Outlines of a lie’s discursive genealogy: the libelous’ relations in the XIX century in France along XXI century’s fake news in Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to draw, making use of genealogy, the relation between urban lies that were disseminated in France in the XIX century through printed publications named libelous, until the virtual lies produced and shared on Brazilian social medias which are materialized in the current “fake news”. In order to make this draw we mobilize the genealogic method proposed by Michel Foucault. Methodologically speaking, it is about a descriptive-interpretative study of qualitative nature. The conclusions reveal contemporaneous fake news exceeding the limits stablished by the libelous in the XIX century, since the amplitude of the diffusion means – digital technologies – are infinitely superior to texts from the XIX century. However, there are resemblances between those texts and the fake news, especially when we think about the political character of these experiences and the fact that they turn to the defaming of public figures. Besides, another portrait concerns the discursive regularities related to questions about sexuality, yet it is seen as a field which generates social commotion.