Monumentalização da memória: efeitos de sentidos dos discursos de e sobre o desbravador em Chapecó-SC

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes discourses by and about the monument O Desbravador, located in Chapecó, Santa Catarina, Brazil, with the aim of interpreting the processes of meaning production that participate in the construction of the city's official memory and historical narratives concerning its colonization and constitution, considering the effects of meaning produced by these discourses and the ideology that permeates them. The study is based on the hypothesis that the monument, in articulation with the institutional discourses that signify it, functions as a discursive device for the monumentalization of memory, producing effects of evidence and naturalization of a narrative linked to the colonial imaginary, centered on pioneering spirit, work, and progress, while simultaneously operating through constitutive silences that displace or erase other forms of historical inscription. Situated within the field of Discourse Analysis, the study mobilizes the articulation between language, ideology, and memory. The analytical path is organized around three axes: monumentalization as a discursive event; the relationship between body, text, and urban imaginary in the symbolic construction of the monument; and the ideological mechanisms that sustain processes of exclusion and silencing. The corpus consists of the monument in its nonverbal materiality, understood as a discursive body, as well as institutional discourses that attribute meaning to it, such as official documents, promotional materials, and public statements. The analysis is developed through an interpretative gesture that articulates different signifying materialities, considering the relationship between the visible and the sayable, as well as their conditions of production. The results indicate that the monument operates as an artifact of memory that stabilizes a dominant version of local history associated with the valorization of progress and pioneering from a Eurocentric perspective, while simultaneously displacing historical conflicts and territorial disputes. It is concluded that monumentalization is not limited to a commemorative gesture, but rather constitutes a discursive process of producing and regulating memory, inscribed within ideological relations that organize urban space and the constitution of identities. This research contributes to studies of discursive memory and to the debate on the construction of more plural and inclusive memory policies.