FYOS - Telenovelas Spring 2021

     My knowledge pertaining to telenovelas before this class was extremely limited before coming to this class. Surface level is somewhat of an understatement because I simply assumed that they were simply Spanish soap operas. But my understanding of English soap operas was only derived from a regular tv show that mentioned soap operas every once in a while and also just the overall stereotypical elements of soap operas, like over-dramatic dialogue and plot points. I mainly picked this class because it is related to Spanish, which is my minor. I want to become fluent and I know watching tv is a great way to develop one's skills.      Surprisingly, I have found myself to come to really enjoy watching telenovelas. When I told my high school Spanish teacher that I am in a class about telenovelas and that I like watching them too, at first she made fun of me for "turning soft". Once she was done with her antics, I asked her if she ever watched any te...

 Telenovas are not only an entertaining form of media filled with dramatics and romance, but they are also a window peering into the nuances of society. Something I personally find very interesting is digging deeper into media past the surface level. In a way, telenovas are much like an art exhibition: you can observe what the painting is showing and what colors the artist used, but its true beauty is finding the meaning of why the artist did what they did.  Telenovas often represent the society around it at that time. Decades ago, it was much more normal and accepted for gender roles to be highly divided and stereotypes being seen as true. In a much more progressive society, dramas today show the ugly details of society from before in an empowering and uplifting way. I do enjoy my own share of cheesy early 2000's dramas, however. The nostalgia, the music, the film quality: they all bring fond memories to not only me but many other viewers as well. I am learning how to simulta...

       What I have learned so far in class is that there is more than one kind of telenovela. Personally I have watched Latin American telenovelas but I never thought of other types like Korean, Turkish, and many more. During the past classes we have talked about what is a telenovela? You would look up on google for the definition which would be (in Latin America) a television soap opera. But, there is a slight difference between telenovelas and soap operas. Most telenovelas have no seasons, mix of exteriors/studios, and plots rarely in real time. However soap operas the plot is usually on real time, exteriors are very rare, and actors are considered second class.      Living in a Spanish household you are bound to watch a telenovela no matter your age. I remember my family and I would watch telenovelas no matter the time or day it was. Till this day every telenovela episode leaves with a cliffhanger before the commercials to engage you to come back af...

The topic of this course stuck out to me as I was considering FYO topics at the beginning of this semester. In the current COVID-19 state of the world right now, many people have stayed indoors and found more time and opportunities for online entertainment through television, movies, etc.  I found the topic of telenovelas interesting because growing up partly in a Spanish-speaking household half the time and a non-Spanish speaking household for the other half, I would see various telenovelas airing on networks like Telemundo and Univision but I never really got interested in them. So, I decided that I wanted to take the chance and appreciate something that I never really considered much growing up: telenovelas.  I always enjoy a good show with a decent amount of drama but full “drama” tv shows are a genre that I have not really had much history with. I especially do not have much experience with shows that aren’t in English, so telenovelas are a genre that people wouldn’t typi...

The first exposure I have ever gotten to anything close to a Telenovela, were Turkish dramas. When I was young, I spent all of my summers in my home country, Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a second- world country by definition, meaning cell phones and wifi were not as available there as they were in the United States. This made my life for 3 months there, a little more different than my life in Atlanta. The Disney channel episodes were always several months behind and replayed throughout the day, at about 2 weeks days into my trips I had already memorized the entire season of Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place. What was always different though, were the Turkish dramas. New Turkish dramas played every single weekday on BTV, and with all of the action, even if the episodes repeated, I would hardly notice.      While I cannot recall any shows or characters' names from these shows, I will always hold the feeling so deeply in my heart. I remember waking up to my grandmother ma...

Slipping into my Spanish I teacher’s classroom during lunch to watch telenovelas are some of my best memories from middle school. My friends and I would huddle together after procuring our simple lunches of plastic-y cheese pizza and too-soft chicken tenders complete with saccharine-sweet, syrupy mandarin oranges, then plan our escape swiftly sneaking past the lunch monitors. My Spanish teacher’s room was always open for visitors, equipped with desks grouped together and Netflix for our viewing pleasure- with only one stipulation- anything we watched had to be in Spanish. The only problem was that everyone in our group had a different telenovela that piqued their interest and none of them were the same. After several lunch periods filled with debate, we approached our Spanish teacher and asked for her recommendations. We figured that she would have a good collection of shows that she enjoyed. As a Mexican native, she had previously shared with us her old quincea ñ era photos and memori...

Like several other students in this class, I'm a fan of Jane the Virgin. I mean, how could I not be? It had insane plot twists, a perfect balance of fantasy and reality, and crazy romances that were, "straight out of a telenovela, right?" But apparently, Jane the Virgin is NOT a telenovela. At first, that assessment confused me. I had always pictured that show as a telenovela.  There were some other shows that I was surprised to find weren't telenovelas either; I'm a fan of Siempre Bruja , but it isn't a telenovela. Other titles, like Casa de Papel and Elite, also don't fit the bill. But, after a few lectures, I discovered the reason my picture of telenovelas was so flawed.  When I thought of telenovelas, I pictured drama, romance, cheesines, and most importantly, the Spanish language. It was the last descriptor that truly lead me astray. I assumed that all of the titles I listed previously were telenovelas because they were dramas with some Spanish. T...

