Mandela através do espelho, a desconstrução do herói: uma análise à luz da gramática sistêmico-funcional e da teoria dos atores sociais

Abstract

The history of Apartheid is directly and necessarily connected with its main protagonist, Nelson Mandela. Numerous news reports and academic works have been dedicated to both, be it in Literature - Viljoen & Van Der Merwe (2004), Breytenbach (1989) and Sienaert (1990) or Linguistic Studies - Martin & Rose (2003; 2007), Halliday & Matthiessen (2004). However, we see that most of such works focuses on Mandela´s first autobiography, whose focus is on Mandela´s role as the main agent of the Apartheid movement. Few studies aim at his second autobiography, in which Mandela surprisingly reveals himself as an ordinary man. Even those which do, do not do so throught the use of Systemic-Functional Grammar or the Representation of Social Actors. This is precisely the objective of the present research, to reveal, in the narrAtor´s own words, his personal and intimate life. Therefore, I base the study on Systemic-Functional Grammar (SFG) (HALLIDAY & MATTHIESSEN, 2004) and Van Leeuwen´s (2008) Representation of Social Actors (RSA) in interface with Corpus Linguistics (CL). In the case of SFG, I work with Transitivity Lexicogrammatical System, as realized in the Ideational Metafunction, so as to describe and interpret data. As for RSA, it was used to highlight the social roles played by the actors within Mandela´s experiences. This was carried out in accordance with Lehrer´s (1974) Semantic Fields Theory. Thus, the study raises three questions. The first relates to how Mandela puts his lexicogrammatical choices into use to construct the self in the discourse. The second addresses the roles played by all the participants in the experience processes, according to Van Leeuwen´s theory. Lastly, the third question focuses on the process of the demystification of the hero, itself. The questions posed were answered by means of the analysis of the independent clauses in Mandela´s narrative, in which he portrays himself as that who is responsible for the events (processes). In association with the above-mentioned theories, I used the computer tool, WordSMith Tools´s (SCOTT; TRIBBLE, 2006 ; BERBER-SARDINHA, 2009), in order to work the corpus down to the Concord spreadsheet, from where I selected the personal pronoun I for analysis. The analysis of the clauses according to the patterns of Transitivity showed that Mandela reveals himself as an common man, with the same wishes, fears, expectations and uncertainties, also related to the Apartheid, as well as his misdeeds towards his family and friends, which we all are subject to. The results were supported by Van Leeuwen´s RSA categories, after splitting the participants as per their social roles played, which was done through the use of semantic fields. This presented a much higher percentage for the personal relations, in comparison to that for political matters. Finally, I discuss the study´s limitations and present suggestions for future investigations.