HIV AND AIDS IN LITERATURE

A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF CHARACTERSFROM THE NOVEL O TRIBUNAL DA QUINTA-FEIRA

Abstract

This article, carried out through a qualitative study, analyzes passages of a literary novel – O tribunal da quinta-feira – that involve the reactions of characters on issues related to hiv and aids. The objective is to investigate whether these passages  maintain the sense of naturalization of people who with hiv, associated with ideology and power relations, or whether they contribute to a discursive change in order to eradicate the stigma that triggers discrimination and prejudice. The study is anchored on the theoretical-analytical approach of Critical Discourse Analysis, as well as on the concepts of biopolitics and necropolitics. The overall picture that emerge from the findings reveals that the first three characters analyzed indicate the reproduction of violent discourses, in which people who live with hiv are ‘left – or made – to die´. With the narrator-character (who is one of the protagonists), we noticed the opposite – discourses of resistance in relation to the violent discourses.