Interdiscursividade jurídico-punitiva em Os miseráveis

Abstract

This research was developed under the theoretical perspective of the French Discourse Analysis (DA), with resources in the theories of Michel Pêcheux (2008), addressing issues related to subject, meaning, interdiscourse, discursive memory, as well as discursive formation and ideological formation. I also sought conceptualizations in Pereira (2005), as he brings the notion of legal discourse, associated with the concept of Muniz (2008), as well as Fonseca (1999) whose literary discourse definition was taken into consideration. In terms of conditions of production of the legal discourse, I have made an interface with theories of criminal law and the theory of penalty, using Capez (2005) and Bitencourt (2015) to rise these conditions of production at the time of the enunciation of Les Misérables, and still anchoring in Beccaria (2014) and Suxberger (2006) to support the theory of an adequate and resocializing penalty, which is questioned by the discursive subject Victor Hugo in the discursivities of the analyzed cuts. With regards to the conditions of production of the literary discourse, a theoretical contribution was sought in Gonzaga (2004) and Chauvin (2014). Regarding the methodological aspect, I sought in Santos (2004) the possibility of cutting the corpus, composing enunciative sequences that formed the analyzed discursive matrices, in which were examined effects of meaning of the selected statements to identify the process of interdiscursivity underlying the manifestations of the discursive subjects: Jean Valjean, Victor Hugo, the institutions and the French society and the discursive place occupied by the Father/Mr. Madeleine. Faced with these theoretical questions, I saw myself challenged by some questions in re-reading the discursivities of Les Misérables, such as: How was the dosimetry of the penalty decided; how was the application of the penalty at the time of the enunciation of the work, in order to guarantee, or not, the legal factor of resocialization? In the absence of a resocializing penalty, how did French society deal with the prisoner returned to society after serving the penalty? What were the discursive and ideological formations that could be inscribed by the discursive subjects that constitute the first part of the discursivity of Les Misérables? What are the effects of meanings resulting from these inscriptions? Was the prisoner resocialized after having his sentence served? Thus, with this theoretical contribution and guided by these questions, I aimed to find answers so that I could identify, describe and understand the effects of meanings that rise from the interdiscursive and ideological relationship present in the discourse of the statements that demonstrate this interdiscursivity (Research Corpus) of Victor Hugo's work Les Misérables. Therefore, we attempted to analyze the relations between Literary discourse and Legal discourse, describing how the inscriptions in discursive formations are constructed in which the discursive subjects that surface the "Fantine" part reveal through interdiscursivity. It was also sought to reveal the genesis of the social stigma experienced by the discursive subject Jean Valjean after his condemnation and subsequent release by committing food theft and, finally, to understand the relation of the legal-punitive interdiscourse and the production of meanings in the resocialization of the Father/Mr. Madeleine by his inscription on the religious discourse. Guided by these questions, I realized that through the literary enunciation, Victor Hugo brings out ideological and discursive places whose French society, as well as the State, built for every ex-prisoner of its time, leading to a reflection about social stigma that the punished, Jean Valjean, carries throughout the work. After all, both French society and the state were inscribed in a place where they saw in an ex-punished/ prisoner / inmate /enforced a figure of social, financial and moral danger. This made me understand that despite the social disorder in terms of the subsistence of its citizens, the French state and the legal order should be respected to the detriment of human survival and the punishment applied had only a punitive character, despite the discussion already brought by Beccaria. Finally, I understood that the only mechanism of resocialization at the time was the enunciative inscription in the religious discourse, revealed in the interdiscursivity of the discursive subject Bishop of Digne.

Keywords: Les Misérables. Legal-punitive Interdiscursivity. Penalty. Resocialization. Discursive subject.