Why men marry with the powerful women": ethos and stereotypes in self-help discourse addressed to women

• Grant number: 14/21825-0
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2015
• Effective date (End): February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal researcher: Anna Flora Brunelli
• Grantee: Anna Flora Brunelli
• Host: Jeffrey W Sherman
• Home Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States

Abstract

In this work, based on the theoretical and methodological apparatus of the French Discourse Analysis, we intend to investigate the ethos of self-help discourse addressed for women. The ethos is the image that subject of enunciation of a certain discourse projected of himself in his own discourse. With the ethos, the co-enunciator is able to form through indices of several orders of the discursive surface, an image of the subject who, in turn, plays the role of the "guarantor" of the discourse. The ethos is related directly to the scene of enunciation, integrating the scenography, i.e., the place where the guarantor of the discourse is inserted, assuming a specific mode of enunciation. This means that the ethos is constitutive of the scene of enunciation and not just a persuasive strategy. As the image of the guarantor - the responsible for the discourse - is related to the stereotypes that the discourse helps to maintain or even to transform, the stereotypes present in the self-help discourse addressed for women are precisely the second focus of this work. Stereotypes are crystallized images of a social group which help us not only to understand the real, as well as categorize it and act upon it. That explains our interest on reflecting on the role of these representations in the functioning of discourses and we intend to reflect upon this matter by considering the studies about the stereotypes which are developed by Social Psychology. In this work, investigating the ethos of self-help discourse addressed for women, we intend to verify which are the stereotypes (especially stereotypes of women) that this discourse helps to maintain or to transform. (AU)