Page 251 - Communication Theory and Research

McQuail(EJC)-3281-18.qxd 8/16/2005 12:02 PM Page 236

236 Communication Theory & Research
A decade and a half later, there is a common perception that the soap opera
form has proved so successful in winning large audiences that as a specifically
American form it is taking over from many others, and that soaps are spreading
around the world to the possible detriment of more ‘serious’ or local or public
service oriented materials (Schiller, 1992). Of course, defenders of the soap opera
(including many feminist academic researchers as well as a sizeable audience)
might not judge this trend such a bad thing. What surprised us, when deciding
to explore this spread of soap operas specifically within the European context, was
that this common perception appears to be mistaken: most European countries
produce only a few soaps, and some, for example France and Italy, produce none
1
at all. Moreover, of those produced domestically, many are not simply local
versions of an American format.
Our focus in this article is not on the import of soaps made elsewhere but on
the production of local soaps. In this respect we classify countries roughly into
three groups: the big producers (Great Britain, Germany), those countries pro-
ducing one or a few soaps (Greece, the Netherlands, Scandinavia) and those who
produce none (France, Italy, Spain). Of course there are always exceptions, and
there have been various attempts by different countries at different times (e.g.
Spain introduced a new soap – Medico de familia – in 1996, and Italy has a series
of short serials – modelled on the first, best-selling, Edera – of the telenovella
form). [...]
A related concern has to do with the new salience of the issue of cultural iden-
tity in Europe. With the growing economic integration of the European Union,
and, in parallel, the ethnic and cultural segmentation within national states (not
only the extreme case of the former Yugoslavia but also in Belgium, Spain and
the UK) – there is a new urgency in dealing with matters of national identity.
How do the multiple member states, and ethnic and cultural communities
within these states, preserve their own language, art and history? One possible,
though not ‘purist’ answer is producing home-soaps. As Québecois journalist,
Denise Bombardier (1985), has stated, ‘if we could have a soap, we would have
a nation’.
The focus of this article is the examination of the diversity and evolution of
soap opera forms in Europe. In so doing, we aim to broaden the range of soap
operas which researchers consider, for the focus on the ‘canon’ (comprising pre-
dominantly American, and perhaps also British, soap operas) reinforces the
impression that it is the American form which is predominant everywhere.
Indeed, in an earlier article we contrasted the British and American traditions of
soap opera, arguing that their differences are sufficiently great to justify dividing
them into two different subgenres (Liebes and Livingstone, 1992). British soaps
(e.g. Coronation Street) typically present separate, distinct families, all living
in one community, characterized by multipersonal and ‘vertical’ (intergenera-
tional) encounters. There are many links between families, and ‘organic solidar-
ity’ in the community. The network of American soaps consists of a system of
destabilized dyadic relationships, in which the balance is always collapsing, and
has to be repaired by destroying another balance. The families are intermixed
by a thick web of marriage and romance which undermines the family structure.
The focus of the American soaps on romantic couples means that they are