Introduction to Part II

My own book, Reading th Romance, was only one intervention in this complex and ongoing struggle to redefine fminine subjectivity and sexuality. My objective was to place th romance with respect not only to th discourses of patriarchy but also to those of feminism. Although I tried very hard not to dismiss th activities of th Smithton women and made an effort to understand th act of romance reading as a positive response to th conditions of everyday life, my account unwittingly repeated th sexist assumption that has warranted a large portion of th commentary on th romance. It was still motivated, that is, by th assumption that someone ought to worry responsibly about th effect of fantasy on women readers. (Janice Radway 1994:214)

H i s section offers detailed textual analyses of three diffrent modes of engagement with th soap opra and th housewife. One is clearly scholarly, th second ambivalently so, while th third takes as its primary material a tlvision soap opra and associated publicity material. In contrast with th opening chapter which traced a history across a range of writing and imagery, thse three chapters are organized as closely read case studies of diffrent kinds of material, distinguished historically, and through country of origin, genre, and mdium. I suggest that analyses of thse diffrent kinds ot text allow us to identify rcurrent figures and tropes in both soap opra and th analysis of th genre. In addition to th housewife, who is represented both in and as a viewer o/radio and tlvision sriais, th most signifkant of thse is th personherselfthat Janice Radway describes in th epigraph to this introduction, th 'someone' who 'ought to worry responsibly about th effect of fantasy on women readers'. By juxtaposing detailed analyses of this very diffrent material, I show both how soap opraas text and scholarshipis dominated by this someone who worries responsibly and how this figure is differently constituted at diffrent historical moments. The first chapter of this part, Chapter 2, examines th research into th audiences for radio soap opra from th early 1940s conducled in

40

OXfORD TELEVISION STUDIkS

INIRODUUION 10 P A R I II

41

th USA under th aegis of th Bureau of Applied Social Research.1 This work, by Rudolf Arnheim, Helen Kaufman, and Herta Herzog, is one of th earliest sustained enquiries into th soap opra and th soap opra audience (Lazarsfeld and Stanton 1944). Herzog's contribution, in particular, is also significant in th development of - what has corne to be called th 'Uses and Gratifications' approach to mdia usage. This approach, as described by James Halloran in a muchcited comment, shifts th research question from what th mdia do to people to what people do with th mdia (Halloran 1970: 34). Although Herzog's research is sometimes cited in later 'culturalist' studies of soap opra, there is little engagement with it outside th work of Robert Allen (1985), and there is a way in which th more prescient lments of her prsentation are not always recognized.2 It is partly to reinscribe Herzog's research into th history of approaches to soap opra that I discuss it hre, where I recontextualize it into th group of research reports with which it first appeared. Ail of thse research reports are dominated by th figure of th housewife, both as reprsentation and interviewe, and this is, to a large extent, what is explored below. However, Herzog and Arnheim, in particular, as authors, inscribe themselves as people who 'worry responsibly'. The second set of texts, discussed in Chapter 3, are three early articles which mark th first second-wave feminist engagement with soap opra. The authors are Carol Lopate, Michle Mattelart, and Tania Modleski. The pice by Carol Lopate is generally recognized as th first feminist article on soap, while th other two writers are th most significant of th early feminist writers on soap not interviewed later in th book.3 As her object of study is th Latin American telenovela, Michle Mattelart's work can be located as inaugural within . th now extensive field of scholarship on Latin American telenovelas which is not hre my primary concern.4 However, Mattelart's feminism
1 Paul Lazarsfeld, originally from Vienna and associated with th Frankfurt School, was director of th Bureau for Applied Social Research in this period. Allen (1985: 216) offers a fascinating account of th Bureau's work which draws partly on Lazarsfeld's own mernoir (1969). 2 For example, Modleski (1982) lists Herzog in her bibliography but makes no mention of her work in th chapter on soap opra. Although Herzog was a member of th prirnary grant rcipients for th Tuebingen project in 1986-9, and a memtaer of th week-long symposium on 'Re-Conceptualizing th Media Audience' in 1987, her paper was removed from th final collection, published as flemofe Confro/(5eiter et al. 1989), on th advice of US readers for th publishers, and against th wishes of th editors (private communication with editors). 3 For further discussion of th criteria of slection of th interviewes, see Ch. 5, below. The slection of th interviewes to some extent determined th choice of articles discussed in this chapter. See also Ch. 3 n. 1. 4 See hre th work of Jsus Martin-Barbero(Martin-Barbero and Mimez 1992; MartinBarbero 1995). Lopez (1995) provides th key rfrences for other Latin American work, while work such as that of Thomas Tufte ( 1995) provides new empirical analysis of th rle of telenovelas in articulating th hybridity of Brazilian national identity.

