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Chapter 2. Voice and silence in the suburbs of São Paulo

State, community and the meanings of violence
  • Ana Paula Galdeano
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Language and Violence
This chapter is in the book Language and Violence

Abstract

In the city of São Paulo the “world of crime” has grown and become just another organizing category of social life. The purpose of this chapter is to understand the meanings of violence in this new context. Using ethnographical studies that were carried out in a public sphere in which police officers, residents and representatives of local institutions talk about insecurity and the “perpetrators” of violence, this article discusses the speech acts and the silences that emerge from these meetings. The study highlights that not only order but also conflict are present when we talk about violence.

Abstract

In the city of São Paulo the “world of crime” has grown and become just another organizing category of social life. The purpose of this chapter is to understand the meanings of violence in this new context. Using ethnographical studies that were carried out in a public sphere in which police officers, residents and representatives of local institutions talk about insecurity and the “perpetrators” of violence, this article discusses the speech acts and the silences that emerge from these meetings. The study highlights that not only order but also conflict are present when we talk about violence.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Investigating violence in language 1
  4. Part I. The language of violence
  5. Chapter 1. The invention of violence 33
  6. Chapter 2. Voice and silence in the suburbs of São Paulo 57
  7. Chapter 3. From the side of the road to the borders of the page 79
  8. Part II. The violence of language
  9. Chapter 4. The circulation of violence in discourse 107
  10. Chapter 5. Racist speech as a linguistic discriminatory practice in Brazil 125
  11. Chapter 6. Free speech, hate speech, and hate beards 141
  12. Part III. The intersections of violence, bodies and languages
  13. Chapter 7. On languages, bodies and epistemic violence 171
  14. Chapter 8. Queering violence and narrative 189
  15. Chapter 9. Discursive constructions of deviance in the narratives of a prison inmate 227
  16. Index 249
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.279.03gal

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Investigating violence in language 1
  4. Part I. The language of violence
  5. Chapter 1. The invention of violence 33
  6. Chapter 2. Voice and silence in the suburbs of São Paulo 57
  7. Chapter 3. From the side of the road to the borders of the page 79
  8. Part II. The violence of language
  9. Chapter 4. The circulation of violence in discourse 107
  10. Chapter 5. Racist speech as a linguistic discriminatory practice in Brazil 125
  11. Chapter 6. Free speech, hate speech, and hate beards 141
  12. Part III. The intersections of violence, bodies and languages
  13. Chapter 7. On languages, bodies and epistemic violence 171
  14. Chapter 8. Queering violence and narrative 189
  15. Chapter 9. Discursive constructions of deviance in the narratives of a prison inmate 227
  16. Index 249
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