NO ALIBI FOR THE SELF: acts and words in dispute within the public sphere

Authors

  • Ivone Ferreira de Alcantara Oliveira Pontifícia Católica de São Paulo (LAEL/PUC-SP).
  • Helaine de Souza Maciel Universidade Federal de Campina Grande
  • Fábio Marques de Souza Faculdade de Linguística, Letras e Artes da Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (FALLA/UEPB).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47180/omij.v6i1.338

Keywords:

Mikhail Bakhtin, Responsibility, Ethical Act, Word, Philosophy of Language

Abstract

This article proposes a reflection on the relationships between responsibility, ethical act, and the word, in light of the dialogically oriented philosophy of language developed by the Circle of Mikhail Bakhtin. The research adopts a qualitative, interpretative approach, grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Minayo (2001) and Silveira and Córdova (2009). Anchored in the philosophy of the responsible act, we analyze a concrete episode of public life: the verbal and physical conflict that occurred in 2024, on TV Cultura between the candidates for mayor of São Paulo, José Luiz Datena and Pablo Marçal during an electoral debate, which culminated in an attack involving a chair, widely circulated on social media, to discuss the ethical production of words and acts in the social space. Based on dialogic discussions, we seek to understand how acts and words constitute ethical and responsive movements, highlighting that, in the contemporary public space, there is no neutrality or alibi for being. The results point to the relevance of the Bakhtinian perspective for understanding both the corporeal dimension of the act and the fabric of circulating words, revealing the multiplicity of voices, values, and ideologies that traverse subjects in their singularity.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Ivone Ferreira de Alcantara Oliveira, Pontifícia Católica de São Paulo (LAEL/PUC-SP).

She holds a degree in Language and Brazilian Literature from the Federal University of Rondônia – UNIR (1999) and a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics from the University of Taubaté, São Paulo – UNITAU (2020). She worked as a literacy teacher in the early grades from 1982 to 1990 at the State School Américo Vespúcio, in Primavera, Rondônia. From 1991 to 2002, she continued teaching literacy and elementary education at the State School Anísio Serrão de Carvalho, where she taught Portuguese Language. Between 2003 and 2021, she taught Portuguese Language at both the elementary and high school levels at the State School Marechal Cordeiro de Farias. She served on undergraduate examination committees at the Faculty of Pimenta Bueno – FAP in 2006 and 2011. Currently, she is assigned to SEDUC – the State Department of Education in the city of Porto Velho, state of Rondônia. She is a doctoral candidate in the Graduate Program in Applied Linguistics and Language Studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo – PUC-SP.

Helaine de Souza Maciel, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande

Currently a Ph.D. candidate and holds a Master’s degree in Language and Teaching from the Federal University of Campina Grande (PPGLE/UFCG). She holds postgraduate specializations in "Languages, their Technologies and the World of Work" from the Open and Distance Education Center of the Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), and in "Curriculum and Teaching Practice in the Early Years of Elementary Education," also from UFPI. She is a researcher in the group “The Bakhtin Circle in Dialogue – UEPB,” registered with the CNPq Research Group Directory (DGP), working specifically in Line 3: “TECLIN – Technologies, Cultures, and Languages.” She holds a Bachelor's degree in Spanish Language and Literature from the State University of Paraíba (UEPB) – Campus I – Campina Grande - PB. She was a scholarship holder in the Teaching Initiation Program (PIBID/UEPB/Spanish Language/Campus Campina Grande) from January 2016 to March 2018, and later served as a resident scholar in the Pedagogical Residency Program at UEPB from August 2018 to January 2020. Her research interests include: Language teacher education; Spanish language teaching and learning; Language teaching and learning mediated by digital technologies; Culture, interculturality and education; Bakhtinian dialogues; Cinema; Cinematic language; Telecollaboration and Teletandem.

Fábio Marques de Souza, Faculdade de Linguística, Letras e Artes da Universidade Estadual da Paraíba (FALLA/UEPB).

Words and artistic-cultural expressions have always been a passion of mine, shaping both my personal and professional identity. With language as the core element of my academic journey, I am currently undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship in Cultural Diplomacy and Language Policy at Aswan University, Egypt, and serve as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Linguistics, Languages, and Arts and in the Graduate Program in Teacher Education at the State University of Paraíba (PPGFP-UEPB), within the research line "Languages, Cultures, and Teacher Education." I supervise Master's and Doctoral research in the Graduate Program in Language and Teaching (PPGLE-UFCG), in the research areas: 3. Language Teaching and Teacher Education; and 4. Social, Historical, and Cultural Practices of Language. My academic background spans the fields of Language Studies, Foreign Languages, Translation, International Relations, and Education. Beyond the word, cinema—a form of art that brings together various languages—served as the mediator of the reflections developed in my doctoral research (University of São Paulo – USP). Telecollaboration (Teletandem), mediated by Digital Information and Communication Technologies and aimed at university internationalization through academic, linguistic, and (inter)cultural exchanges between Brazilians and Argentinians, led to my postdoctoral research (as a PNPD-CAPES-MEC fellow) in Contemporary Education at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). I am currently the leader of the research group “The Bakhtin Circle in Dialogue,” which includes the lines: i) Bakhtinian Ideas; ii) Observatory of Brazilian Foreign Policy Discourse; and iii) TECLIN – Technologies, Cultures, and Languages. I am also a member of the Center for Advanced Studies in Public Policy and Governance; InviTe (Virtual Exchange and Teletandem); and MOPRI – Media and Public Opinion in International Relations, all registered in the CNPq Research Groups Directory. My research interests revolve around: i) Dialogic Discourse Analysis; ii) The Bakhtin Circle in Dialogue; iii) Cultural Diplomacy and Language Policies; iv) Brazilian Foreign Policy; and v) Applied Linguistics: teaching-learning and mediation.

