This work explores the way in which telenovelas (TV serial dramas) give voice to contemporary and historical Argentinian social and political issues. Telenovelas have multiple layers of socio-cultural message -- local as well as global -- and are invariably laden with appealing drama and emotion, and sometimes comedy. The discussion focuses on how telenovelas reflect society's perception of, and adjustment toward, issues of globalisation. They are a means of portraying how individuals and families rationalize and incorporate rapid social and economic changes. The book explores how telenovelas might offer a subversive interpretation of reality; or provide a channel of dialogue with the government's political aims. The author challenges the assumption that they are merely a reflection of historical, political and social circumstance. One of the many telenovela examples addressed in this book is whether the serial Padre Coraje constructs a parallel between the current Kirchner government and that of Juan Peron, fifty years earlier. The serial explores the two leaders' relationship with the Church and implicitly presents President Kirchner as Peron's successor. Explaining telenovelas as cultural texts (they are not soap operas) provides the primary basis for this study, backed by Argentinian newspaper articles and secondary sources on Latin American history, culture and economy, as well as TV and cinema studies. The result is a more profound and nuanced interpretation than hitherto of Argentinian telenovelas. Analysis enables identification of the links between the serials' storylines and contemporary political and social events. These popular culture texts bring new meaning to the Argentinian historical narrative, and for TV viewers puts the processes and effects of economic and social globalisation on a local multi-cultural level perspective.

About the Author
Gabriela Jonas Aharoni received an MA in Communication and Journalism from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a PhD from the Faculty of Arts' Interdisciplinary Program of Tel Aviv University. She is Associate Lecturer at the School of Communication, Cinema and Television, Sapir College, and teaches Communication at the Eshel Hanasi Regional School. Prior she has worked as a journalist in Rosario's La Capital, the oldest Argentinian newspaper still in circulation, and at Linea Directa, the Spanish language magazine in Israel.


Book Information
ISBN 9781845197117
Author Gabriela Jonas Aharoni
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint Liverpool University Press
Publisher Liverpool University Press
Weight(grams) 368g