“O samba é do povo, que sofre, que sabe o que é a fome”: o que a memória discursiva nos diz sobre?

Abstract

In this article, I suggest a discursive analysis of the statement "Samba belongs to the people, who suffer, who know what hunger is," said by Beth Carvalho in an interview with El País in 2016. Using an approach grounded in French Discourse Analysis, particularly the concepts of Michel Pêcheux, I will investigate how discursive memory determines the intrinsic relationship between samba and the people. By exploring the meanings of the word "people" in the context of samba, I aim to understand how this statement produces meanings related to experiences of suffering and awareness of the reality of hunger. Thus, the analysis will consider the effects of meaning that emerge from this relationship, reflecting on samba's capacity to give voice to a collective experience and its social implications.