Narratives of the multicultural heritage: television and discursive identity

Abstract

Narratives of the multicultural heritage: television and discursive identity — The analysis of episodes of the television series “Preserve o que é nosso” (Preserve what is ours) studies the production of meaning based on narratives about the immigrants of a specific area in southern Brazil — the valleys of the Pardo and Taquari rivers. It involves observing how the perspectives of idem identity or sameness, and ipse identity or selfhood enter into negotiation for the construction of the discursive identity. The insertion of shorties in the television flow is indisputable evidence of the weight an identity negotiation takes on when one considers a multicultural audience. The negotiations also involve conflicts of interest between the TV’s local and regional stations and the national head of the network, which are manifested in the network’s programming schedule.