"Vita cash nästan aldrig sett, bara vita på tallriken" : En diskursteoretisk analys av underklassens representationer i hiphoptexter

Sammanfattning: The present study explores how representations of an underclass in Sweden is being constructed and negotiated by a diversity of so-called spokesmen of an existing underclass in Sweden within the Swedish hiphop genre. In their song lyrics, they state to speak up for an underclass in Sweden. They are, a strategically selected Swedish hiphop collective, Kartellen, whose song lyrics constitutes the study’s empirical material. Through a qualitative approach, inspired by the discourse theorists Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe the analysis critically investigates and elucidates how the representation is being carried out and through their use of language. The empirical material has firstly been deconstructed and after that, analyzed within a discourse theoretical framework, consisting of postmarxist and poststructuralist influences. More specifically it aims to focus on statements regarding and constructing the prior group and representation of an underclass by exposing how it has been articulated and further represented. The study shows that there is a tendency to describe an underclass based on a leftist discourse consisting of a series of political manifestations. There are in addition, competing articulations concerning terms of alienation and nation present in the song lyrics. Moreover, descriptions of an underclass as a homogeneous group are given from their exclusive position of the social community, which neglects differentiations. This creates an ambiguous representation, reflecting on the arbitrariness of the use of language and therefore, exposes the risk of the representations’ fictive nature.