Untranslatability and Text-based Specificity as a Form of Resistance: The case of Levantine Arabic Rap in the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings

In this paper I show the close correlation between cultural resistance and the comeback of the Arabic literary heritage in Levantine rap music in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab uprisings. In order to achieve this goal, I provide a number of textual examples that focus on both the content and the rhetorical tools used to convey it, being constantly aware that in the field of rap, perhaps more than elsewhere, ‘the medium is the message’ (Marshall McLuhan). In present-day Levantine rap lyrics, we can acknowledge a wide area of untranslatability, and it is specifically in this transcultural opacity that rap displays its resistant nature. In this paper I attempt to show how the conscious use of several varieties of the Arabic language, motifs belonging to the Arabic poetic tradition and references to local history and culture contribute to create small ‘cultural fortresses’ in individual lyrics, and these stimulate the listener to identify with it.