Rap artists’ identity in archetypal roles of hero and seeker: A linguistic perspective

Abstract

The study identifies the archetypal motives of the Hero and the Seeker in modern rap lyrics, demonstrating a certain archetypal basis of the rap artists’ identity. The problem of the archetype-identity correlation has been solved through the use of the method prioritizing the discursive role invariant as the index of the artists’ both psychic dispositions and cultural-semiotic background, thus performing identity eliciting function. The aim of the article is to identify the rappers’ archetypal roles of Hero and Seeker based on the linguistic and narrative devices. Four motive-descriptors underlying the Hero archetype are manifested by role invariants of Champion-winner, Warrior-soldier, prophet / savior and noble rescuer. Each of them is based either on the metaphorical interpretation of rap performance as the sporting contest, a battle at war, the Universe and blessing, or on allusions to precedential characters significant for the rap artists’ self-identification. Narrative manifestations of the Hero formation involve five correlations with stages of the Hero’s Journey associated with Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth: Ordinary World of childhood and adolescence; obstacles and enemies; Inmost Cave as an inner conflict and fears the Hero has to face; metaphorical “death” foregrounded by symbols of "beyond world" or transition space between the worlds; a transfiguration into a new status in a new world of luxury and success, “awarded” by material symbols of prosperity.