Teledramaturgia e representação histórica: Anos Rebeldes e a redemocratização no Brasil

Abstract

The article discusses Brazilian television drama as a privileged space for symbolic elaboration, a historical document, and an archive of collective memory, emphasizing its constitution in dialogue with the processes of modernization, dictatorship, and re-democratization in Brazil. Drawing on theoretical contributions, it argues that telenovelas (soap operas) and miniseries link fiction and reality, transforming political, moral, and cultural conflicts into narratives that structure the national imaginary and project new social sensitivities. Within this framework, Gilberto Braga’s trajectory is examined as an exemplary case of the consolidation of critical, sophisticated television dramaturgy, marked by his movement across theater, literature, cinema, and television, his early work on literary adaptations, and his collaboration with authors such as Janete Clair. The text analyzes transformations in social norms and sexual diversity, highlighting recurring themes such as inequality and power disputes. It then focuses on the miniseries Años Rebeldes (1992) as a key link between youth, politics, and memory, showing how this work reactivates the experience of a dictatorship and becomes a symbolic student mobilization repertoire in the 1990s. This article concludes that Gilberto Braga's television fiction functions as a symbolic archive of Brazilian society, revealing the role of television drama in shaping memory, values, identities, and sociopolitical perceptions within the broader context of re-democratization.