AREA CALL FOR PAPERS: Latin American soap operas/telenovelas. Mexico Meeting of the Popular Culture Association in Conjunction with the 5th Annual Congress, UDLA October 18 - 21, 2001 By their very nature, part-issued narratives can be claimed to infiltrate the daily lives of their audiences more thoroughly than any other narrative form; acknowledging their cultural power, studies of the soap opera helped to pioneer cultural studies in the UK and ethnography in the US. Now, global dominance of the soap market has shifted to the telenovelas produced across Latin America. What does this shift mean for the future of televised serials and their audiences? How are telenovelas produced and consumed, both in their countries of origin and abroad? Papers and panels analyzing the soap opera/telenovela from a wide range of perspectives are encouraged; papers might explore the narrative, performative, cultural, social, economic, or political implications of this form. Global, interdisciplinary, and international perspectives are especially encouraged. Because of the location of the conference, panels and papers about Mexican telenovelas will be of particular interest, but discussions of soap operas/telenovelas from all South and Central American countries are welcomed, as are comparative readings of US and Latin American serials, the "reverse imperialism" represented by the dominance of telenovelas worldwide, and the larger repercussions of the shift from British and American soap opera to the Latin American telenovela. Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches are of special interest; a range of theoretical approaches will be accepted. Papers and/or panels can focus on themes such as those listed below (but are not limited to those themes): Ø Historical development of the soap opera/telenovela Ø Historical, national, or cultural perspectives within the telenovela Ø The history and development of the Mexican telenovela Ø The local versus the global: does the telenovela made for export lose its national specificity? Ø Televisual constructions of femininity, masculinity, and sexuality; of race and ethnicity; of class; of nationalisms Ø Soap opera imperialism Ø Telenovelas in the U.S. market Ø The postcolonial serial Ø Telenovelas and social movements Ø Ethnographies and other approaches to audience studies Ø Comparative/cross-cultural examination of soap operas/telenovelas Ø Public attitudes towards soaps/telenovelas Ø Telenovelas for a new millennium Please send a typed abstract of 150-250 words, in English or Spanish. Provide the name and academic title of each presenter and give the name and complete address of the main presenter. Include the telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the main author. E-mailed or faxed proposals are preferred; submission by normal snail mail is NOT encouraged. Deadline for proposals is June 15, 2001. Exhibits, displays, poster sessions are also invited. This Area is a strand within the Popular Culture Association meeting in Puebla, Mexico. For full information about the conference, check the conference web site: www.udlap.mx/congress This meeting is one of the international activities of the national Popular Culture Association and the Program Chair is Peter Rollins, [log in to unmask] PLEASE CONTACT AREA CHAIR: Jennifer Hayward [log in to unmask] (330) 263-2397; fax (330) 231-7013 College of Wooster Wooster, OH 44691 ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/ScreenSite