distinguishes her work from much other Latin American work in th is area, and it seemed particularly important to offer some considration of th theoretical paradigms she deploys which can very clearly be related internationally to other feminist work of th late 1970s and early 1980s (see also Lopez 1995). Tania Modleski's work is well known within literary, film, tlvision, and cultural studies since her study of soap opra was conducted alongside th study of other popular cultural forms. Of th three pioneering authors hre discussed, i t is Modleski who is th most widely known and frequently cited in relation to th study of soap opra. My particular interest in discussing her work hre apart from th way in which its historical significance demands attention is twofold. First, through juxtaposition with other early work notably Lopate's, but also that of interviewes Seiter and Hobson I want to recontextualize Modleski's contribution and suggest that ideas which she formulated with such effect were very much 'in th air' in late 1970s feminist criticism. This is particularly true of th juxtaposition of th formai qualities of th soap opra with th rhythms of th domestic day. Secondly, in th context of my particular enquiry, it is significant that Modleski, despite her own pioneering work on popular fminine genres, has polemically opposed empirical studies of th audiences for popular mass culture, most notably in th prface to her edited collection Studies in Entertainment (1986). This she has done on th grounds that th critic who engages in this work can become complicit with th culture industry (1986: p. xii), and also through a particular idea of th feminist critic and her relation to other women: Located, until recently, on th margins of th academy, th feminist critic has contributed to th forging of a woman's culture based on this insight [th personal is political] and has felt herself to be part of a broader movement of women on whose behalf she could sometimes speak because through consciousness-raising, she in fact did speak to themas one of them. Her work is, then, ideally plurivocal, not denying th diffrences of other women but learning about them through dialogic exchange rather than through ethnographies that posit an unbridgeable gap between th critic's subjectivity and th subjectivity of 'th others'. (1991:44) This argument, with its lvation of a political connection between th feminist critic and 'other women', rather than an ethnographie one, clearly engages with th terrain of this history. My interviewes, three of whom hve conducted audience research, could be described as generally pro-ethnography of th type which Modleski hre attacks, and proceed, in Chapters 6 to 10, to inflect th terms Modleski hre invokes slightly differently. However, it is also instructive to sec

