Araguaína/TO: city and discourse in the Brazilian Amazon

the case of the Espaço Cultural Agnaldo Borges Pinto

Abstract

This article aims at analyzing the “Espaço Cultural Agnaldo Borges Pinto”, located in Araguaína-Tocantins, founded on the concepts provided by Orlandi (1999) and Ultramari (2019). We assume that the construction of such a cultural space relates to the order of the “urban discourse”. That is to say that the urban discourse produces conflicts and a certain kind of urban “organization”. In order to achieve our aim, we take two institutional journals to construct our corpus, namely “Prestando contas a comunidade (2000), and Araguaína - História e atualidade (2000). They were both edited by the City Hall of Araguaína. In addition, data were also collected in local press between 2011 and 2020. By analyzing these records, the way this cultural space was meant was problematized. We especially highlighted how the circulation of meanings about “Espaço Cultural Agnaldo Borges Pinto” ocurred locally. Especifically, the analysis dealt with utterances found in the interviews extracted from the journals and from the sites visisted. Thus, we were able to map the designations and the process of adjectivation through which the construction of the space was textually and discursively signified. As a conequence, we were also able to reflect about the effects of this so called “order of urban discourse”, mainly to what concerns the category of “organization”. The idea of intra-urban space, as understood by Villaça (2001), allowed us to improve our analysis. Results have shown that there is an institutionalized discursivity in conflict. The construction and the conclusion of “Espaço Cultural Agnaldo Borges Pinto” is meant to be part of a bigger Project of constructing similar spaces, not only in Brazil but also in other parts of the world.