    During my time in  high school, I had taken four years of Spanish. Throughout those years, I had learned so much including getting to watch telenovelas. I had believed I had a good understanding of them, until coming here and starting this class.      Originally I had believed telenovelas were just hispanic dramas. Or I believed they were similar to sitcoms or even just something similar to skits. After the first day, I had learned that what I believed to be telenovelas were indeed wrong. First, I had learned that telenovelas that not only did they make telenovelas in Spanish speaking countries, but that they made them globally as well. They are popular in many countries including Turkey, Korea, etc. After learning this, I realized that I have truly been missing out on what Telenovelas actually are and what they mean to their viewers. Not only that, but the fact that there are different telenovelas for all age groups. I had assu...

 Today in class we went over the topic of representation in telenovelas in terms of ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. I haven't yet begun a thorough search for my telenovela that I will write a paper on but from what I've seen in class it will probably be one of Brazillian origin because they seem to have the most representation from the telenovela clips I have seen in class. As someone who is African-American and a member of the lgbtq+ community, I always like to see representation that allows me to see myself in certain characters to really engage in a show. So when I think about the perfect telenovela for me I know I want to see all shade of people of Latin America because similar to American culture you see a vast amount of actors with more European features, the main once being a lighter skin tone that doesn't really cater to the true diversity you see in everyday life. Then at the same time, I never like the idea of a show having a diverse cast but the people...

So far, I have really enjoyed this class about telenovelas! I have learned that telenovelas aren't just a Latin American genre, but that there are also Korean, American, and Brazilian telenovelas. I also now know that there are a variety of differences between telenovelas and soap operas, whereas before I thought of them as being exactly the same. For example, a soap opera has no limit in its number of episodes whereas a telenovela does. Also a soap opera is broadcast only in the afternoon whereas a telenovela is broadcast in primetime and in the afternoon. Soap operas also have their plots on real time whereas telenovelas do not. In a soap opera, actors are usually connected with the character that they play whereas in a telenovela there is not a correlation between the actor and their portrayed character all the time.  Another thing that I have learned is that there can be telenovelas for a variety of age groups including children. At first I thought that telenovelas were only fo...

    For my telenovela report, I have chosen to watch Santa Diabla . It is my first telenovela I have ever watched, and I am not ashamed to say that I am already hooked! I didn't expect to become so invested in just one episode, but then again I suppose one of the main goals of telenovela writers is to captivate the audience. And though I've only seen the beginning episode, the typology and representation is clear.            I believe that Santa Diabla is absolutely a telenovela rosa. The two protagonists, Santiago and Santa, met in the first episode, fell in love instantly, and I assume they will have a happy ending albeit many obstacles. And there are MANY obstacles already - Santiago's family (the Canos) killed Santa's husband, and Santa is now engaged to Santiago's brother! The show's villain is another classic trope in telenovelas - the evil mother-in-law. While I have not seen her in action much, I can tell she will create many difficul...

        As most avid viewers of the satirical comedy Jane the Virgin, I ultimately considered the series to be a telenovela, without knowledge of what truly makes a telenovela. Wanting to learn more about how the production draws audiences and which social issues are addressed are the reasons I joined this particular first-year seminar. In the most recent lecture, we discussed that many social issues are portrayed, even denounced through television. As a Filipina, I have a tanner complexion than what is socially acceptable in the Philippines. It is considered a stigma and is usually associated with lower-class families. When I was growing up in school, other students accused me of receiving “special treatment” from teachers only because of my skin color, which is completely unavoidable on my part. Additionally, many other Filipinos urged me to use skin lightening products because having a whiter complexion was their beauty standard. To illustrate, in a ...

 I signed up for this FYOS because I watch a lot of Korean dramas and I love watching "spicy" shows so I thought I'd give it a try. Also, watching dramas help me vent out my bottled-up emotions, whether it be crying along with a character or getting angry at the antagonist. Before going into this class, the knowledge I had on telenovelas was surface level. I just knew that they had very dramatic scene transitions and the characters had very complicated family trees. But after the first two classes, I learned that there was more to telenovelas than just the cheesy scenes: there's a lot of interesting history behind each telenovela, along with the telenovela writers. Also, I found that kdramas are very similar to telenovelas. As for the plot, there's usually always a love triangle, a nasty character that makes everybody very mad and irritated, and a Cinderella story, where the poor girl from the countryside meets a very wealthy boy in the city; it's almost alway...

During our lecture this past week, I experienced one of the most nostalgic feelings I've had in a while. Growing up in a Hispanic household, telenovelas have always been a part of my daily life, whether it be my aunts and uncles discussing the previous episode of their favorite telenovela or my mom calling me into the living room to watch the trailer for one that was just announced.  Some of the earliest memories I can recall are of my mom and I sitting on the floor in the living room at 9 pm every weekday night watching a telenovela I vividly recall to this day: El Rostro de Analía.  Looking back now, I was definitely too young to be watching a show of that kind and can totally see why my mom would skip around a good bit - I was only 6 years old. After all, this was following the life of an undercover cop and her cover as a stripper... moving along. Aside from the sometimes questionable scenes, this was definitely a bonding experience: A moment at the end of the day when we w...

In this assignment, you will practice the fundamentals of critical thinking via blogging about telenovelas. Your blog entries should reflect your thought process and your learning experience as you go through the course . In other words, your posts should be a thoughtful (and creative) expression of yourself. If you wish, you can complement the entries with images or other media. Specifically, blog entries will be of two types: Open topic entries : You are free to analyze, comment and/or reflect on any of the topics and readings we will cover in class. You can also write about the telenovela(s) you are analyzing for your class assignments. Be warned that mere description won’t meet my expectations .   Responses/comments to entries : A good blog builds a community. In that spirit, you should comment on the entries posted by your classmates or by me, be those open topic entries or responses to others’ posts. Your comments must be substantive and add to the conversation. In other word...