In Afro-Brazilians in Telenovelas: Social, Political, and Economic Realities, Samantha Nogueira Joyce examines representations of Blackness on Brazilian TV, interrogating the role of mass media in developing racial equality and social change. Nogueira Joyce challenges assumptions that place the inclusion of Afro-Brazilians in mass media as a step towards racial progress while contextualizing media representation with the social, political, and economic realities of the Brazilian society at large, thus linking media representations to progressive gains and conservative backlashes in the Brazilian public sphere. This book joins conversations with other works on multiculturalism, Blackness, and whiteness within media studies, critical race and ethnic studies, and Latin American studies. This multilayered approach combines textual analysis with studies of political and economic systems and digital media activism to carefully unravel Brazilian racial dynamics.
Samantha Nogueira Joyce is associate professor of global communication at Saint Mary's College of California.
Samantha Nogueira Joyce explores the complexities of race and racism in Brazilian telenovelas, highlighting the contextual forces that shape the currents of racism in Brazilian society in two points in time and two telenovelas. It is an insightful and well-crafted work that expands our understanding of media representations, racism, and telenovelas in Brazil. --Antonio C. La Pastina, Texas A&M University Samantha Nogueira Joyce offers another rich, readable, and insightful analysis of telenovela representations of Blackness in Brazil. The book advances an intersectional approach that not only illuminates how race and gender interconnect in media texts, but also highlights how online activism can lead to significant shifts in patterns of representation. This is a must-read to anyone interested in media and racial politics in Brazil. --Mauro P. Porto, Tulane University With a focus on the telenovela, Segundo Sol, Samantha Nogueira Joyce deftly illuminates how telenovelas work to maintain racial hierarchies. Afro-Brazilians in Telenovelas: Social, Political, and Economic Realities is a well-researched exploration of how conflicting ideas about racial representation are essential to how Brazil imagines itself. By deconstructing dominant racial and gender narratives of Blackness, Joyce dispels enduring myths of racial democracy. Studying the digital agency of audiences alongside government policy and telenovela production practices, the book offers a critical lens to rethinking the role of telenovelas in social transformation. This is a very important and readable addition to scholarship in Black cultural studies, media studies, and Latin American studies. --Jasmine Mitchell, SUNY Old Westbury
