Televisão, narrativa e restos do passado

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the existence of a particular way of telling the history of TV which allows us to say that there is a television narrative. Certain aspects of its language assume the form of constants in terms of peculiarities and particularities, that cannot be mistaken for those of other broadcasting systems. These constants are: thematic articulations, the dependence on orality regimes, and modes of communication that establish particular “modes of seeing”. These are the characteristics of the mode of telling on TV – no matter whether in genres dependent on the conventions of veracity or fictionality – that we are particularizing as television narrative. Secondly, we will demonstrate how television articulates its narrative in time, putting past, present and future in distinct comprehension regimes. An expanded present, a past in the form of vestige and a future as expectation reproduce both the logic of vulgar time on the small screen as well as modes of telling in everyday life. Could we then say that television narrative can be inserted in this longing to mould new scheme views under the form of storytelling? To which extent does television build new narrative forms? How do these constructions establish a connection with the past, through what we call memorable vestiges, and with the future as well, through the sense of expectation? Finally, how do memorable vestiges inform about television narrative and its relation to time? These are the fundamental questions that guide this work, which is itself the result of a research called /Media and Festive Ceremonies on Brazilian Television/, sponsored by FAPERJ (“Scientist of Our State” Project) as well as by CNPQ (“Productivity and Research” Scholarship).