HomeLatin American television fiction productions

Latin American television fiction productions

Las producciones ficcionales televisivas latinoamericanas

Penser la citoyenneté dans les fictions télévisées latino-américaines

Discourses of citizenship education?

¿Discursos de formación ciudadana?

Des discours d’éducation à la citoyenneté ?

*  *  *

Published on Monday, July 10, 2023

Abstract

This issue aims to question the uses of History in television fiction audiovisual productions, specifically in Latin America. In particular, this call seeks to focus (but not only) on fiction series with historical content and its use for citizenship education in the South American cultural area of Spanish and Portuguese language. Thus, it proposes an interdisciplinary work whose axis is: How can the social and historical discourses of the series promote citizenship education in the present?

Announcement

Context

The Cahiers ALHIM (Amérique Latine Histoire et Mémoire), published by the University of Paris 8, Vincennes Saint-Denis, is devoting one of its forthcoming issues (number 48 / 2-2024) to the study of Latin American television drama: « Latin American television fiction productions: discourses of citizenship education? »

This dossier is part of a thematic series on different aspects of Latin American society, culture and history, the titles of which are available in electronic form at the following address : http://alhim.revues.org/

Arguments

On the one hand, many telenovelas and series produced in the Latin American context place their action in a past era: the Conquest (Inés del Alma Mía, Chile), the Colonial Era (Sitiados, Chile, Siempre Bruja, Colombia, etc.), the 19th century (Terra Natura, Colombia, etc.), and the 20th century (Terra Natura, Chile). ), the 19th century (Terra Nostra, Brazil), the 1930s (Vientos de Agua, xxx), the 1950s (Perdona Nuestros Pecados, Chile), the 1960s and 1970s (Ramona y 62: Historia de un Mundial, Chile) or recent history and in particular authoritarian contexts (Los archivos del Cardenal, Ecos del desierto and Los 80, Chile) or critical ones (Okupas, Argentina). 

On the other hand, History  is also approached from the angle of social and political evolution (1994, on the end of the 70 years of PRI government in Mexico), outstanding political figures (12 años, on Pepe Mujica), local political events (Colosio. Historia de un crimen, about the assassination of a Mexican presidential candidate in Tijuana), or even professional temporalities (Bala Loca, about the practice of journalism), among others We propose to question the work involved in inscribing the past in Latin American audiovisual productions of television fiction and their resonances in the present, as laboratories of citizen and political formation.In this sense, the particularity of this historical operation is questioned in Latin American serial fiction whose traditions and specificities we can quickly synthesize from Cultural Studies. This current has problematized the typical format of television fiction, the telenovela, and its representations of the multiple paths taken by the modernization processes in Latin America, showing specifically the tentacular city, the rural exodus, and marginality. According to Martín Barbero and Muñoz (1992), the specificity of these productions lies in the melodramatic modality of showing, which challenges viewers, activates audiovisual processes of identification and generates identity constructions, imaginaries and spaces for social recognition. Teleseries show the daily experience of modernity and cultural hegemony through the experimentation of excessive affections generated by the tension between progress and fatality. These specificities seem to be transformed with the diversification and hybridization of serialized television fiction formats, international production and an industry that has a rather international audience as its target. However, we can trace in these serial productions a Latin American substrate, telenovela features, as well as a tension between globalization and exoticization. In other words, how do Latin American historical series participate in this work and are crossed by these tensions ? What are the specificities they show both in the representation of history and in relation to non-historical audiovisual productions of television fiction ?

The aim here is to ask what uses of History do Latin American audiovisual productions of television fiction propose and how do they reconstruct the present? How do they represent the past? How does the past become fiction ? How is it treated in the serialized film format ? How is the past turned into a narrative resource? Between history and memory, what is the historical operation performed by these television productions ? And what is the politicization of this operation?A first angle of analysis consists in questioning the periods indicated: is it rather a question of long-term works, which are set in argumentative waves? Or, on the contrary, are we more likely to see stories based on specific events? This first axis aims to question the architectural operation carried out in the present on historical time in serial fictions, what is and what is not talked about. 

A second problematic entry consists in looking for the distance between serialized representations of the past and the different historical analyses. Do fictional television productions function as history textbooks or educational material ? How do they construct their historical veracity and similarity? What are the operations of historical resignification that are operated in the mediation of these productions ? This second axis aims to question the narrative models of history (chronological, repetitive, cyclical, stratified) in these serialized formats and their communicability.

A third approach consists of questioning the serialities, in order to better understand how these periods are seen in the present. What do these "historical audiovisual productions" tell us about the present? How do the temporalities of these formats work the times of history? What are the significant contexts of historical television fiction productions ? This third axis aims to question the ordering of historical time in the series.

A fourth and last perspective questions the historical realism of these productions from their televisualities. In the game of the limits between fiction and realism, how do the filmic tools privilege the simultaneous but divergent movements of the different historical temporalities? This fourth axis aims to question the history of unrealized possibilities in these formats.

Submission guidelines

Languages: English, Spanish, French and Portuguese

A 500 words abstract must be sent, before September 30th, 2023 to :

  • antoine.faure@usach.cl 
  • lantezana@uchile.cl

Please send a short curriculum (list of publication) and your professionnal details.

After acceptance of the proposal, the article will be submitted to the reading committee, which will decide on its publication without having to justify its decision. Authors undertake to reserve exclusive rights to their article for Les Cahiers ALHIM and to authorise its publication online and in paper format. In the event of plagiarism, the authors will be held solely responsible. In order to respect copyright, the inclusion of photographs or photograms must be accompanied by a request for authorisation from the copyright holder.

Publication standards: http://alhim.revues.org/2861

Organisation

Antoine Faure (School of Journalism, USACH) : antoine.faure@usach.cl

Lorena Antezana Barrios (FCEI, University of Chile) : lantezana@uchile.cl

Calendar

  • September 30, 2023: submission of proposals (Abstract of approximately 500 words + professional data and a brief CV (list of publications) to the referenced contacts.
  • October 10, 2023: acceptance of proposals
  • January 10, 2024: reception of articles according to publication rules (30. 000 characters maximum) / Evaluation and correction of articles
  • March 30, 2024: final reception of articles for publication

Evaluation

The proposals will be evaluated by the editors of the issue


Date(s)

  • Saturday, September 30, 2023

Keywords

  • ficción, televisiva, historia, formación, ciudadana, fiction, télévisée, citoyenneté,

Contact(s)

  • Lorena Antezana
    courriel : lantezana [at] uchile [dot] cl

Information source

  • Antoine Faure
    courriel : antoine [dot] faure [at] usach [dot] cl

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Latin American television fiction productions », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, July 10, 2023, https://doi.org/10.58079/1bjf

Archive this announcement

  • Google Agenda
  • iCal
Search OpenEdition Search

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search