Escrevivências compartilhadas: memórias de telenovelas e representação racial a partir do coletivo de juventude negra do CEDENPA

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to “write-living” about Black memories through the lens of Brazilian telenovelas, understanding televised drama as a form of narrative that goes beyond entertainment, encompassing dimensions of interactivity and specific sociabilities among Black subjectivities and corporealities. The research is grounded in the concept of escrevivências (Evaristo, 2016; 2020; 2022; 2024), as it represents a methodological experience of interdisciplinary nature, capable of helping us—Black people—to produce and narrate our lived and/or shared experiences. By conceiving televisual fiction as part of the construction of meaning in Brazilian everyday life, this study considers television content as a media product that contributes to the shaping of social imaginaries, which may (re)produce meanings and stereotypes related to race and racialized bodies. The primary interlocutors of this research are members of the Black Youth Collective of the Center for the Study and Defense of Black People in Pará (Cedenpa), who step into the scene to reflect on how Black characters are represented in the plots and narratives of telenovelas, from their own perspectives, and to explore the memories these stories evoke in the young Black members of the collective. This research also inquires into the interpersonal contexts in which these young people have shared the act of watching telenovelas. The central assumption is that telenovelas simultaneously activate personal and collective memories. The study seeks to understand how the storylines of Black characters provoke interpretive disputes, considering the racial and social positions of viewers. To this end, it is essential to analyze the contexts in which telenovelas are received in everyday life and how they contribute to the creation of shared rituals with sensitive and affective dimensions. Data collection was carried out through focus groups with members of the Black Youth Collective of Cedenpa, aiming to understand what other possibilities of sensitive memory the telenovelas might provoke in Black subjects. The findings presented here point toward insurgent paths of representation that we are tracing as Black subjectivities, as well as toward an understanding that, despite the persistent reiteration of racial stereotypes, telenovelas may still offer space to imagine other lives and other worlds.