Silencing, controlled visibility or representativeness? What is this black in Guilhermina e Candelário

Abstract

The social representativeness in vogue in audiovisual TV productions, especially in those produced in Brazil, has been elicited studies and debates. Despite the criticism to hegemonic pattern based on race and ethnicity, characterized more by absences than presences, which historically compose this alleged representativeness, it is still predominant the invisibility that, somehow, has been replaced by a controlled visibility. Against this context, the Colombian animation Guilhermina e Candelário, broadcasted in Brazil by TVE/TV Brasil, presents a series of stories experienced by black characters. Considering its exceptionality in Brazilian open TV, we propose to analyze the form social aspects are there portrayed. In this empirical path, we focus on the analysis of the four protagonist of this animation, searching for the narrative meanings, proposed by Bordwell and Thompson (2008). As a result, we highlight that the animation narrative, more than problematize racial issues, naturalizes the characters so that their relevance are not based on the fact that they are black. Ethnic aspects are subtly presented and they are not in the core of the narrative. Furthermore, we observed a hegemonic rupture concerning the gender structure that builds society, also in a natural form, but with more centrality, even if some character aspects contribute to the maintenance of patterns culturally naturalized.