This is a class blog run by Dr. Carolina Acosta-Alzuru and her students in the First Year Odyssey Seminar "More than Melodramas: Telenovelas"

Telenovelas-FYOS-2014

Telenovelas-FYOS-2014

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

The Telenovela: A Refuge From Reality

       Telenovelas create a whole new world for those seeking an escape from realities of the physical world. The fantasy world of a telenovela provides a source of entertainment that relieves people, even if for just a portion of an hour, of relationship stress, emotional turmoil, and sociological burdens of the real world. Telenovela's portrayal of hardships, whether it be in the world of love, economic situations, platonic relationships, or any other situations, allows people to take a break from their reality to invest their attention in the fictional drama before them. From the Rosa telenovelas to the De Ruptura telenovelas, a mental getaway from the happenings of everyday life is offered. Even though the situations portrayed by the telenovelas are emotionally heightened versions of real human conditions, they still strike a cord of empathy in their viewers that then switches their focus from the plights of their own existence to the endeavors of the telenovela's characters.

       One powerful example of telenovelas being able to relinquish focus, emotional and psychological, from the happenings of the real world to those of a fictional world was found in the small factories of Cuba.
Cuban women used to spend numerous hours a day hand rolling Cuban cigars, a task that was not only mind-numbingly boring but also tedious and difficult to endure. "Radio-novelas," which are dramatic readings of literature done over the radio (so basically a telenovela without the visual image), provided mental relief for these laboring women. Physically, they still preformed their tasks, but mentally, they were able to focus on the events of a life story that is not their own and involved riveting tales of love and human experiences in another setting. In this situation, a form a telenovelas relinquished these women of their own present hardship by presenting them an escape from reality to a world of numerous, ever-changing stories of love and humanity.

1 comment:

  1. I always used television as a way to take my mind off of things or to pass the time. However, I never understood the importance of the ability to do this until I took this class. The radio-novela was very important to the cuban women because it offered an escape for their mind while allowing them to still do their jobs.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.