Course Description
Examination of the connections between media, culture, and society as participants study the world's most watched television genre: the Latin American telenovela. The class focuses on the genre's contexts of production, consumption, regulation, and globalization, and analyzes telenovelas as a public forum for the negotiation of sociocultural issues.
Athena Title
TELENOVELAS & SOC
Prerequisite
SPAN 2002
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
• To become familiar with communication concepts and tools that are used in critical and cultural approaches to mass media studies. • To analyze the ideological, rhetorical and cultural underpinnings of telenovelas. • To understand the commercial and aesthetic dimensions of telenovelas, and their social uses • To examine how processes of industrialization and globalization have made thier mark on the telenovela genre
Topical Outline
Week 1: Conceptualizing Cultural and Critical Media Studies Week 2: Telenovela: What is it? Telenovela Typology Week 3: History of the Telenovela Week 4: The Telenovela Text: Representation Week 5: The Telenovela Text: Identities Week 6: Telenovela Production in Latin America Week 7: Telnovela Production in the United States Week 8: Telenovela Consumption in Latin America Week 9: Telenovela Consumption in the United States Week 10: Telenovela Consumption in Europe, Africa and Asia Week 11: Telenovelas and the Regulation of Latin American Cultural Life Week 12: Regulating Telenovelas Week 13: The Political Economy of Telenovelas Week 14: Race, Gender and Telenovelas Week 15: Telenovela Industry Survival Strategies
Syllabus