{"id":34564,"date":"2013-11-03T00:35:11","date_gmt":"2013-11-03T00:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=34564"},"modified":"2013-11-03T00:35:11","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T00:35:11","slug":"review-of-brazilian-telenovelas-and-the-myth-of-racial-democracy-by-samantha-nogueira-joyce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=34564","title":{"rendered":"Review of Brazilian Telenovelas and the Myth of Racial Democracy by Samantha Nogueira Joyce"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review of Brazilian Telenovelas and the Myth of Racial Democracy by Samantha Nogueira Joyce<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

TriQuarterly: a journal of writing, art, and cultural inquiry from Northwestern University<\/a>
\nNorthwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
\n2013-10-01<\/p>\n

Reighan Gillam<\/a><\/strong>, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
\nDepartment of Afroamerican and African Studies
\nUniversity of Michigan<\/em><\/p>\n

Telenovelas<\/a><\/em>, or soap operas, are the main staple of television entertainment throughout Brazil and in many other Latin American countries. Unlike in the United States, where soap operas can run for decades, in Brazil telenovelas end after presenting their storyline over a six- to eight-month period. They are designed to attract men, women, and children as viewers and have dominated in television\u2019s primetime slots for the last thirty years. Although the plotlines, characters, and settings are fleeting, telenovelas have remained Brazilians\u2019 favorite form of primetime entertainment.<\/p>\n

Often Latin American telenovelas have served as vehicles to introduce social issues by depicting a common problem, such as gender inequality or limited access for the disabled, in order to raise awareness and stimulate discussion. In Brazilian Telenovelas and the Myth of Racial Democracy<\/a><\/em>, Samantha Nogueira Joyce<\/a> takes one particular telenovela, Duas Caras<\/em> (Two Faces), as her subject of study. Running for eight months in 2007\u20138, this telenovela deserves particular scrutiny because it was the first to include an Afro-Brazilian actor as the lead character and the first to make race relations and racism a constant theme. Joyce uses this telenovela as an opportunity to examine the role of television in contemporary currents of social change in Brazil. Through her analysis of Duas Caras<\/em>, Joyce aims to demonstrate how \u201ctelenovelas are a powerful tool for introducing topics for debate and pro-social change, such as the instances where the dialogues openly challenge previously ingrained racist ideas in Brazilian society.\u201d<\/p>\n

The myth of racial democracy to which Joyce\u2019s title refers is the Brazilian national narrative that defines the country\u2019s citizens and identity as racially mixed. Put simply, it is generally thought that the Brazilian populace and culture emerged from a mixing of European, indigenous, and African people. Many believe that because there are no rigid racial lines that delineate black from white in Brazil, racism and racial discrimination do not exist there. In contrast to the \u201cone-drop rule<\/a>\u201d of the United States, where \u201cone drop of black blood\u201d renders a person black, in Brazil, Joyce explains, \u201cthe racial blending has been validated not into a binary, but a ternary racial classification that differentiates the population into brancos<\/em> (whites), pardos<\/em> (multiracial individuals, also popularly known as mulatos<\/em>), and pretos <\/em>(blacks).\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire review here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review of Brazilian Telenovelas and the Myth of Racial Democracy by Samantha Nogueira Joyce TriQuarterly: a journal of writing, art, and cultural inquiry from Northwestern University Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 2013-10-01 Reighan Gillam, Postdoctoral Research Fellow Department of Afroamerican and African Studies University of Michigan Telenovelas, or soap operas, are the main staple of television […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,83,21,8413,8],"tags":[14635,10698,10697,10696,14058],"class_list":["post-34564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-book-reviews","category-brazil","category-latincarib","category-communications","category-media-archive","tag-reighan-gillam","tag-samantha-joyce","tag-samantha-n-joyce","tag-samantha-nogueira-joyce","tag-triquarterly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}