Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: GEOVANI PINTO XAVIER

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : GEOVANI PINTO XAVIER
DATE: 16/12/2025
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: Google Meet
TITLE:

Between Laughter and Resistance: An Analysis of the Meme Genre as a Discursive Practice in Cancel Culture

KEY WORDS:

cancel culture. humor. power. discourse analysis. memes

PAGES: 56
BIG AREA: Lingüística, Letras e Artes
AREA: Lingüística
SUBÁREA: Lingüística Aplicada
SUMMARY:

This research proposes an alternative perspective on cancel culture, understanding it as a discursive practice inherent to networked society in which subjects and collectives — especially those historically marginalized — mobilize digital visibility to challenge hegemonic discourses and redistribute symbolic capital. From this standpoint, cancellation is not reduced to an individual punishment, but emerges as a form of resistance, symbolic insurgency, and a reconfiguration of power relations in the public sphere. In this context, memes function as a multimodal discursive genre that articulates humor and critique, becoming a privileged object for examining how laughter can operate as a mechanism of resistance. This study aims to understand how the circulation of these memes reveals power disputes, symbolic resistance, and shifts in legitimacy within digital environments. The theoretical framework is grounded in French Discourse Analysis, drawing on authors such as Eni Orlandi, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Marie-Anne Paveau, Linda Hutcheon, Sírio Possenti, and Henri Bergson. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative and interpretive approach, focusing on a multimodal corpus composed of ten memes produced between 2016 and 2020 and collected from Twitter — now X. The findings indicate that, within the technodiscursive environment of networked society, memes mobilize humor as a discursive strategy of critique and resistance. Furthermore, cancellation is shown not to operate as an individual act, but as the effect of a network of discursive micropowers that symbolically erode the social, symbolic, and economic capital of the canceled subject. Thus, the study concludes that memes, in the context of cancel culture, cannot be reduced to mere entertainment but must be understood as discursive practices that contribute to the reorganization of power relations and meaning disputes in digital culture.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 1476540 - CELLINA RODRIGUES MUNIZ
Externa à Instituição - GUIANEZZA MESCHERICHIA DE GOIS SARAIVA MEIRA - UERN
Externo à Instituição - MÁRCIO GATTI - UFSCAR