“It Takes a Little Longer, but we Get There”: Biopolitical Strategies in the Constitution of the Elderly Subject in Advertising of English Language Schools

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35819/tear.v12.n1.a6654

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the biopolitical strategies that produce discourses about the elderly subject in advertisements for English Language Schools. To this end, it is anchored in investigations in the field of French Discourse Analysis (FDA), with Foucault (1995; 1996; 2005; 2008a; 2008b; 2008c) as the main author, in addition to Monteiro (2014), Navarro and Bazza (2012), Siqueira (2018) and Salles and Gimenez (2010), Gimenez (2015) and Leite Oliveira and Coura (2020), among others. The corpus of analysis includes statements extracted from three advertisements for the CNA Itaguaí (2018), Inglês Athus (2018) and BSL-Inglês para Brasileiros (2018) franchises. As for the methodological issue, this work is based on a descriptive-interpretive perspective of a qualitative approach. The analyzes allow observing the functioning of biopolitical strategies that focus on the government of the elderly subject in learning English, constructed as a prestigious language in the current historical moment. In addition, it is observed that the identities of these subjects are (re) constructed according to displacements and interests of biopower understood as a strategy for regulation, management and control of the population body. Thus, the elderly are discussed as active, autonomous, healthy, up-to-date and willing to learn English.

Keywords: Elderly subject. Biopolitics. Teaching. English language. Advertising.

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Author Biographies

  • Emanuele Vitória de Oliveira Leite, Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte (UERN)

    Graduada em Letras-Inglês pela Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido (UFERSA) e em Pedagogia pelo Centro Universitário INTA (UNINTA). Especialista em Psicopedagogia Institucional e Clínica pela Faculdade Dom Alberto. Mestranda em Letras pela Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte (UERN).

  • Francisco Vieira da Silva, Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido (UFERSA)

    Doutor em Linguística. Docente da Universidade Federal Rural do Semi´-Árido (UFERSA). Docente Permanente do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras (PPGL) da Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte (UERN). 

Published

2023-07-06

How to Cite

“It Takes a Little Longer, but we Get There”: Biopolitical Strategies in the Constitution of the Elderly Subject in Advertising of English Language Schools. #Tear: Journal of Education, Science and Technology, Canoas, v. 12, n. 1, 2023. DOI: 10.35819/tear.v12.n1.a6654. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ifrs.edu.br/index.php/tear/article/view/6654. Acesso em: 25 jun. 2026.