References

AMORIM, Marilia. Ato versus objetivação e outras oposições fundamentais no pensamento bakhtiniano. In: FARACO, Carlos Alberto; TEZZA, Cristovão; CASTRO, Gilberto de. (orgs). Vinte ensaios sobre Mikhail Bakhtin. Vozes; Petrópolis, 2006.

BABO, Isabel. O acontecimento e seus públicos. Comunicação e Sociedade. v.23, p. 218-235, 2013.

BRAIT, Beth. Tramas verbo-visuais da linguagem. In: BRAIT, Beth. Literatura e outras linguagens. São Paulo: Contexto, 2010, p. 193-228.

BAKHTIN, Mikhail. Para uma filosofia do ato responsável. Trad. Valdemir Miotello e Carlos Alberto Faraco. São Carlos: Pedro & João Editores, 2017.

CORUJA, Paula. Comentários do Youtube: uma proposta metodológica de análise a partir de uma pesquisa realizada no canal jout jout prazer. (Org.s) MORALES, Yvets; SOUSA, Leila; LAPA, Bruna. In: Experiências metodológicas em pesquisas da comunicação. São Luís: EDUFMA, 2018. Disponível em: https://www.processocom.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Experi%C3%AAncias-metodol%C3%B3gicas-em-pesquisas-da-comunica%C3%A7%C3%A3o_compressed.pdf . Acesso em: 27 abr. 2025.

GOMÉZ, Guillermo Orozco. La investigación em comunicación desde la perspectiva cualitativa. Buenos Aires: Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 1996.

MINAYO, Maria Cecília de Souza. (Org.). Pesquisa social: teoria, método e criatividade. Petrópolis: Vozes, 2001.

PONZIO, Augusto. No Círculo com Bakhtin. Tradução de Valdemir Miotello, Hélio Pajeú, Carlos Turati e Daniela Mondardo. São Carlos: Pedro & João, 2013.

______. A concepção bakhtiniana do ato como dar um passo. In.: BAKHTIN, Mikhail Mikhailovich. Para uma filosofia do ato responsável. 2. ed. Tradução de Valdemir Miotello e Carlos Alberto Faraco. São Carlos: Pedro & João, 2010, p. 09-38.

______. A revolução bakhtiniana: o pensamento de Bakhtin e a ideologia contemporânea. Tradução de Valdemir Miotello. São Paulo: Contexto, 2009.

SILVA, Fabíola Nóbrega; PAIVA, Roberta Soares; SANTOS, Ronilson Ferreira dos. O ato responsável para Bakhtin como filósofo da linguagem: a gênese do dialogismo e o contraponto com a pós-modernidade. In.: SILVA, Fabíola Nóbrega; XAVIER, Manassés Morais; ALMEIDA, Maria de Fátima; FRANCELINO, Pedro Farias. (Orgs.). Relações dialógicas e(m) campos da comunicação discursiva: teoria, análise e questões de ensino. João Pessoa: Ideia, 2017, p. 97-111.

SILVEIRA, Denise Tolfo; CÓRDOVA, Fernanda Peixoto. A pesquisa científica. In: Métodos de pesquisa. Porto Alegre: Editora da UFRGS, 2009. p. 31-42.

TERRA BRASIL. TV Cultura divulga imagens inéditas da cadeirada de Datena em Marçal no debate. YouTube. 17 de set. 2014. Disponível em: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZlFPxjE2HE&ab_channel=TerraBrasil . Acesso em: 18 de abr. 2025.

TEZZA, C. Entre a prosa e a poesia: Bakhtin e o formalismo russo. Rio 240 de Janeiro: Rocco, 2003.

VOLÓCHINOV, Valentin. Nikolaevich. Que é a linguagem? (1930). In.: ______. A construção da enunciação e outros ensaios. Organização, tradução e notas de João Wanderley Geraldi. São Carlos: Pedro & João, 2013, p. 131-156.

Downloads

Published

2025-06-02

How to Cite

Oliveira, I. F. de A., Maciel, H. de S., & Souza, F. M. de . (2025). NO ALIBI FOR THE SELF: acts and words in dispute within the public sphere. Open Minds International Journal, 6(1), 65–79. https://doi.org/10.47180/omij.v6i1.338

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2025): Dossiê Temático: Diálogos contemporâneos: educação, língua(gem), cultura e sociedade

Section

Continuous Flow Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Open Minds International Journal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The authors declare that any work submitted, if accepted, will not be published elsewhere, in English or in any other language, and even electronically, unless it expressly mentions that the work was originally published in the Journal.