42

tmORD T E L E V I S I O N S T U D I E S

how Modleski herself first formultes thse relations between th feminist critic and 'women', and this is th concern of Chapter 3. The juxtaposition of thse two bodies of work, one from th 1940s, th other from th 1970s, and th close textual analysis which is th main method used to examine them, suggests that there may be more continuities between th paradigms employed than is usually acknowledged. Herta Herzog, an Austrian Jewish refugee writing in th USA in th 1940s, Carol Lopate writing in th USA in th 1970s, and Michle Mattelart writing in France and Chile in th 1970s and 1980s ail express concern about th interrelation between soap opra, women, and civic life. Each writer, differently, but with more shared concerns than one might expect, worries responsibly about th effect of fantasy on women viewers. However, th mode and expression of this worry is diffrent, as we shall see. Chapter 4 shifts th terrain from critical approaches to women and soap opra to a brief examination of th potential for fantasy offered r~ by one of th ur-housewives of 1970s tlvision soap opra, Meg [, Mortimer (Noele Gordon) of Crossroads. In th retrospect on her own work from which my epigraph cornes, Janice Radway links her own Reading th Romance (1984) with Tania Modleski's LovingvAih a Vengeance (1982). She suggests that both books are 'transitional events in th struggle over th genre' ( 1994:216 ), but also reflects that 'Policing, it seems to me, was th real work enacted by conservative, leftist and early feminist critiques of romances and their readers' (1994:215). In light of this argument, and th changes which she goes on to trace in th romance genre itself, Radway insists on th significance of a concept of fantasy in future approaches to romance, approvingly citing th work of Cora Kaplan (1986) and Alison Light (1984). Soap opra is not romance, and th critical history, while comparable, as we see in a collection such as Pearce and Stacey's 1995 volume Romance Revisited, is diffrent. However, th person who ^worriesresponsibh/, figures largely in th critical literature on both "genres,lndTndeedTas we see in Chapter 3, it is in this guise that th feminist first engages with th genre. One of th diffrences between th feminist engagement with th two genres is th deployment of fantasy as a concept. Indeed, soap opra can be placed against both romance and women's pictures-asthe genre which is primarily addressed through notions of th^reaj/In Chapter 41 address th way in whichfan tasyis not much used in discussion of soap opraunlike romanceand also suggest that it is a concept which may hve particulr rsonances in th imagination of ordinary femininity successfully achieved.

The Housewife in 1940s Mass Communication Research: Arnheim, Kaufman, and Herzog

N Speaking ofSoap Opras (1985), Robert Allen argues that it is impossible for any contemporary criticor viewerto approach soap opras without also engaging with th connotational encrustation that both th genre and its viewers hve attracted. He supports this argument with a survey of th mass communication research donc on radio soap opras in th 1930s and 1940s in th USA, arguing that more rcent research has inherited key paradigms, th most significant of which is th 'diffrence' of th viewer. He puis this argument as follows:

The Warner and Henry study is but one further example of th penchant of investigators to collapse th entire soap opra audience into a single social and psychosocial category whose members could be regarded as 'diffrent' from everyone else and whose interest in soap opras is seen as deriving not from a genuinely aesthetic impulse but from a psychopathological... need for rle reinforcement. (1985: 28) Allen's argumentwhich clearly draws on and benefits from th feminist work I discuss in Chapter 3is illuminating and well supported. It is particularly convincing in that he addresses both th construction of th soap opra text and th profile of th viewer in research. Writing within th US context at a time when th study of soap opra took place within mass communications departments very much more frequently than in contexts where 'Tlvision Studies' was taught, part of Allen's agenda was clearly a challenge to mass communications as a discipline. This project, while explicitly addressed at various points in th main body of th text, merges with a vengeance in th footnotes, which offer lengthy critical analyses of

th US tradition in cmpirical audience studios. 1 I want to return to some of th pionccrs of rescarch that Allen discusses, for, without his agenda, 1 think this work can be read slightly differently. In some ways, my interest is very close to Allen's, and there are clear homologies in our projects in that I am explicitly investigating th way in which th figure of th housewife is constructed in research about soap opra. However, I want both to pursue th argument further than he does, to investigate th feminist work which is a significant context for Allen's work, and to go less far, to dally a little longer in what Lazarsfeld himself understood as 'administrative research', to read some of th work from th 1940s sympathetically and symptomatically. Unlike Allen, though, I am not offering any kind of survey of th paradigms of US mass communications work in this field. This work, and th arguments against it that can be mounted by students of rception theory and cultural studies, has already been most efficiently achieved in Speaking ofSoap Opras (Allen 1985). Hre, instead, I want to examine th personae we find in th 1940s US research on radio soap opra which was conducted for th most part by scholars trained in th German intellectual tradition who were refugees from Nazism in Europe.

