TV Serials as Collective Stories. Reflections on Kinshasa's Cultural Public Sphere

Popular culture has often been described as apolitical. In particular the format of TV fiction has acquired the aura of a genre that escapes social reality. During this presentation, I will argue that in certain cultural contexts, TV fiction may be firmly embedded in the present tense of its producers and spectators. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among Kinshasa’s TV actors between 2003 and 2006, I will emphasise the intimate connections between fictive tales and the social realities from which the teleserials emerge and to which they speak back. Kinshasa’s teleserials grow out of an ongoing dialogue between artists, pastors and the spectators, and constitute a genuine cultural public sphere. Public interests and private experiences are interwoven, thus leading to concerted narratives that deal both with highly individual lifeworlds and urban, sometimes even national, matters. Play and fiction become more serious and real than one could imagine.status: publishe