DISCUSSING IDENTITY, SPACE AND MEMORY IN GISBERTA SALCE JUNIOR BASED ON THE SONG BALADA DE GISBERTA

Abstract

This study proposes a musical analysis, highlighting how art can function as a political device for the preservation of memory and the denunciation of structural violence that affects dissident bodies, especially trans and travesti individuals and those who experience transgender identities. By discussing elements such as identity, space, and memory, the song evokes the representative figure and subjective experience of Gisberta—a Brazilian travesti, immigrant, sex worker, who lived with HIV/AIDS and experienced homelessness in the city of Porto, Portugal—denouncing a body marked by social inequalities and perceived, though within a context of marginalization, invisibility, and violence, in a specific urban space. The objective of this study is to examine how identity, memory, and space are discursively mobilized in the song Balada de Gisberta, re-signifying the trajectory of Gisberta Salce as a dissident figure and symbol of resistance. Regarding methodology, the research presents an empirical study of a descriptive and correlational nature, adopting the theoretical-deductive method, with bibliographic review as the data collection procedure. For data analysis and interpretation, the study employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) based on the approaches of Fairclough and van Dijk. The results indicate that the conceptions of identity, both real and metaphorical space, and the memory constructed from and through the figure of Gisberta reveal alternative perspectives on the multiple experiences a disobedient body may live, especially considering how gender dissidence shapes one’s relationship with the world and with history. Finally, the reflections presented in this research expose an intricate process of sex-gender production that accompanies the character until her death, through the incorporation of the concepts of identity, space, and memory.