Consumo e gênero : práticas de letramentos em vídeo game

Abstract

The world today is marked by communication and digital media, which have become an integral part of our culture and permeate the lives of adults, young people and adolescents, in a naturalized way. A scenario characterized by audiovisual communication that seduces, specifically with regards to video games, affecting their use of language, the way they express themselves and how they relate to the world. Considering this scenario, the game constitutes a dynamic, hybrid universe; a contemporary practice that presents cultural meanings, chosen by young people, adolescents and children to act freely, away from the disciplinary eyes of parents and teachers. This paper proposes to investigate the meanings that adolescents convey to consumption and gender in the practice of GTA V, trying to understand in what consists their experiences and forms of interpretation during the GTA V On-line game, evidenced in their enunciations and also understand the literacy process is developed in this practice. This task was accomplished by conducting the observation of teenagers who have the use of the GTA game as a recurrent practice, as well as using targeted and semi-structured interviews, document analysis and research diary. The research has an interpretative character and data analysis is qualitative, guided by the authors Bortoni-Ricardo (2008) and Denzin and Lincoln (2006), with a view to better understand the discourse of respondents. The target public consists of four teenagers, between the ages of twelve and fourteen, enrolled in the seventh grade of Elementary school and first year of Secondary school. This research is centered in the following problematizations: 1) What meanings do adolecents make concerning comsumption and gender through the practice of the GTA V game Online; 2) How are literacies developed in the practice of this digital game? Based on the concept of game formulated by Huizinga (2012) and Gee (2007), theoretical references from the field of literacies (COPE; KALANTZIS, 2001; ROJO, 2009; SOARES, 2006), new literacies (LANKSHEAR; KNOBEL, 2007; LOPES, 2010), literacy as social practice (STREET, 2014) and digital literacy (BUZATO, 2010). I also resort to authors dealing with consumption (BAUMAN, 1998, 2001, 2008) and gender (LOURO, 2012, 2013; BUTLER, 2003). The results showed that adolescents conceive the practice of GTA V on-line synonymous with freedom, since multiple actions within the game are allowed. They appropriated this practice integrating multiple languages, which enables them to make meanings concerning consumption and gender. The results also suggest that they find, in practice of the GTA V game, support to realize their consumption desires, the way the capitalist society imposes. Similarly, they exercise literacy practices associated with the heteronormative discourse and homosexuality, in the light of the values advocated by the society, which point to practices with little room for possible reflections about diversity.