The Discourse Theory of Carnaval Multicultural do Recife: An Analysis of Recife Carnival Party in the Light of Theory of Laclau and Mouffe

Abstract

Given the importance of carnival party to the city of Recife, it is natural that the event involves a plurality of voices present in the construction of meanings related to the party. In this sense, we chose to rely on Discourse Theory of Laclau and Mouffe - which deals with the discursive articulation of different agents around meanings in the construction of a discourse - in an attempt to seek answers to the following question: how the discourse of Recife’s Multicultural Carnival was formed? Looking for ways consistent with the research methodological and theoretical choices we have established, we take a critical approach, post-structuralist and post-Marxist matrix, adopting a qualitative research strategy. The construction of our research corpus took place through two distinct stages. Firstly, through preliminary readings we identified the different relevant groups that set some involvement with Recife’s Multicultural Carnival. Then, research corpus was built, composed by documental research in order to access the discursive sources of our study. Concerning the data analysis, we used the Discourse Analysis of French strand in conjunction with the Discourse Theory of Laclau and Moufe. The arguments against the current format of the party demonstrate they do not have enough articulatory strength to challenge all discursive positions that are articulated in favor of Recife’s Carnival. This favorable chain of equivalence seems enough articulated to make sense of the empty signifier "Recife’s Multicultural Carnival", that points to the cultural diversity as nodal point that propitiates to the official discourse defined by municipal government occupies the hegemonic space around this discourse. The party emerges as a space of diversity and cultural plurality, source of economic opportunity for many agents. Finally, we point out a limitation of this study, as we focused our analysis on public policy arena, the state, not accessing private capital while influencing configuration of the party. In this regard, we point out as a possibility of further studies the analysis of Recife’s Multicultural Carnival from the perspective of private organizations involved in carrying out the party.