Abstract

 Abstract for Bergamo Journal of Curriculum Theorizing Conference

The Cipher of Evil in Curriculum: Hip Hop, the Symbolic, and the Production/Violation of Subjectivity

Jason D. Manriquez

In this paper, I will attempt to remix the concept of a specter of evil in the curriculum (Van Kessel, 2019) through the lens of hip-hop culture and rhetorical inquiry (Aguilar, 2020; Gilchrist & Jackson, 2012), examining how it shapes and constrains subjectivity while simultaneously grounding the socio-political status quo (McKinley, 2023). Drawing inspiration from Noah de Lissavoy’s (2011) work on hegemonic violation and Lacan’s (1988) theories of the symbolic order, I explore how the curriculum acts like a cipher—both a means of encoding (Hall, 1980) and a tool of erasure—producing students as subjects of a system designed for their violation (Fanon, 2008).

Hip hop’s critical ethos, with its roots in resisting systemic oppression, serves as a counterpoint to the hegemonic forces embedded in the curriculum. Much like how emcees reclaim language and space through lyrical innovation (Reade, 2023), I argue that educators must uncover how subjectivity is formed within the symbolic frameworks of education, often denying students the chance to imagine alternative futures. Like a carefully curated mixtape, the curriculum presents a performative dichotomy of good/evil and success/failure, compelling students to navigate an economy of pleasure/unpleasure that restricts their agency. Hip-hop provides its counter through pluralistic explorations championing the Black experience and epistemologies (Williams, 2013).

The double-edged nature of standardization mirrors hip hop’s duality: the commodification of culture alongside its subversive power. Through rhetorical inquiry (Chávez, 2018), I unpack how education plays upon fears of the “evil” lurking in deviation from the norm, ensuring that students conform to preordained identities that serve global systems of exploitation (Vaught et al., 2022). Drawing on the concept of the cipher, where collective meaning is co-constructed, I suggest a turn toward critical pedagogies that empower students to “freestyle” their subjectivities (Flores, 2016)—challenging the opaque forces of curriculum to generate resistance, creativity, and transformation (Fields & Fields, 2014; Young, 2012).

By invoking hip hop’s spirit of remix and resistance, this work interrogates the curated narratives of diversity and identity in education, exposing how they obscure possibilities for imagining futures otherwise. In this way, I hope to amplify the potential for educators and students alike to engage in transformative practices, rejecting the symbolic violence of the status quo and creating space for new, liberatory flows (Crawford, 2021).

 

 

References

 

Aguilar, V. (2020, August 15). Testimonios and Turntables: Claiming Our Narratives through Sound and Space. https://kairos.technorhetoric.net/26.1/topoi/aguilar-et-al/todd-craig.html

Chávez, K. R. (2018). The Body: An Abstract and Actual Rhetorical Concept. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 48(3), 242–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/02773945.2018.1454182

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Flores, L. A. (2016). Between abundance and marginalization: the imperative of racial rhetorical criticism. Review of Communication, 16(1), 4–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2016.1183871

Gilchrist, E. S., & Jackson, R. L. (2012). Articulating the heuristic value of African American communication studies. Review of Communication, 12(3), 237–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2012.666670

Hall, S. (2019). Essential Essays, Volume 1: Foundations of Cultural Studies. Duke University Press Books.

Lacan, J. (1988). The seminar of Jacques Lacan. W. W. Norton & Company.

McKinley, L. (2023). White obstructions; Barriers to the implementation of Black studies. TOPIA Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.3138/topia-2023-0013

Reade, J. (2023). Black Noise from the Break: Ma and Pa’s Black Radical Lyricism. Humanities, 12(2), 35. https://doi.org/10.3390/h12020035

Van Kessel, C. (2019). An Education in “Evil”: Implications for Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan.

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Young, K. (2012). The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness. Graywolf Press.