. (2004) Building the world’s visual language: the increasing global importance of image banks in corporate media. Visual Communication 3(3): 316–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357204045785
Martin, J. and White, P. (2005) The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230511910
Souza, N. and Caram, B. (2014) Congresso eleito é o mais conservador desde 1964, afirma Diap. O Estado de S. Paulo (6 October). Retrieved on 12 September 2018 from http://politica.estadao.com.br/noticias/eleicoes,congresso-eleito-e-o-mais-conservador-desde-1964-afirma-diap,1572528.
Tomaz, K. (2015a) Preso arranca orelha de carcereiro em SP e fotos circulam na internet. G1. Retrieved on 30 April 2015 from http://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/noticia/2015/04/preso-arranca-orelha-de-carcereiro-em-sp-e-fotos-circulam-na-internet.html.
Tomaz, K. (2015b) Verônica apanhou de policiais e não de presos em cela, diz mãe. G1. Retrieved on 30 April 2015 from http://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/noticia/2015/04/veronica-apanhou-de-policiais-e-nao-de-presos-em-cela-diz-mae.html.
Tomaz, K. and Acayaba, C. (2015) Travesti fica desfigurada após prisão; Defensoria diz haver indício de tortura. G1. Retrieved on 30 April 2015 from http://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/noticia/2015/04/travesti-fica-desfigurada-apos-prisao-defensoria-diz-haver-indicio-de-tortura.html.
Van Leeuwen, T. (1996) The representation of social actors. In C. R. Caldas-Coulthard and M. Coulthard (eds) Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis 32–70. London: Routledge.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2004) Ten reasons why linguists should pay attention to visual communication. In P. Levine and R. Scollon (eds) Discourse and Technologies: Multimodal Discourse Analysis 7–19. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2005) Introducing Social Semiotics. London: Routledge.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2007) Legitimation in discourse and communication. Discourse and Communication 1(1): 91–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481307071986
Van Leeuwen, T. (2008) Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323306.001.0001
Van Leeuwen, T. (2011) The Language of Colour: An Introduction. Abingdon: Routledge.
Published
2018-10-22
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
de Jesus, F. L., & Caldas-Coulthard, C. R. (2018). Abjection and condemnation: media representations of a transgender criminal in Brazil. Gender and Language, 12(3), 372-397. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.33299
