Sæbeopera som Forestillingsgenererende Teknologi

Karen Waltorp

Sæbeopera som Forestillingsgenererende Teknologi

Department of Anthropology

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Through empirical examples from Mauritania, Denmark and South Africa, the article analyzes drama series on television, including soap operas produced in the United States and Europe, Arab "musalsalat" and Latin American "telenovelas", as a social technology of the imagination that generates ideas and imaginings about other lives and other worlds, at once distant and close. It is argued that the series form part of various "associations" (Latour 2005) and work as a "technology of the imagination" (Sneath et al. 2009), allowing a "moral laboratory" (Mattingly 2010, 2012) to emerge. This opens up for alternative negotiations, directions, actions and possible futures than previously in the everyday lives of informants. In relation to proponents of the so-called "ontological turn" (Henare et al. 2007) suggesting that we live in ontologically different worlds, it is argued that as one world - the soap opera - has effect in others, this indicates that we may be said to inhabit different worlds, but these are not incommensurable, closed worlds, but multiple and overlapping.

Original language	Danish
Journal	Tidsskriftet Antropologi
Issue number	67
Pages (from-to)	139-155, 254
Number of pages	18
ISSN	0906-3021
Publication status	Published - 2013

Cite this

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title = "S{\ae}beopera som Forestillingsgenererende Teknologi",

abstract = "Through empirical examples from Mauritania, Denmark and South Africa, the article analyzes drama series on television, including soap operas produced in the United States and Europe, Arab {"}musalsalat{"} and Latin American {"}telenovelas{"}, as a social technology of the imagination that generates ideas and imaginings about other lives and other worlds, at once distant and close. It is argued that the series form part of various {"}associations{"} (Latour 2005) and work as a {"}technology of the imagination{"} (Sneath et al. 2009), allowing a {"}moral laboratory{"} (Mattingly 2010, 2012) to emerge. This opens up for alternative negotiations, directions, actions and possible futures than previously in the everyday lives of informants. In relation to proponents of the so-called {"}ontological turn{"} (Henare et al. 2007) suggesting that we live in ontologically different worlds, it is argued that as one world - the soap opera - has effect in others, this indicates that we may be said to inhabit different worlds, but these are not incommensurable, closed worlds, but multiple and overlapping.",

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AB - Through empirical examples from Mauritania, Denmark and South Africa, the article analyzes drama series on television, including soap operas produced in the United States and Europe, Arab "musalsalat" and Latin American "telenovelas", as a social technology of the imagination that generates ideas and imaginings about other lives and other worlds, at once distant and close. It is argued that the series form part of various "associations" (Latour 2005) and work as a "technology of the imagination" (Sneath et al. 2009), allowing a "moral laboratory" (Mattingly 2010, 2012) to emerge. This opens up for alternative negotiations, directions, actions and possible futures than previously in the everyday lives of informants. In relation to proponents of the so-called "ontological turn" (Henare et al. 2007) suggesting that we live in ontologically different worlds, it is argued that as one world - the soap opera - has effect in others, this indicates that we may be said to inhabit different worlds, but these are not incommensurable, closed worlds, but multiple and overlapping.

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