“Discouraged”: subjectivity in the sayings about women who gave up looking for work

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect on the subjectivation processes that materialize in sayings about women who are designated as discouraged. Under the anchor in Analysis of Discourse affiliated to Michel Pêcheux, sayings are clipped from news reports circulated in the media in 2018/2019 about discouragement, in the recent expressions of unemployment in the country. The analyzed SDs made it possible to investigate the subject-position of the discourse, as well as the subjectivity processes of discouragement. It was identified that the designation “discouraged” is constitutive in the discourse about, appearing as a conclusion effect, its constitutive subjectification being a counter-identification in the discursive formation of unemployment. There is a momentary character implicit in the discourse about women considered as discouraged, with an individual component and influence of the discourse of entrepreneurship and religious discourse, functioning as interdiscourses, which produce a hopeful effect, although with a relationship of dependence on the ongoing historical process.

Keywords

• trabalho
• mulheres
• desalento
• discurso
• subjetivação