Is the World the Way It Is? Resistance and (Re)existence Through Discourse Studies

Abstract

organized by Viviane de Melo Resende, is the result of research and reflections, through different genres, presented at the VIII Colloquium of the Latin American Association of Discourse Studies in Brazil (ALED/Brazil), in 2021, a discussion forum organized through different thematic axes. As the organizer states, despite the difficulties experienced during the pandemic, the consistency and relevance of discursive research is evidenced in the significant discussions presented in the book.The first chapter, written by Gersiney Santos, is titled "PARA QUE(M) ESTAMOS FALANDO? REDES PRAGMÁTICAS COMO REEXISTÊNCIA EM TEMPOS PANDÊMICOS" [Who are we talking to (and what for)? Pragmatic networks as reexistence in pandemic times]. This text was prepared during the Covid-19 pandemic, when situations of social vulnerability were aggravated. The author discusses the possibility and the need for discourse studies to go beyond the walls of the university, so that, through the fruitful dialogue between theories and digital technologies (social networks, for example), we have social struggles that emerge in a practical way. He advocates an epistemological rupture that produces less bureaucratic and more integrative spaces, where different social actors participate, question and opine through different genres and proposes the Critical Discourse Analysis, with its transdisciplinary character, as a support for the production of new theoretical and epistemological dialogues. Throughout the chapter, the author introduces the concept of "Redes Pragmáticas" (PR) [Pragmatic Networks], in which there are networks of solidarity and cooperation in the search of (re)existences and questioning of unequal societies, so we do not conform and accept that the world is as it is. We share the same arguments of the author regarding the expansion of spaces, so that we can dialogue about issues