DISCOURSE THEORY AND THE MULTICULTURAL ISSUE

(im) possible joints?

Abstract

The text proposes the articulation of the theoretical-methodological contribution of the Laclaunian discursive approach with multicultural issues. It outlines a context in which it explains the relevance of the identity debate for the country, despite the criticisms and the problems and risks with essentialism. From this, it highlights what has been understood as multiculturalism, that is, a set of answers about the plural condition of contemporary societies. Such responses are mobilized by questions raised in multiple contexts, including education. Discourse theory, on the other hand, emerges as a post-structuralist and post-foundational political theory. There are no origins and no teleologies, fixed identities and self-centered subjects. Rejecting both imposed universalism and fragmentary relativism, it presents itself as an invitation to think about the social in another way, incorporating complex issues such as universalism and particularism. In this sense, it does not deny the need for answers to multicultural questions, but to the way we generally treat them, reconfiguring the sense of difference beyond cultural diversity, which also includes singularity, multiplicity, the discursive flow in dispute. I argue that the approximation is powerful and relevant to the contemporary debate in which the country is dramatically inserted, considering inequalities and oppressions.