UM ESTUDO SEMIÓTICO DAS MANIFESTAÇÕES DA RELIGIOSIDADE POPULAR: SINHOZINHO DE BONITO - MS

Abstract

Given the tourist, popular and cultural importance represented by the figure of Sinhozinho in Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul, with theoretical foundations in discursive semiotics, we highlight the need for this research, of a qualitative-interpretative nature. Our general objective, through this dissertation, is to understand the meanings of popular religious, cultural and tourist statements related to the figure of Sinhozinho. The theoretical foundation of discursive semiotics, according to which we base our research, refers to the developments of the so-called “standard” or standard semiotics, of which we use the generative path of meaning as an analysis methodology, its plastic developments, through the analysis of chromatic, eidetic and topological formants (PITEROFORTE, 2019), as well as in the mechanism of tensive sorting and mixing operations by Zilberberg (2004). Regarding the literature review regarding our proposition, we are based on authors who have in their horizon the analysis of tourist objects within the scope of semiotics, such as Gomes and Nakatani (2019), Melo (2015) and Azevedo and Batistote (2020 ). When it comes to analyzing discourses about religion and religiosity, we also take the contributions of studies of religious discourse in Brazil, within the scope of semiotic theory, mainly through the works of Cardoso (2017) and Silva (2018, 2020). Therefore, our research is based on the analysis of verbal-visual utterances and the semiotic mechanisms responsible for their production. We tried to identify linguistic and cultural manifestations associated with the prophecies and the figure of Sinhozinho, as Sinhozinho outlined new guidelines in the behavior of people in the Bonito region, crystallized in language, in devotional practices of popular religiosity and in tourist and cultural practices. Among these manifestations, we selected the following objects as research corpora: a) collective religious practice (sacred space of the Sinhozinho chapel with the statements on the Chapel altar and the Sinhozinho cross, the devotional practice discursivized in the offerings arranged inside the Sinhozinho chapel, and the Cross ); b) religious practice of individual devotion in the semiotic analysis of the written text of the prayer “Estrelinha do Céu” and c) tourist practice present in the photographs with images of the procession and staging of the Serpent of Sinhozinho at the Bonito Winter Festival. Regarding recurring themes and figures, whether in verbal language, through messages and prayers, or in the correlation between verbal and visual language, throughout the research, it was possible for us to relate connections between the levels of meaning generation and the enunciative instance. The limitation of academic works on the proposed topic, especially with regard to discursive semiotics, in addition to the absence of works on popular religiosity, as well as studies focused on the tourist universe, specifically on Sinhozinho, contribute to the justification and need for this work. We hope that the research, by mobilizing Sinhozinho's identity semiotic concepts, can instigate new studies and research on the subject, as well as contribute to the Postgraduate Program in Language Studies, especially studies of religious dissemination discourse and the tourist universe based on discursive semiotics.