Broadening the scope of ageing femininities on TV : the evolution of the older woman in two contemporary Catalan soap operas

Abstract

In her work on women and the soap opera, Christine Geraghty argues that precisely the extended form of this TV genre, both in time and consequent plots, has contributed to a wider representation of women in terms of their age, personality traits and social background, as well as personal and professional interests and concerns. Two recent Catalan soaps, Ventdelplà (2005-10) and La Riera (2010---) have started to broaden the spectrum of the older female characters that were present in the first Catalan soap operas, and which were mainly set within the role of the caring grandmother. In this article, a textual analysis of the evolution of the main two female characters of Ventdelplà and La Riera, Dora Parramon and Mercè Riera, and of their respective subplots, aims to show to what extent a new understanding of age and femininity is reflected in current productions of Catalan TV.