Latin American Prototypes of Prostitutes and Wives in the Miniseries “Amorteamo”: Reinforced Continuities and Rupture Attempts

Abstract

The article focuses on the Brazilian miniseries “Amorteamo” as its empirical object, discussing Latin American melodramatic prototypes of the prostitute and the wife. The main objective is to identify reinforced continuities and rupture attempts in the analyzed melodramatic images. The literature review and theoretical framework address studies on the representation of prostitutes and wives in television fiction, with a specific focus on the melodramatic prototypes discussed by Oroz and Cassano Iturri. The methodology adopts a multimethod perspective, examining descriptive and interpretive dimensions, as well as the visual and sound aspects of the analyzed scenes. The findings highlight the intrinsic contradictions of television melodrama, particularly evident in three characters: Dora, the prostitute (in her suicide as a reinforced continuity of moral punishment and the “deserved” fate in the world of prostitution), and Lena and Arlinda, the wives (in their symbolic attempts to break away from the traditional “happily ever after” theme that pervades their marital lives).