Improvivência: a argumentação nas batalhas de sangue mistas

Abstract

This paper aims to broaden and deepen the analysis of (dis)agreement management and argument construction in situations of argumentative stasis and conflict of opinions, contemplating the peculiarities, strategies, and decisive or driving elements of discourse construction in the specific modality of mixed- gender rap battles. Rap battles, and consequently batalhas de sangue, constitute an urban discursive and performative genre consolidated in Brazil around the 1970s (Macedo, 2011; Souza, 2024; Vergne, 2018). This genre, originated from the hip-hop movement and its musical branch, rap, born in the suburbs of the Bronx (Meireles, 2017; Souza, 2024), has become intensely popular in recent years, with social denunciation as one of its main features. Therefore, this research departs from the following question: how are argumentative processes constructed from the emergence of stasis in mixedgender rap battles as a discursive genre, and how can these clashes highlight gender inequalities? Thereby, this study intends to describe the interplay of argumentative roles and argumentative issues, according to the Dialogical Model, within mixed-gender batalhas de sangue, as well as to identify the management of recurrent tactics, such as the strategic use of negation throughout the performances. In addition, this study proposes to refine the concept of improvivência, based on a reinterpretation of Evaristo’s escrevivência (2017, 2020a, 2020b), in order to understand how rappers improvise based on their own experiences, articulating denunciations and inequalities faced in their daily lives. It is also aimed to observe the female participation in mixed-gender battles, reflecting on gender dynamics and the inequalities that emerge in discursive clashes between female and male MCs. To find answers, we took as our starting point the Dialogical Perspective on Argumentation, using the fundamental concepts developed by Plantin (1990, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2016, 2020, 2025). Moreover, we used the works of Grácio (2010, 2012) as a theoretical foundation on argumentativeness, in dialogue with DamascenoMorais (2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023), Agapito (2022, 2025), Agapito, Fernandes e Damasceno-Morais (2021), Bacelar (2021), Camelo (2020), and Simão (2021). Lastly, regarding the methodology used, this paper adopted a descriptive and/or exploratory approach (Salomon, 2014; Creswell, 2010), from a qualitative focus, based on the precepts of the Dialogical Model of Argumentation. Thus, it is hoped to understand how gender and opposing social values can shape the way in which the ‘combustion’ of stasis is generated in these interactions. The corpus consists of four batalhas de sangue, extracted from Batalha da Aldeia, Batalha da Norte and the final of the Nacional (2023), selected because of their relevance and diversity of interactions. At the end of the analysis, it was found that argumentative issues do not present themselves statically; on the contrary, they tend to multiply and reconfigure themselves as the clashes unfold. It was also observed that strategies such as denial and objection play a central role in argumentative construction, acting as mechanisms for repositioning participants and for the progression of disagreement in the analyzed interactions. Furthermore, from the dialogue between the Dialogical Model of Argumentation and the literary studies of Evaristo (2017, 2020a, 2020b), an expansion of the concept of escrevivência was proposed, called improvivência, which allows us to highlight the dynamic relationship between argumentative stasis and the mobilization of argumentative roles (Plantin, 2025), contemplating micro (dialogical) and macro (dialogic) levels of interaction. In this way, improvivência reveals itself as a device that enables the expansion of dialogue and argumentation beyond the immediate face-to-face interaction, mobilizing emblematic social discourses that permeate the analyzed clashes.