De Benedito Ruy Barbosa a Bruno Luperi: existe um Renascer da reforma agrária na telenovela brasileira?

Abstract

This dissertation investigates how the telenovelas Renascer (1993, 2024) represent Agrarian Reform and the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), based on the analysis of scenes originally broadcast by Rede Globo and available on Globoplay that directly engage with discourses of resistance or support for agribusiness. The research begins with a historical overview of the land issue in Brazil, from the colonial period and the violence against Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans, through the consolidation of large estates and the emergence of Agrarian Reform, up to the conflicts and inequalities that characterize the contemporary rural landscape. Along the way, the study also contextualizes the role of the media, and especially the telenovela, as a cultural and mass product capable of influencing the Brazilian social imagination, either by reinforcing hegemonic discourses or by opening space for counter-hegemonic representations. The analysis, qualitative in nature and grounded in Bauer and Gaskell (2000), Stuart Hall (2016), and Baitello Junior (2014), examines the textual, visual, and sound aspects of Renascer (2024), identifying how aesthetic and narrative resources construct or challenge specific positions on the agrarian question. In addition to mapping how the MST is portrayed in the work, the dissertation also outlines an overview of the telenovela in Brazil, its role as a national aesthetic hallmark, and the transformations brought about by the rise of streaming platforms. Finally, it questions whether Renascer (2024) truly contributes to giving visibility to the struggle for land or, on the contrary, frames the issue within a conciliatory logic aligned with the neoliberal interests of a television product.