“I COUNT/RECOUNT MY EXPERIENCES AS A RAIN OF BLOWS”: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AUTOFICTION AND RAPPER AKHENATON’S WORKS

Abstract

The article draws a connection between a corpus consisting of verses and songs by the French rapper Akhenaton and the notion of autofiction as articulated by Serge Doubrovsky and other theorists inspired by his work (Philippe Gasparini, Philipe Vilain). Even though rap as a musical genre may not entirely fit the definition of autofiction as a genre, the way autofiction problematizes the relationship between writing and the self through language finds a relevant contemporary actualization in certain rap works. Firstly, Baouche analyzes the relationship between the unique language of Akhenaton’s works and the narrative of self that they present, taking recourse to the poetic notion of merde [crap, shit], which manifests in various grammatical forms, positions within verses, and even in the broad semantic field of fecality. Secondly, Baouche presents a study of the narrative of transition, tracing the rapper’s journey from an ordinary anonymous life to that of an artist. Exploring the continuum between life and rap, the analyses presented in this article, which rely on a particular textual organization and the vocalization of the text, together construct the self-narration of Akhenaton.