基本説明
This ethnographic study considers how soap opera, by plugging into and strengthening invisible discourse networks, can provide answers to questions of identity and notions of empowerment for women.
Full Description
How can such an apparently trivial or even exploitative genre as soap opera be associated with the notion of empowerment for its viewers? Mary Ellen Brown argues that soap operas create and support a social network in which talk becomes a form of resistive pleasure.Undertaken as an ethnographic study in which the author is a member of the group, a fan and also a researcher, this book shows that engagement with soap operas creates an opening for women to serve as wedges into the dominant culture. This exploration into how hegemonic notions of feminity and womanhood are developed at one cultural site and how they can be accepted, resisted and negotiated in the process of consumption not only claims that hegemony is leaky, but also attempts to explain the process whereby the leaks occur.
Contents
IntroductionQuestions of IdentityThe Politics of PleasureSaying the UnsayableSoap Opera and HegemonyThe Spoken TextThe Boundaries of PleasureCultural Capital and Strategic KnowledgeThe Power of LaughterResistive ReadingsConclusionA Never-Ending Story
