Publications
Publication details [#62353]
Westinen, Elina. 2017. Rapping the ‘Better folk’: Ideological and scalar negotiations of past and present. Language & Communication 52 : 74–87.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Place, Publisher
Elsevier
Journal WWW
Annotation
Drawing on sociolinguistics of globalization, discourse studies and global hip hop studies, this paper explores how the ideological sociocultural and -historical reality of Finland is (re)constructed and (re)negotiated in a local rap song and how the song takes issue with the official, but often tension-ridden Finnish–Swedish bilingualism. Its specific, ironic take arises from the fact that the rap artist is Finnish-speaking, but echoes a Swedish-speaking minority who are traditionally and stereotypically seen as a privileged, historical elite. The song illustrates how rap can form a site for exploration of language ideological discussions in bi/multilingual societies and how nationalistic-laden ideologies (one nation–one language–one state) are taken for granted, brought forth but also notably problematized and questioned.