Selling Political Integrity: Telenovelas, Intertextuality, and Local Elections in Rural Brazil

摘要

Telenovelas, prime-time serial melodramas that dominate Brazilian television, are active players in the national political and social discourse. This article analyzes an example in which the text and the national political discourse merged, creating an intertextual narrative. It then presents ethnographic reception data for this telenovela to demonstrate how local context and the distance from the Southern political and cultural centers constrained its interpretations and viewers' participation in the national political discourse.