The indigenous presence in the Brazilian telenovela: power, interdiction and visibility

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the appearance of indigenous characters in Brazilian telenovelas and the discourses that are broadcasted about the indigenous identities. In order to investigate which of those productions brought indigenous characters, we carried out a survey in the 665 telenovelas aired from 1963 to 2016, on the main Brazilian television broadcasters, and in only 28 of those we found indigenous characters. We took as the main theoretical reference the formulation of conditions on historical possibilities of the discourses and we found two major events imbricated with the production of telenovelas and the indigenous presence: the demarcation, in 1978, of the Xingu Indigenous Park and the commemoration of the 500 years of the colonization of Brazil. We have observed that the main indigenous characters of those plots are heterogeneous and are associated with different political positions.

Keywords
Telenovelas; Brazilian Television; Military Dictatorship; Discourse; Historical possibilities