Critical Social Semiotics: Toys as Cultural Artefacts and the Discursive Construction of Babyhood

brinquedos como artefatos culturais e a construção discursiva da primeira infância

Authors

Keywords:

Discourses, Toys, Babyhood, Multimodality, Ideologies

Abstract

The material qualities and kinetic possibilities and limitations of toys and other objects for small children create a specific cultural microcosm. Within the confines of this environment, as facilitated and mediated by parents or other carers, children explore and develop their cognitive and motor abilities, and become specific kinds of socio-cultural actors, with specific kinds of subjectivities. In this study, we investigate this process with respect to toys which enter the lives of many babies from the very beginning. We examined the way baby toys are given meaning in the verbal and verbal-visual texts in advertisements, and in parenting magazines and books. We try to show how the same toy can be used to articulate different discourses, for instance a discourse of play as carefree 'fun' and a discourse of play as serious 'developmental' work. Our main thesis is that babyhood, is socially and culturally constructed not only in texts and images, but also in other multimodal representations such as toys. And these communicative practices help to reinforce particular constructions of babyhood that should be at least discussed, if notchallenged.

Key words: Discourses. Toys. Babyhood. Multimodality. Ideologies.

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Author Biography

Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard, UFSC

Dra. Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard

Endereço para acessar este CV: http://lattes.cnpq.br/9198777822206978

 Doutora em Análise do Discurso - University of Birmingham (1988) e pós-doutora, University of Strathclyde, Escócia, 1991 e Birmingham, UK, 1992. Mestre em Letras (Inglês e Literatura Correspondente) pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (1976) e pela Universidade de Manchester, UK, 1976.

Foi Professora Senior do Centre for English Language Research, Department of English, - The University of Birmingham de 1996 até 2012. Continua como Senior Research Fellow do mesmo Departmento e atualmente está lotada no Programa de Pós-Graduação de Inglês: Estudos Linguísticos e Literários (PGI) e no Programa de Pós-Graduação de Estudos da Tradução do Departamento de Língua e Literatura Correspondente da UFSC.

Atua nas áreas de Linguística Forense, Linguística Aplicada, Análise Critica do Discurso, Estudos de Gênero, Semiótica Social, Estudos da Tradução e Multimodalidade. Participa do Grupo de Pesquisa em Linguística Forense do Núcleo de Pesquisa em Discurso (NUP) da UFSC.

A partir de 2014, é Editora do Periódico Internacional Gender and Language, da Internacional Association of Gender and Language. Este periódico é publicado pela Editora Inglesa Equinox.

Tem uma vasta carreira internacional e nacional, tendo apresentado trabalhos em muitos países, tanto na Europa como na América Latina.

Publicou extensivamente (tanto em editoras inglesas como nacionais ) nas áreas de Análise Critica do Discurso, Linguística Forense, Estudos da Mídia e Estudos de Gênero).

 

 

 

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Published

2021-06-30

How to Cite

Caldas-Coulthard, C. R., & van Leeuwen, T. (2021). Critical Social Semiotics: Toys as Cultural Artefacts and the Discursive Construction of Babyhood: brinquedos como artefatos culturais e a construção discursiva da primeira infância. Papers of Language and Society, 22(1), 278–299. Retrieved from https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/les/article/view/37281

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 1 (2021): Dossiê Estudos em Semiótica Social na América Latina e Fluxo contínuo

Section

Dossiê Estudos em Semiótica Social na América Latina

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