Big Snakes on the Streets and Never Ending Stories: The Case of Venezuelan Telenovela

Ortega begins the passage my asserting that “the telenovela is an important expression of Latin American popular culture not only because of its success with public, but also because it reflects this public’s symbolic and affective world.” In Venezuela the genre is divided into two phases, the “proto-novela” (1953-1972) and the contemporary telenovela(1973-1992). These genres break down further into the “cultural novela” and the “urban novela.” The author positions the telenovela in context to the North American soap opera claiming that both “coincide, in a general way, in thematic treatment of family, power relations, the bad woman… etc.” The distinction therein is that, “the central motivations of the soap opera are money and sex, whereas the motivation for the telenovela, according to Jose Antonio Guevara, is the continuation of a family: to fall in love, to marry, to have children.” The telenovela works to contrast extremes (rich, poor, good, and evil) to yield melodrama. The author later sites Peter Brooks regarding melodrama, claiming that, “[it] is a popular form not only because it is favoured by the audience, but also because it insists– or tries to insist– in the dignity and importance of the ordinary.” Ortega believes that, melodrama included, the purpose of the telenovela is to illuminate problems within “contemporary society” directly opposing soap opera’s entertainment purposes.  Telenovelas also depart from soap operas in their diverse audiences and evening broadcasting times

Structurally speaking, the telenovela has the classic beginning, middle, and end that characterize fully-resolved stories, unlike soap operas. Making reference to William Rowe and Vivian Schelling, the author cites these two saying, that the telenovelas origins “can be traced through a series of popular forms, beginning with folletin, or newspaper serial, itself transitional in that it was a first step whereby traditional oral themes and styles entered the medium of print at the same time as their audience negotiated literacy”.  The most important influence, according to the author, was the radio soap opera. Ultimately this passage worked to emphasize the role of telenovelas as “technological apparatus to recreate the country as fiction.”