Wednesday, April 10, 2019
12 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Joukowsky Forum, 111 Thayer Street
Paula Halperin examines the relations between the Brazilian military regime (1964 – 1985), the emergence of the television network Rede Globo in 1965, and its growing influence during the 1970s and 1980s. The regime invested heavily in infrastructure, allowing the new medium to expand nationally and to establish a cultural hegemony that lasted for over three decades. In her talk, she will closely analyze the popular soap opera Dancing Days (10 July 1978 and ended on 26 January 1979), mapping the consolidation of a new kind of aesthetics and teledramaturgy that channeled the aspirations and anxieties surrounding the project of conservative modernization promoted by the regime.
Paula Halperin is Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and History at SUNY Purchase. Her research integrates media, history, and the public sphere in Brazil during the twentieth century. She has published a range of essays on cinema, television, race, gender, and the process of “being Brazilian.” Her articles have appeared in academic journals in the United States, Brazil, and Argentina. She is currently finishing her manuscript Nationalism and Historical Imagination. Popular Cinema in 1970s and 1980s Brazil and Argentina. She also writes film criticism for websites and blogs.