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Blackstar - David Bowies sista studioalbum. En transtextuell studie av sångtexterna och deras betydelser

På svenska

Author

  • Niklas Ljungberg

Summary, in English

This thesis examines the song lyrics of Blackstar, David Bowies last studio album, released in 2016. By identifying the narrative voice/voices of each song, their possible characters, and using the transtextuality theory, as defined by Gérard Genette, to analyse the interplay between lyrics, music, paratexts, rock videos and literary texts, the study's aim is to find interpretative meanings to each song, and to the album as a whole. It concludes that the first four songs of the album introduce two new Bowie-characters, 'Button Eyes' and 'The Trickster', where the former represents the physical David Bowie who dies, and the latter becomes the custodian of Bowie's art. The last three songs are perfomed without the use of characters and can be interpreted as a reflection and farewell by Bowie himself.

Publishing year

2019

Language

Swedish

Document type

Student publication for Bachelor's degree

Topic

  • Languages and Literatures

Keywords

  • David Bowie Blackstar song lyrics narrative character transtextuality intertextuality Button Eyes Trickster literature music

Supervisor

  • Elisabeth Friis