Critique of identitarianism and regimes of truth: an archaeogenealogical reading of a media archive in contemporary Brazil

Abstract

This article examines the recent emergence of the so-called “critique of identitarianism” as a discursive practice that, in Brazil, presents itself as a privileged key to explaining left-wing crises, the fragmentation of the progressive field, and disputes over so-called “identity politics.” In the context of Michel Foucault’s centenary and through an ironic shift from “We, the Victorians” to “You, the identitarians,” the article questions how this critique contributes to the current updating of regimes of truth that connect knowledge, power, and the body. Using Foucauldian Discourse Studies and under the label Archaeogenealogical Discourse Analysis (AAGD), the article applies Navarro’s methodological framework (2015, 2020), employing operators such as archive, eventalization, and causal demultiplication. Empirically, the corpus comprises 23 discursive events selected from Google’s “News” tab using the queries “pauta identitária + esquerda” and “identitarismo + esquerda” (2000–2025). Rather than aiming for statistical representativeness, the study treats the platform’s algorithmic agency as a condition that shapes what becomes retrievable, citable, and widely circulated, thus approaching the material as a strategic archive. The analysis details how “identitarianism” is constructed as a problematic term and an accusatory tool, how retroactive lexicons cluster around it, who is authorized to voice the critique, the media outlets through which it circulates, the political ideologies involved, and the recurring dichotomies (universal/particular, material/symbolic, rational/irrational). The article argues that the “critique of identitarianism” functions as a dispositif for understanding and governing minority struggles, creating “identitarian subjects” and “critics of identitarianism” in asymmetrical positions of voice and legitimacy. This highlights the analytical strength of AAGD in describing contemporary forms of subjectivation and the governance of somatopolitical differences.