Abstract
ABSTRACT In recent years, an on-going shift from more progressive political, social and cultural relations towards a more conservative turn around the world has been under way. A fascist political stance (STANLEY, 2018) has been noted in different parts of the globe and politicians have been able to gather followers dissatisfied with crumbling economies by usually making recourse to an “us versus them” discourse. Such dissatisfaction and bias have found fertile ground in social media platforms, e.g. Facebook and WhatsApp, and elevated the tensions around such issues to a level never before seen. In the 2018 presidential election in Brazil, similar tensions were fuelled by a candidate with an authoritarian, xenophobic and misogynistic discourse. More importantly, that authoritarian discourse did not go unchallenged and the same social media platforms were home for constant resistance to it such as, for instance, the movement #nothim, created by the Facebook group “Women United against Bolsonaro”, and the rap/hip hop movement in Brazil, which released protest songs and a manifesto called “Rap for Democracy” on YouTube. In this paper, we focus on one music video in particular, ‘Primavera Fascista’ (“Fascist Spring”) to present a multimodal analysis of how resistance to that candidate’s discourse was constructed. We look into visual, sound, musical and linguistic resources (KRESS, 2010; MACHIN, 2010). Drawing upon a view of language as performative (PENNYCOOK, 2004; 2007), we use the analytical constructs of entextualization (BAUMAN & BRIGGS, 1990) and indexicality (BLOMMAERT, 2005; 2010) to show that the rap song is an exhaustive discursive exercise of metapragmatic reflexivity on the performative effects of a number of fascist statements produced by the candidate.
Highlights
Social media platforms have increasingly become the forum for outspoken debates on political and social issues which have led to a climate of polarisation among many of its users
Ross & Rivers (2018, p. 5) state that ‘[t]he idea of connective marginalities includes the full range of culture, class, historical oppression, and generational dissatisfaction, and rap music adopts this to a large degree in addressing local issues as well as extant global socio-political inequalities.’
The on-going shift in political, social and cultural relations towards a more conservative turn around the world has been under way for quite some time
Summary
Social media platforms have increasingly become the forum for outspoken debates on political and social issues which have led to a climate of polarisation among many of its users. The rap song ‘Disscanse em Paz’ (Rest in Peace) by Diomedes Chinaski, and the rap song ‘Lei Rua Neles’ (loosely translated as ‘law Streets on Them’) by the rappers Coruja BC1, Akira Presidente, Black, Rod 3030 and Don L, have both presented their opposing views to the ideas of the far-right candidate. With a long history of bigotry, homophobia and racism, he has been described by The Intercept as ‘the most misogynistic, hateful elected official in the democratic world’ (In: https:// theintercept.com/2014/12/11/misogynistic-hateful-elected-official-democacratic-world-brazilsjair-bolsonaro/) He has won the election and is currently the president of the country, in this paper, we will be using the terms deputy and/or candidate since the rap song, our object of analysis, was written/performed while he held those former positions. As Leppänen & Westinen (2017, p. 9) put it, ‘[o]n YouTube, ... performances are disseminated for appreciative audiences who, in turn, take up what is being performed in discussions and debates...’ we are interested in understanding the different semiotic resources used by the rappers to mobilise meaning effects which appear to be aimed at constructing dissent and a resistance discourse
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