Political Repertoires: Tellability and Subjectivation (2017)

Teófilo Espada-Brignoni and Frances Ruiz-Alfaro, Political Repertoires: Tellability and Subjectivation in Music as a Platform for Political Communication,Uche Onyebadi (ed.) IGI Global, 2017

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1986-7.ch003

Abstract
Songwriting, whether creative or unoriginal, can challenge or promote the values of the dominant discourses in a particular society. Within the context of popular music, Gil Scott-Heron wrote songs that problematize official discourses about family life, the African-American experience, the government, and rappers, among other topics. Through discourse analysis, in this chapter the authors explore how songs written by Scott-Heron deal with the narrations and definitions others ascribe to the self, questioning a diversity of accounts and explanations regarding social and personal experience. Gathering ideas from Michel Foucault’s and Judith Butler’s notion of “subjectivation,” Kathy Popkin’s considerations on “tellability,” and Enrique Pichón- Rivière’s conceptualization of bonds, the authors discuss political repertoires articulated through music.