Latin American telenovelas have been exported to more than a hundred countries across the globe. While they are popular in their country of production because their messages resonate with their audience’s everyday experiences, their popularity amongst global audiences with whom they share neither a social nor a cultural history is unexplained. Kenya has been importing and airing Latin American telenovelas since the early 1990s, and telenovelas have permeated many aspects of Kenyan daily life, when compared to other foreign globally-distributed media products that are aired on Kenyan television. As global media products, telenovelas remain open to criticisms from the media imperialism thesis. This research adopts an ethnographic approach to the study of audiences, and looks at the reception of a Mexican telenovela, Cuando Seas Mia, by a group of young Kenyan women in Nairobi. It reflects upon the media imperialism thesis from an African perspective by investigating the meanings that these women make from Cuando Seas Mia, and how these shape their changing local identities and cultures. The young women in this study, most of whom have moved to the city from the rural areas, are influenced by traditional, patriarchal Kenyan society and by the modern, Western influences of an urban environment. They experience a tension between their evolving rural and urban roles and identities and are drawn to telenovelas because their exploration of rural-urban themes holds a relevance to their own lives. They negotiate their contemporary African youth identities, gender roles and heterosexual relationships in relation to representations in the telenovela, questioning and destabilising African and Western definitions. These women select aspects from their traditional, African cultures and from their modern, Western experiences (and consumption of global media) and reconstruct them into a transitional youth identity which suits their day to day lives as young women living in an urban African environment.

Submitted by Fabiano Vassallo (fabianovassallo2127@gmail.com) on 2017-05-11T19:05:09Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) 2017-04-03 tese mario gaio - versao final.pdf: 5555815 bytes, checksum: b682610037667eef97dcbb8edbfb0342 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Josimara Dias Brumatti (bcgdigital@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-05-19T14:30:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) 2017-04-03 tese mario gaio - versao final.pdf: 5555815 bytes, checksum: b682610037667eef97dcbb8edbfb0342 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-19T14:30:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) 2017-04-03 tese mario gaio - versao final.pdf: 5555815 bytes, checksum: b682610037667eef97dcbb8edbfb0342 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A presente tese discute língua, cultura e sociedade e se insere no âmbito da sociolinguística. Interessa também a outros campos do saber dentro das ciências sociais e humanas, como a Sociologia e a Antropologia. O objeto da investigação é um processo complexo que parte do fenômeno do Contato de Línguas, perpassa os seus efeitos tais como language shift, convergência e empréstimos, prossegue até o efeito mais drástico, a perda total de falantes, e deixa um legado (trans)cultural através dos processos de etnicidade que estão em movimento. A composição multiétnica da população brasileira é profundamente marcada por traços culturais de diversos povos, entre os quais se incluem os italianos. A despeito do imaginário coletivo que associa imigração italiana aos estados do Rio Grande do Sul e de São Paulo, Minas Gerais e Rio de Janeiro também foram receptores de imigrantes provenientes da multifacetada Itália. A cidade mineira de Juiz de Fora foi o mais importante centro de triagem de imigrantes aportados no Rio de Janeiro com destino ao estado de Minas Gerais. Esses carregavam suas próprias identidades linguísticas e culturais, com implicações nas suas sensações de pertencimento que ultrapassaram as gerações. Os imigrantes, dialetófonos em sua maioria, mantiveram por alguns anos Comunidades de Fala difusas e complexas (COUTO, 2016b), mas preteriram suas línguas em favor da língua dominante, o português brasileiro. Contudo, seus ecossistemas culturais penetraram nos ecossistemas culturais locais e por eles foram penetrados, tornando seus descendentes sujeitos transculturais. Nesta perspectiva, o termo brasileirítalo é proposto para definir uma ressignificação dos termos ‘italiano’ (condição herdada) e ítalo-brasileiro (categoria hifenizada), ambos já preconizados nos estudos da área (LESSER, 2014). Imigrantes sempre se apoiaram em Redes Sociais (MILROY & MILROY, 1985; MILROY, 2007; BORTONI-RICARDO, 2011) para estabelecerem-se e estas se desfaziam ao longo do tempo pela natureza urbana do contexto