DIGITAL MUḎAKKIRĀT AND MULTIMODAL SELF-NARRATION: MEDIATING PRISON AND EXILE IN MUʿĀḎ AL-ḤĀQID’S MIN ʿUKĀŠAH ILÀ MŪLINBĪK

This article explores the digital muḏakkirāt of a Moroccan rapper and activist, Muʿāḏ al-Ḥāqid (Mouad El Haqed), through a multimodal discourse analysis of his YouTube series Min ʿUkāšah ilà Mūlinbīk. Combining theories of mediatized storytelling (Lundby 2016), discourse analysis (van Dijk 1998; Wodak 2001), and multimodal semiotics (Kress 2010; van Leeuwen 2005; Kress; van Leeuwen 2001; Jewitt 2013; Bateman 2008), the study examines how Muʿāḏ al-Ḥāqid constructs political subjectivity and diasporic identity through layered semiotic resources – spoken Dāriǧah, visual symbolism, sound design, and mise-en-scène. Framed as an autobiographical testimony of imprisonment and exile, the series blends personal memory with collective experience, using the technological affordances of YouTube to articulate a counter-narrative (Foucault 1980) rooted in Moroccan sociopolitical realities. The analysis shows how Muʿāḏ al-Ḥāqid ’s digital storytelling performs key discursive metafunctions (Halliday; Matthiessen 2014; Kress; van Leeuwen 2001) and rearticulates cultural belonging across geographic and ideological borders. Ultimately, this study highlights how digital muḏakkirāt function as acts of resistance and remembrance, mediating trauma and reclaiming voice in a mediatized age.