“Do you know who you are Talking to?” Heterogeneities and Discursive Positions Included in the Aristocratic Discourse of the Brazilian High Class

Abstract

This paper proposed a description of the discursive positions that are part of the “do you know who you're talking to?” of the discursive formation of the aristocracy of the Brazilian elite. To this end, three enunciative scenes, recorded on videos and widely disseminated by the media, were analyzed, which showed individuals questioned by an order from a State agent, but refused to comply with it. From the assumptions of Discourse Analysis, we take the notions of subject of discourse, discursive formation and pre-built to describe what were the ways of saying by which individuals indicated their identification with the discourse of the Brazilian elite. This work proposed a description of the discursive positions inscribed on the agenda “do you know who you are talking to?” of the discursive formation of the aristocracy of the Brazilian elite. To this end, three enunciative scenes, recorded on videos and widely disseminated by the media, were analyzed, in which individuals were questioned by an order from a State agent, but refused to comply with it. From the assumptions of Discourse Analysis, we take the notions of subject of discourse, discursive formation and pre-built to describe what were the ways of saying by which individuals indicated their identification with the discourse of the Brazilian elite. The analysis showed that the individual identifies with the discursive formation of "do you know who you´re talking to?" assuming warlike strategies that are based on: disqualifying your opponent; join other hierarchically superior voices; to project an ethos that assumes a power greater than that of its opponent in order to stabilize its place of power and overcome its interlocutor.