Racionais MC's Gospel: The Influence of Religion in the Album Sobrevivendo no Inferno

Due to the neglect of linguistics proper to address the social component in linguistics, and sociolinguistics extensive focus on language variation and change during the 1970s, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) emerged as an approach focusing on the relations between discourse and society, and how these are reproduced through text and music. As language is a powerful tool for identity construction, and its nature of being redefined within specific contexts, allows for CDA to observe how identities are constructed within discourses. Hence, by using Critical Discourse Analysis as an approach to analyzing music excerpts, this research will argue that the album Sobrevivendo no Inferno, by the Brazilian rap group Racionais MCs, uses specific structural and stylistic religious features as a semantic tool for Afro-Brazilian identity reconstruction. After presenting the Brazilian context of inequality and marginalization of peripheries, this research will apply the three stage model of...Show moreDue to the neglect of linguistics proper to address the social component in linguistics, and sociolinguistics extensive focus on language variation and change during the 1970s, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) emerged as an approach focusing on the relations between discourse and society, and how these are reproduced through text and music. As language is a powerful tool for identity construction, and its nature of being redefined within specific contexts, allows for CDA to observe how identities are constructed within discourses. Hence, by using Critical Discourse Analysis as an approach to analyzing music excerpts, this research will argue that the album Sobrevivendo no Inferno, by the Brazilian rap group Racionais MCs, uses specific structural and stylistic religious features as a semantic tool for Afro-Brazilian identity reconstruction. After presenting the Brazilian context of inequality and marginalization of peripheries, this research will apply the three stage model of analysis presented by Fairclough (1984): description, interpretation, and explanation of text. Although the primary focus of CDA has been on analyses of texts containing discourses produced by controlling groups, this research will apply the CDA approach to analyze discourse of resistance against dominating groups.Show less

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Racionais MC's Gospel: The Influence of Religion in the Album Sobrevivendo no Inferno