A configuração do discurso messiânico numa perspectiva semiótica e argumentativa

Abstract

The object of this research is a discursive identity known as messianic discourse or as discourse of messianic character or tone, designations applied not only to the texts from the religious domain, but also to the ones coming from a variety of domains and materialized in different genres. Our principal aim is to understand what, from a linguistic-discursive point of view, accounts for this discursive categorization. Our starting hypothesis is that the so-called messianic discourse, in a broad sense, reiterates a configuration that alludes to the messianic frame, configuration that can be highlighted as a set of semiotic (fundamental and narrative), discursive and argumentative forms. For this reason, we take the theoretical contributions of both Discursive Semiotics and French Discourse Analysis in dialogue with the Argumentation studies. Concerning the corpus, it consists of four texts or groups of texts: 1) the prophet Isaiahs biblical book; 2) História do futuro, by Antonio Vieira; 3) Mensagem, by Fernando Pessoa; 4) Thesis on the Philosophy of History, by Walter Benjamin. It is a heterogeneous corpus from the point of view of genre, time and space, but at the same time consists of texts recognized as messianic, which is considered an essential aspect for this research. On the basis of a historical conception conveyed in the texts, the results show two main semantic oppositions: /liberty/ versus /oppression/ and /sacrality/ versus /profanity/. The present, no matter the historical context to which the texts refers, is understood as a period of affirmation of the dysphoric terms (/oppression/ and /profanity/), while the future is the time of negation of these terms and of subsequent affirmation of the euphoric terms: /liberty/ and /sacrality/. In the different texts analyzed, the messianic redemption is thus a future affirmation of both /liberty/ and /sacrality/, which also means to recover a lost condition of fullness and perfection in a mythical or idealized past. Such redemption, in terms of extensive syntax, is a form of social screening, that is, the elimination and/or assimilation of the other, a process that is based on the simulacrum of a contract between the subject and a transcendent addresser. In the discourse level, these elements are changed into a power discourse focused on a group to which hegemony is promised. It is a prospective discourse supported by an ethos linked to the notion of paratopia and by an enonciative deixis understood as the eve of redemption, in a clear appeal to pathos. Finally, considering the enunciation scenes, these elements are observed in two situations: on the one hand, the messianic belief, because of its undeniable emotional appeal, is converted into discourse which, in a religious scenic frame, seek to validate it and to make believe in its imminent achievement in a situation considered severely negative; on the other hand, texts that are not related to the religious scenic frame use the messianic frame, in the form of a scenography, to sacralize some future project or possibility of transformation.