Series - Soap Operas - Values [antikvár]

I. Introduction Soap-operas, as a genre, may be frivolous or dramatic, but in the end everyone receives their just desserts. However distant they may be from documentaries, they still contain some elements of reality. They use everyday situations, which while they might not actually occur all at once in real life, still incorporate elements of truth in the details and scenes of the stories. These adults fairy stories' are based on the anomalies within different societies, the possible situations and everyday incidents amongst which we live our lives. The good and the bad, the poor and the rich and the beautiful and the ugly are all characters that we recognise. Many of us have been and will be abandoned by the love of our lives, or have fallen in love with someone else's husband or wife, and then after going through hell and presenting someone with an unexpected baby and being either accepted or rejected we just get on with our lives. That's why soap-operas are so popular. However much we may deny it, they speak not only to us but about us, whether they are set in the world of American millionaires, on the Brazilian pampas, in a Mexican shanty town or a middle-class suburb. The characters embody various human archetypes, who may be found in Budapest or Szentendre, or any other town in Hungary. In this thesis I shall analyse the characteristics, functions and historical roles of soap-operas. Over time the form of soap-operas has developed and changed, not only in their contents but also in their function. In the 1930s groups of writers were employed to create radio-series, the descendants of whom have now developed the genre into a full industry. During the war series were brought from overseas and used for military propaganda to give messages of hope to the fighting men. As time went on of soap-operas degenerated into the light and phantasy-like worlds portrayed during the 70s. Now, today we can see the present result of this evolution. Whether a bluestocking or a snearing professional, however reluctant we are to admit it, even we must confess to watching these silly stories for adults, however, much we try to deny it to ourselves these stories have become part of the life of each segment of society. Even if we lose track of the characters, as new heroes and anti-heroes appear on the screen, we still get some form of moral message from each of them. The difference between foreign soaps and those made in Hungary is that the foreign ones tend to convey messages concerning social issues such as AIDS, crime and morality, whereas those made in Hungary rarely have any such educational value. This will be illustrated in the empirical part of this thesis. There has been one such Hungarian soap 'Neighbours' (Szomszédok) but due to the change of regime it was cancelled.