The Telenovela Industry: Markets and Representations of Transnational Identities

Abstract

This article discusses the process of transnationalisation of the telenovela industry from a perspective that seeks to articulate economic and cultural analysis (social symbolic). Two objectives guide this analysis. The first is to contribute to the theoretical field on globalisation through a criticism of the attributes of ‘deterritorialisation’ and ‘homogenisation’ which are often associated with the idea of globalisation without being put to the test in at least some realms of experience. Through a close analysis of the telenovela industry. I examine those presuppositions in order to demonstrate both how new territorial references emerge (particularly the city of Miami) and how certain differences are erased while new ones appear. The second objective is to explore some tensions related to the production of markets and of representations of identities, especially relative to the construction of a transnational ‘Hispanic’ identity. A significant outcome of the analysis of the case of the telenovela industry is that it makes particularly evident the tight interwoven of cultural and economic factors.