Propaganda de guerra: um campo de batalha discursivo

Abstract

The year 2015 celebrates, among other things, the 70th anniversary of the formal end of World War II, an event that marked the history of civilization, defined a specific direction for the world and sealed the fate of millions of lives. Although the theme World War II is as fascinating as colossal, it is within the scope of so-called war efforts that emerges issues that deserve a careful looking, among them, one captures our attention for its amplitude and incontestable effectiveness: the propaganda. Recognising war propaganda as a major tool for leverage, maintenance and control for the conflicts that marked the World War II, this paper aims to analyze discursive aspects of war propaganda, bringing it into the realm of Discourse Analysis and lean on theoretical references such as Michel Foucault, Dominique Maingueneau and Stewart Hall. Among the possible advertising media appropriate to the constitution of this paper’s corpus of analysis, it was in the war posters that we found the possibility of exploring the categories of analysis required for this research. Through documentary research, addressing aspects related to the field of Discourse Analysis, we elucidate questions about the processes of influence and information control that focuses on individuals that are affected directly and indirectly in the context of war, answering questions such as, for example, how the entities, responsible for the propaganda, operate in this discursive control process? Analyzing the communication mechanisms of war posters, specifically those produced by the United States and Germany during the World War II, we will observe the potential of this tool, in its work of involving the public in the war time context and in the search for its goals.