Language and power: identity performances and resistance in contemporary discursive devices

Abstract

RUFINO, Angela Maria dos Santos  and  SENNA, Luiz Antonio Gomes. Language and power: identity performances and resistance in contemporary discursive devices. Rev. Diálogo Educ. [online]. 2025, vol.25, n.86, pp.1452-1467.  Epub Oct 24, 2025. ISSN 1981-416X.  https://doi.org/10.7213/1981-416x.25.086.ao04.

This study aims to analyze the intrinsic relationship between language and identity, exploring how discourse acts both as a tool for identity construction and as a mechanism of social exclusion. Drawing on critical bibliographic research, grounded in the work of theorists such as Foucault, Butler, Rajagopalan, and Anzaldúa, the investigation focuses on how language, in its multiple forms (gestural, digital, oral), shapes belonging, hierarchizes knowledge, and perpetuates inequalities while also creating spaces for resistance. The main findings reveal that language is a symbolic battleground: while hegemonic norms silence marginalized dialects and accents, peripheral movements reframe words, coin neologisms (such as LGBTQIA+ pajubá), and use technologies to revitalize endangered languages. Furthermore, the disciplinary power analyzed by Foucault is present in institutions such as schools and the media, which naturalize exclusion but also serve as stages for insurgencies. The study concludes that identity is performative, shaped by linguistic choices that shift between submission and subversion, and that discourse critique is a political act essential to dismantling oppressive structures.

Keywords : Language; Identity; Discursive power; Cultural resistance; Symbolic exclusion.

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