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The Telenovela and Emancipation

A Study on Television and Social Change in Brazil

Nico Vink

Royal Tropical Institute - the Netherlands

The Telenovela and Emancipation


A Study on Television and Social Change in Brazil

Nico Vink

Royal Tropical Institute - the Netherlands

Contents

10 PROLOGUE
Summary of 'Selva de Pedra (Jungle of Concrete) IS
List of Telenovelas used in this Study 18
21 1. TELENOVELAS AS A MAIN TELEVISION INDUSTRY PRODUCT
1. Short History of Brazilian Television Industry 22
The Fifties: T.V. for the Elite
The Sixties: Toward a Multi Class Audience
The Seventies: Globo's Monopoly
The Eighties: Export
2. Role and Influence of Advertising on the TV Industry 32
3. Role and Influence of the State on the TV Industry 40.
4. TV Industry: the Cultural Dimension 43
Conclusions and Questions 49
51 2. THE LIFE STYLE OF THE URBAN WORKING CLASS IN BRAZIL
1. Life in the Periphery and the Role of TV 52
2. Social Classes and Social Hierarchy in Brazil 55
Social Class according to Pierre Bourdieu
Social Classes in Brazil
3. The Working-Class Life Style: The Household as Unit of Labor and
Consumption 60
The Common Conditions of Existence
Household Consumption
The Consumption of Cultural Goods and Cultural Capital
4. The Working Class as Representation: Class and Gender Images 71
Working-Class Views on Class
Working-Class Views on Gender
5. Family Projects and Working-Class Discourse on Social Change 78
Family Projects
Working-Class Discourse on Social Change
Conclusions 82

84 3. THE WORKING CLASS AND THE SYMBOLIC STRUGGLE ON VIEW


AND TASTE
Introduction: Popular or Mass Culture? 84
1. Not Popular Culture but Working-Class Subculture 85
The Popular Culture Debate
'Cultural Definitions'
Artisanal Production and Cultural Industry
Habitus/Subculture and Domination
2. The Field of Dramatic Art and its Struggle for Taste 95
Cultural Fields
History of Brazilian Theater and ils Distinctive Power
Circus Theater and Popular Taste
Conclusion: a Struggle for World View and Taste 104
107 4. EMANCIPATION, MOBILIZATION AND THE ROLE OF TV FICTION
Introduction 107
1. Working-Class Emancipation via Neighborhood Movements 108
The Actors of Social Change
Parties or Movements?
Consciousness-Raising and Mobilization
Conclusions: Subversion and Struggle for Identity
2. Television, Struggle for Representation and Identity 120
British Cultural Studies
Critical Feminists Media Studies
3. A Model for the Study of TV Influence on The Emancipation of
Working-Class Women and Men 127
A: The Production Process
B: The Cultural Products or Television Texts
C: Consumption
131 5. THE CREATIVE WORKERS IN THE NOVELA INDUSTRY
Introduction: Decision-Making and Homology 131
1. Telenovela Authors 135
Task and Pressures
The Writer's Position in the Field of Dramatic Art
The Novela Writers and their Audience
2. The Novela Directors: Social and Artistic Position 147
3. The Telenovela Actors 150
The Task of the Actor in the Novela Production
The Position of the Actors in the Novela Industry
The Actors' Position in the Field of Dramatic Art
The Actors and their Audience
Conclusions: Homology and Subversion 163

165 6.
1.
2.
3.

TELENOVELAS AS NARRATIVE GENRE OF LOVE AND CLASS


Telenovela as TV Genre 166
The Language of Realism 169
Novelas as Stories 172
Characters
Settings
Suspense and Ending
4. Novela as Discourse 180
Discourses on Personal Relations
The Housekeeping of Feelings
Discourses on Class
5. Hierarchy of Discourses, Closure and Openness 192

196 7. THE NOVELA AS NARRATIVE ON OPPRESSION AND CHANGE


1. Can Love overcome Class Differences? 197
2. Class Oppression and Discourse on Change 200
Images of Class Oppression
Discourses on Change: the Subversive Middle Class
3. Gender Oppression and Discourse on Change 200
Images of Gender Oppression.
Women Caught Between Subversion and Adaptation
4. Social Change and Novela Discourse on Change 213
5. Alienating? 216
219 8. AN AUDIENCE WATCHING WITH ITS HEART
The Subculture of the. Working Class and Novela Decoding
1. Novela Audience: Female or Family? 220
The Telenovela Audience
Novela Watching: a Family Affair
2. Decoding in the Working-Class Subculture 225
3. Watching with your Heart 232
Aesthetics and Involvement
Emotion and Consciousness
Concluding Remarks 240
242 EPILOGUE
1. An Overview of the Findings 242
The Novela Industry in the Context of Symbolic Struggle
The Subversive Moments of the TV Fiction
A. Production
B. TV Texts: Telenovelas
C. Working Class Decoding
2. Need for Further Research 249
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3. Political Consequences 249

252 NOTES
271 REFERENCES
281 SAMENVATTING: TELENOVELA EN EMANCIPATIE
Een studie naar de invloed van televisie op sociale veranderingen
287 TABLES AND FIGURES

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