The construction of ethos in Manuel Bandeira's chronicles

Abstract

Our aim in this paper is to discuss the concept of ethos by exploring its interpreting aspect of construction. This is part of a broader research that investigates Manuel Bandeira's chronicles taking into account the reflections of the French Discourse Analysis (AD) on the literary field, especially the theoretical-methodological framework proposed by Maingueneau (2006). Here, we rely on the analyst's (2000, 2006, 2016) reflections on ethos, the theory that draws on the notion of rhetorical ethos. Maingueneau assumes that written texts can also be associated with a tone, a voice that refers to the figure of the speaker, the image that the interpreter constructs. The analyst (2006) lists some difficulties related to the notion: the first comes from the realization that the public constructs certain representations of the speaker even before he speaks, which makes him propose a distinction between discursive ethos and pre-discursive ethos. A second order of problems stems from the fact that when ethos is elaborated, diverse factors interact, such as the interpreter's affectivity. Based on this theory, we analyze a set of data found in Manuel Bandeira's chronicles. It is a material that allows the observation of aspects related to the construction of the ethos by the interpreter, to the indices on which it is based to build it. The analysis points the words and expressions with descriptive-evaluative function as privileged place of attribution of a frank, worthy ethos, a good man ethos.