Slave Trade Ads in the 19th Century: Textual Trajectory, Entextualization and Indexical Orders Mobilized on Contemporary Ads

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present article features the analysis of the textual trajectory and the entextualizations of two ads concerning slave trade issued in 1854 - i.e., in the 19th century - in the Correio Paulistano newspaper. It also features the analysis of five ads posted in this century (21st) on the Mercado Livre website. One of my main goals was to highlight the indexical orders precipitated in those entextualizations. To achieve such goals, I took bases on the notion of ‘textual trajectory’ as it is employed by Blommaert (2010) and Fabrício (2013, 2014); on Bauman and Briggs’ (1990) concept of ‘entextualization’, and on the notion of ‘indexical order’ as Silverstein (2009) has presented it. By tracking both the ads’ textual trajectory and the entextualizations of discourse, it was possible to notice these indexical orders deeply related to black people’s lives: dehumanization, objectification, abjection, inferiority, devaluation, and precarization.

Keywords

• textual trajectory
• entextualizations
• indexical order
• ads
• race