A case of parrhesia

courage in discourse and its effects

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the meanings of parresia and its effects in a pronouncement by a Brazilian federal deputy in which there is a break with the hegemonic discursive productions. More precisely, we describe and interpret the production and emergency functioning of parrhesia as a configurator of meanings in a statement constituted and formulated within the voting of the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff’s presidency in 2016 by Jean Wyllys. Thus, when we consider the postulate of the Discourse Analysis formulated by Pêcheux that subject and sense are at the same time constituted in the historical movement, we understand that the parresia, here taken as Foucault observes it in his last works, produces, to a single time, certain senses and subjects circulating in the social space. Given this framework, we will use the theoretical and methodological apparatus of Discourse Analysis to investigate how truth-telling is constructed and what its effects are in the wake of resistance against discursive hegemony.