The Military Discourse

An analysis of Brazilian military enlistment propaganda of 2022

Abstract

This article seeks to discursively analyze the Brazilian military enlistment propaganda (2022). Its purpose is to verify the ideological conceptions expressed discursively, and the way in which the discursive mechanisms operate in favour of reinforcing a governmental political-ideological position, since the utterances produced by the army are constituted as Ideological State Apparatus (ALTHUSSER, 1980), representing state ideals. The object in question is considered propaganda, according to the definition proposed by Costa and Mendes (2012), who describe such enunciative forms as suppliers of an ideological object, that is, they refer to the propagation of ideas, mainly political. For the analysis, the concepts of the scene of enunciation and discursive ethos were used – respectively, the discursive space and the self-image of the enunciator (MAINGUENEAU, 1996, 2004, 2008, 2015). Through the examination of these constructions in advertising, the cultural, social, and ideological aspects under which these elements are constituted were verified. Both the scene and the object’s ethos prominently present neutrality and silencing as persuasive mechanisms, linked to a non-conflicting intention of the enunciator. The objective of this is to rescue the good image of the army in Brazilian eyes, through the construction of a “positive” statement about the country in terms of internal violence and racism, thus promoting the country and the work of the army as interconnected places in which the equality, democracy and justice rise. However, such characteristics do not mean the full representation of the country’s reality since internal violence and racism are widely present in Brazil and are silenced by propaganda.