de imigração estudado neste trabalho. Vez por outra surgiam Comunidades de Prática (WENGER, 2006 [1998]) motivadas pela italianidade, que agregavam cidadãos e descendentes num escopo comum. A identidade e a sensação de pertencimento (belonging) são aqui tratadas com aporte teórico em Brubaker & Cooper (2000); Bauman (2004); Jungbluth (2007; 2015); Pfaff-Czarnecka (2011); Anthias (2013); Dervin & Risager (2015). O Contato de Línguas e seus efeitos são analisados com base nos estudos de Weinreich (1968 [1953]); Mufwene (2008); Couto (2009); Savedra & Gaio & Carlos Neto (2015); Thomason (2001); Winford (2003). A transculturalidade é abordada a partir do conceito seminal de Ortiz (1999 [1940]) até chegar às definições de Welsch (1999), sobre as quais se apoia nosso trabalho. A perspectiva ecolinguística (COUTO, 2007, 2009, 2016a, 2016b, 2016c; MUFWENE, 2004, 2008, 2016; TRAMPE, 2016) encerra nosso arcabouço teórico e através dela investigamos uma específica Comunidade de Fala não mais existente que fora constituída por imigrantes. Esta pesquisa tem cunho qualitativo e teve suporte metodológico em Dodsworth (2014), Hoffman (2014) e Puskás (2009). A metodologia utilizada constituiu-se de aplicação de entrevistas semiestruturadas a descendentes de italianos. Como material de apoio foram aplicados questionários a líderes de associações ligadas à italianidade / This thesis discusses language, culture, society, and it inserts itself in the realm of sociolinguistics. It is also connected to other fields of knowledge within the human and social sciences, such as Sociology and Anthropology. The object of investigation is a complex process which starts from the phenomenon of Language Contact, goes through its effects such as language shift, convergence and borrowings, continuing until its most drastic effect, the total loss of speakers, leaving a (trans)cultural legacy through the processes of ethnicity which are in motion. The multiethnic composition of the Brazilian population is profoundly marked by cultural traces of numerous peoples, among which is found the Italians. Despite the collective imaginary, which associates the Italian immigration with the states of Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro were also recipients of immigrants from multifaceted Italy. The city of Juiz de Fora, in the State of Minas Gerais, was the most important screening center for immigrants docked in Rio de Janeiro en route to Minas Gerais. They carried their own cultural and linguistic identities, with implications to their sense of belonging that surpassed generations. The immigrants, dialectophones in their majority, kept for some years complex and scattered Speech Communities (COUTO, 2016b), but abandoned their languages in favor of the dominant language, Brazilian Portuguese. However, their cultural ecosystems penetrated the local ones and were by them also penetrated, making their descendants transcultural individuals. In this perspective, the term Brasileirítalo (or Brazilianitalic, in its English suggested version, a portmanteau of the words Brazilian and Italic, in reference to Italy) is proposed to define a resignification of the terms Italian (as an inherited condition) and Italian-Brazilian (hyphenated category), both recommended in the studies of the area (LESSER, 2014). Immigrants have always relied on Social Networks (MILROY & MILROY, 1985; MILROY, 2007; BORTONI-RICARDO, 2011) to establish themselves and which disappeared over time due to the urban nature of the context of immigration studied in this work. Eventually there were Communities of Practice (WENGER, 2006 [1998]) motivated by the Italianity, which joined citizens and descendants in one common scope. Identity and belonging are here treated as theoretical contributions in Brubaker & Cooper (2000); Bauman (2004); Jungbluth (2007; 2015); Pfaff-Czarnecka (2011); Anthias (2013); Dervin & Risager (2015). Language contact and its effects are analyzed based on studies by Weinreich (1968 [1953]); Mufwene (2008); Couto (2009); Savedra & Gaio & Carlos Neto (2015); Thomason (2001); Winford (2003). Transculturality is approached from the seminal concept of Ortiz (1999 [1940]) until we reach the definitions of Welsch (1999), on which this study is based. The ecolinguistic perspective (COUTO, 2007, 2009, 2016a, 2016b, 2016c; MUFWENE, 2004, 2008, 2016; TRAMPE, 2016) closes our theoretical framework and through it we investigate a specific and non-longer existent Speech Community that was constituted by immigrants. This research has a qualitative nature and borrows its methodological support from Dodsworth (2014), Hoffman (2014) and Puskás (2009). The methodology used is made up of the application of semi-structured interviews of Italian descendants. As support material, questionnaires were given to leaders of associations connected with Italianity