When History silences and the exotic speaks: Effects of meaning from the coverage by the Magazine Veja of Obama’s candidacy in the presidential elections

Abstract

Based on the French Discourse Analysis, this article brings a discursive analysis of the front page reporting by the magazine Veja from June 11, 2008, of the official start of Barack Obama’s candidacy for president of the United States. With the use of an analytical device an attempt is made to get through the linguistic surface of Veja and go beyond the concept of transparency and wholeness of language. Thus, some effects of meaning are approached from the speeches selected by Veja to constitute and signify an Obama that is characterized by exoticism while, at the same time, the historic and political past of the African-Americans is erased. As a consequence, the discourse by Veja produces the silencing and suffocation of the political/historical character of the struggle by the African-Americans while their supposed cultural syncretism is exaggerated.