Still on the possibility of a “critical” linguistics: performativity, politics and racial identifi cation in Brazil

Abstract

To write having in mind Austin’s and Rajagopalan’s thinking, concerning the fi eld of language studies, more specifi cally the fi eld of Critical Linguistics, is also an act of writing about how the concept of performativity moves the idea of truth so appreciated by Science in order to promote the possibility of thinking about a relationship between language and identity that is not solely based on fi xed or limited concepts. It is primary then to bring this to the fi eld of race relations in Brazil, given that the linguistic identifi cation of black man or woman in our country is a matter of political contingency. In this sense, we are interested in this Article to: (i) discussing the relationship between science, language and racial identity in the fi eld of the language sciences; (ii) inquiring into the place of linguistic research from the point of view of the issues of African-descendants.