FRN3220

Rap culture: towards an ethnographic analysis of contemporary France

P Durel

8 points - 3 hours per week - First semester - Clayton

Objectives On successful completion of this course students should have developed an understanding of (i) rap as a cultural practice within the hip-hop movement, (ii) the social and historical significance of rap and hip hop as an answer to an urban environment and social context marked by the dilution of structures, (iii) the question of immigration and integration in contemporary France and its relation to hip-hop culture. They should also have developed and deployed strategies which make sense of the corpus of texts according to their understanding of the social context in which these texts have been produced. In this regard, students should have acquired an understanding of (i) the function of the MC as author and the relation of his/her art to other forms of oral cultural productions, (ii) the function of the rap artist as social commentator, (iii) the specificity of rap lyrics, their suprasegmental and prosodic features as well as their creative use of the French language. Third-year students should develop that understanding in the light of a social theory framework and should be able to (iv) explore the concepts of 'linguistic market' and 'linguistic habitus' in relation to the function of rap as a resistance progress against symbolic domination, (v) explore the theory of the cultural field which situates artistic works within the social conditions of their production, circulation and consumption, (vi) develop an understanding of the social world as a system of power relations and a symbolic system in which distinction of taste become the basis of social judgement, (vii) further develop critical skills; recognising, evaluating, and deploying arguments in relation to these issues. As an integral part of the course, students will also be expected to further develop their ability to communicate and interact efficiently in French both in oral and written form. They should be able to demonstrate advanced skills in using appropriate vocabulary and argumentative structures in relation to their need to discuss, expose and deploy notions and concepts.

Synopsis As for FRN2220.
Assessment Two article reviews in French (400 words and 500 words): 10% each - One synthesis in French (600 words): 15% - One seminar presentation in French: 20% - One essay in French (1500 words): 20% - One individual project: 25%

Recommended texts

Bourdieu P The field of cultural production Polity Press, 1993
Schnapper D La France de l'intgration, NRF, Gallimard, 1991

Recommended listening (CD)

La Haine (Musiques inspires du film), Delabel, 1995
Ma 6-T va cracker (musique du film), Why not productions, 1997

Film

La Haine,Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995

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