Abstract

CRUZ, Ana Carolina Dias  and  ARRUDA, Angela. For a study of the absent: the absence as an objectification of otherness in mental maps of Brazil. Estud. pesqui. psicol. [online]. 2008, vol.8, n.3. ISSN 1808-4281.

This paper is a reflection on some of the results found in a research that aimed at analyzing social representations of 140 university students from the state of Rio de Janeiro about Brazil.  It focuses on traces of the representations about the Brazilian - and about its ‘alter' face, the non-Brazilian - for these youngsters. It was based on the theory of social representations, of Serge Moscovici, and on the methodology of mental maps, according to Stanley Milgram and Denise Jodelet. The thematic content analysis of the sketch maps in categories revealed that the absent elements in the drawings can be characterized as an objectification of otherness. The spaces considered to be inhabited by the different, who would be the antithetical representation of the Brazilian, are subtracted.

Keywords : Mental maps; Social representations; Objectification; Brazil.

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