Current analysis is based on the theoretical and methodological stance of the Faircloughian trend in Critical Discourse Analysis. Fairclough (2003) conceives discourse within the confluence of three types of practice, namely linguistic, discursive and social practice. Analyses discussed in this research refer to discursive practices of members of the Brazilian parliament who occupy this social and political space to take up themes on 'the female'. The ethos of the political agents involved in such a practice is debated from identificational meanings. It is actually an analytic dimension which, besides actional and representational meanings, is present in Fairclough´s theoretical and methodological model for text analysis within the social perspective. The text´s arguments from which data in current study have been extracted are highly favorable to the inclusion of aspects investigated by Aristotle (2000) in his Rhetoric of the Passions, such as anger, calmness and grace. They are categories which, among others, fit into particular modes of being (social and personal identities) which are focused in current article. Discussing the political space of the discourse constitution of the feminine social reality, the article introduces Charaudeau (2006) who calls the above the fabrication sites of political discourse, or rather, a place of government, opinion and mediation. The study has showed that the parliamentary discursive practices is affected by the institutional context of the textual production, where the female themes is converted into a profitable tool for the parliamentary action, as so for the actuation of the ideologies upon the world life of the females represented in these practices.
Critical discourse analysis; argumentation; political ethos; situational context