Crianças e telenovelas: diálogos silenciados

Abstract

This study aims at looking and listening to children´s conversations about the Brazilian soap operas they watch. It is assumed that the children watch these television programmes, but do not talk about them, mainly to people from other generations. The need to reflect upon these talks derives from our assumptions that children's interpretations of the soap operas are based upon their unique and collective experience in the world in which they live. This research was carried out with two focal groups. The participants belong to two different schools, which are located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The children, ranging from five to seven years old, claim to have watched these TV programmes. The study is supported by the theoretical contributions found in Mikhail Bakhtin, Marilia Amorim, Manuel Jacinto Sarmento, Bernadete Gatti, Jesús Martín¬Barbero, David Buckingham, among others. It focuses on the history of soap opera, as well as on the importance of this genre in the Brazilian culture. It reflects upon the children's and the school's relationship with the electronic media. Finally, it also discusses the methodological strategies which seek a careful, sensitive and beneficial dialogy ¬despite its own limitations ¬regarding the complexities and subjectiveness involved in the relationship with the children as interlocutors.