Blog Entry #2

Hey, class!

In the past few times that we have met, we have started to discuss the greater elements of the telenovela. We talked about representation, identity, and consumption. The main takeaway that stood out to me was the concept of the “Cinderella” character throughout telenovelas. Having a Cinderella character is so important in a telenovela because it creates an ideal persona for audiences to immediately fall in love with. The basic Cinderella is good and pure and also can be a representative for a huge community because he or she might come from a rural or poor area. This helps so many audience members relate because it mimics what is called the “American Dream” in the United States. Cinderella characters go through an odyssey that ends up changing their fate completely and takes them from a poor, possibly sad life to one that is so much different and exciting and full of love, even if it also is full of conflict. This reflects the “American Dream” because so many people immigrate to the United States because they believe that this dream exists - that a change is possible and it takes hard work to climb the social and socioeconomic ladder. So, audiences also are buying into this dream and idea when they see Cinderella characters being able to achieve this.

In the telenovela that I am watching this semester, “Kurt Seyit ve Sura”, the main female protagonist, Sura, is most definitely a Cinderella character. She is a high class Russian aristocratic family, so she doesn’t necessarily fit the poor, rural image of a Cinderella, but the way she acts and presents herself does. She is naive and she is so innocent, which is something that many of the other characters throughout the telenovela have often pointed out about her because they worry that she is making a mistake. Audiences will immediately fall in love with her because she is so pure and good and everything that she does throughout the show is in the name of love. Her love interest, Seyit, the main character of the show, is a Turkish soldier that is highly esteemed by the Tsar at the time. So, this presents a different convention of the Cinderella story because both of them are well off in society. But, just as Sura is Cinderella, Seyit is most definitely the Prince, and many of the other characters also show conventional roles like the “ugly stepsisters” and the “evil step-mother” though much less so.

The main problem that is occuring throughout the first half of the show is that the war is happening and while Seyit is off fighting, there is also turbulence back at home in Russia where the Bolsheviks are gaining power and trying to take the power of the aristocratic families and the Tsar. The historical background and the tension that keeps building through every episode is just another example of the show working how the audience will consume its content.

Like we discussed in our last class, chemistry is a big product that needs to be developed throughout. The chemistry between Seyit and Sura is phenomenal as only in the first few episodes, their every interaction becomes so extreme that they are nearly throwing themselves at each other because of the intense conflict that they are facing. Because it is a Turkish drama, the two characters are censored in the intimate activity that they can have, but they still manage to build their chemistry by holding each other’s faces, talking very poetically to one another, and definitely having intense build up between their every interaction. The build up is especially intense because the two of them keep being physically parted and the audience feels that distance because they yearn to be together so badly.

I talked a lot about “Kurt Seyit ve Sura” in this blog post, but it’s such a good show and so much has happened in only a few episodes! This class has really opened my eyes up to all that I’m watching in the moment and honestly makes all of the details and development seem all the more important and relevant as I watch it. I’ll give more updates next time!