Ethos, cenografia e voz "demoníacos": o funcionamento discursivo do Death Metal

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the discursive practice of the genre death metal, with emphasis on aspects related to the construction of a peculiar ethos within this discourse. Among the elements that recurrently corroborate the establishment of this image of enunciator, we highlight the role of “guttural voice”, that perceptually resembles an animalistic roar. The main interest of this research is to think about how this quality of voice and other enunciative elements that constitute the discursive practice of death metal engender the production of certain meaning effects. The theoretical perspective that we have adopted is Discourse Analysis; specifically, based on studies by Dominique Maingueneau on concepts like scenography, ethos and global semantics. Considering the notion of global semantics, for example, we deny conceiving the voice as an auxiliary and contingent aspect. As well as the lyrics – through its lexical and syntactic features etc. – support the construction of unique scenographies, the use of a voice quality, as part of a global semantics, constitutes, in alliance with the signs themselves (in the strict sense), what is enunciated. Violence, Satanism, death and possession are some of the recurring themes in death metal. The songs of this genre, in view of such thematic scope, end up building scenographies that bring into play stereotypical representations about discursive objects such as evil and the devil. With this in mind, we hypothesized that the emergence of the typical mode of enunciation in death metal is not a simple and random stylistic “choice”, but is based on stereotypical constructions regarding what is meant by “demonic” in our culture. On the other hand, the operation of this relationship depends on the construction of enunciation scenes legitimized, among other elements, by a specific discursive ethos, which we previously called “demonic ethos”. Considering the interaction between various elements (such as voice, lyrics, performances, graphic materials etc.) in the production of an enunciating image, we apprehend ethos as a concept that allows articulating modes of enunciation to a character and a corporeality, both conceived here as reading constructions. It should be noted that the death metal ethos, as an element of the global semantics of this discourse, is not restricted to the songs, but also comprise the whole practice associated with the discourse community within which the productions of such genre emerge and circulate.