A cegueira em cenarepresentações de pessoas com deficiência visual em telenovelas da Globo (2005-2012)

Resumo

The Brazilian telenovela is a cultural product that produces and reproduces meanings. In this sense, this research explored the representations of individuals with visual impairment, and blindness itself, within Globo’s telenovelas, over five decades (1969-2019). The central problem was an alleged perpetuation of stereotypes undertaken by the fictional genre regarding the loss and absence of vision – in a country with 6.5 million visually impaired individuals still striving for inclusion. The study aimed to analyze and question these representations, identifying trends, disruptions, and continuities, while linking them to important categories for the academic literature on telenovelas and blindness, such as melodrama and disability models. Initially, 27 stories with visually impaired characters were identified in the period. The data collection and processing methodology was etnografia de tela (screen ethnography), by Carmen Rial – adapted through dialogues with authors like Maria Lourdes Motter and Mônica Kornis. Preliminary analysis involved scenes from the telenovelas and secondary material about them. Thus, dialogically, research reconstructed the representations and constructed three analytical models to categorize blindness, which revealed a certain standardization: dramatic blindness and anecdotal blindness, as stereotypical; and complex blindness, as positive. Subsequently, the study selected four telenovelas, produced between 2005 and 2012, for detailed ethnographic analysis: an anecdotal one, Desejo proibido (2008) and three complex ones, América (2005), Caras e bocas (2009/10) and Malhação Conectados (2011/12). The selection considered three factors: 1) an alleged effervescence in the theme of inclusion in the period, which, in Brazil, culminated in the promulgation of the Brazilian Inclusion Law (2015); 2) Until 2019, the study found only six complex representations of blindness, the last of which was Conectados. On the other hand, América initiated a groundbreaking blindness pedagogy project, featuring an unprecedented socio-educational television campaign on the inclusion of blind individuals, serving as a starting point; and 3) Desejo proibido was selected to map how these stereotypical discourses continued to circulate, even in the midst of an alleged celebration of the diversity in Globo’s telenovelas. The study revealed that these models also dialogue with each other internally in the productions, including complex ones, which operate with dramatic and anecdotal nuances and, therefore, ableist. The construction of representations has occurred from a visuocentric perspective, based on the notion of visual sensory supremacy and blindness as a homogeneous, incomplete, and tragic experience, even when positive. In addition, the study also systematized the connection between complex blindness representation and television social merchandising, a Brazilian unstable fictional communicability project, in constant tension with reality. As a result, this study alerted to the need for future studies that map certain identified historical discontinuities, such as the decoding of blindness representations by viewers and the cripface practice. The results also emphasized that Brazilian telenovelas, despite their intrinsic stereotypes, should strive to break free from visuocentrism as a foundational creative and narrative basis. Thus, telenovelas can generate new possibilities to anti-ableist practices and representations, about, for and with people with visual impairments.

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Tese

Ano

2024

Instituição

Fundação Getulio Vargas

Fonte

Repositório da FGV

Idioma

Português

Acesso

Acesso aberto

Identificador

oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/35245

Palavras-chave

TelenovelaCegueiraDeficiência visualRepresentaçõesVisuocentrismoBlindnessVisual impairmentRepresentationsVisuocentrismPessoas com deficiênciaTelenovelasRepresentações sociais