(i) Arnheim and Kaufman

For many years, Herta Herzog's 1942 article 'What Do We Really Know about Daytime Sriai Listeners?', which was published with other articles on daytime sriais by Rudolf Arnheim and Helen Kaufman in Radio Research, 42-3, remained th single most significant study of th (radio) soap opra audience (Herzog 1944; Allen 1985: 23). Herzog addresses th question she poses in her title through th analysis of th findings of four surveys conducted in th USA in 1940-2, and concentrtes exclusively on women viewers. Before discussing Herzog's research in dtail, I would like to offer a brief account of th research with which it was published, Arnheim's 'The World of th Daytime Sriai' and Helen Kaufman's 'The Appeal of Spcifie Daytime Sriais' since together this work, although concerned with radio soap opra, lays out many of th areas of concern that are rediscovered by th feminist critics of th 1970s and 1980s in relation to tlvision soap opra. This is not to argue for a simple convergence in th 1980s between th traditions of 'uses and gratifications' research and th more cultural studies work, which is where most feminist research can be most usefully located (Ang 19S9b; Schrder 1987), but to suggest that there are homologies, not
1 Allen (1985: Ch. 2, pp. 216-18 n. 3, pp. 218-21 n. 8).

only in th sriai world of th 1940s and 1970s, but also in th figure of th housewife that this research constructs and investigates. At this point it is also important to note Robert C. Allen's argument that despite repeated research findings from th late 1930s onwards that soap opra listeners were not very diffrent to non-listeners, that indeed th majority of American women listened to soap opra, research projects were consistently designed to investigate 'th diffrence' of th soap opra audience (Allen 1985: 25). This diffrence, as Allen, following earlier feminist work, points out, is constituted by th genre's 'almost exclusively female audience' (1985:25). Kaufman provides one of th early examples of th investigation of this audience, a detailed report on two of th surveys that Herzog includes in her synthesizing account. Kaufman is investigating th extent to which 'th spcifie content of a sriai' accounts for its appeal to spcifie groups of listeners. Thse groups she initially dsigntes as young and old, rich and poor, but in th surveys attention is paid to educational level and rural/urban habitation as well as ge and income. Kaufman finds some differentiation in appeal through a very simple notion of audience identification with a central figure young heroine likely to be preferred by younger audience, etc. except in th case of th sriai (Against th Stornt) which she considers more likely to appeal to more sophisticated listeners, where she uses aesthetic criteria such as 'skilfully handled' (Kaufman 1944:94), 'well written' (1944: 95). Although th surveys offer some corrlation between appeal and audiences, thse are not very marked when considered against factors such as th broadcast schedule. More interestingly, Kaufman observes that many listeners 'read' each sriai they listen to in ternis of their own concerns, so not only are diffrent listeners' accounts of th same sriai noticeably contrasted, but indeed th same listener seems to manage to recreate th same concerns across distinct texts. Kaufman does not, however, as this account might imply, dispense with th text altogether, and insists on th significance of 'similar psychological satisfactions' in determining a listener's choice to stay with a scheduled squence of sries. She remains confident that there are corrlations that can be made, and argues for th necessary development of'finer indices to describe th listeners' and also for th development of'finer catgories to describe th content of th sriais to which they listen' ( 1944:106). Hre we can note that one direction US research has taken has been th development of quite elaborate, but static, 'finer catgories' for th analysis of th content of sriai drama, which has produced a noticeable expansion of published research (Katzman 1972; Greenberg 1980; Frentz 1992). The question of whether this increasingly elaborate apparatus of manifest content analysis has fulfilled Kaufman's ambitions is not

46

OXFORD TFUVISIONSTUDIES

MU H O U S E W I F b IN 1 9 4 0 b R E S E A R C H

47

pursued hre.2 The significant innovation of th feminist work in th 1970s and 1980s though, was not in th study of th content of th sriais, but in th shift in attention to their form. It has been th attention to th ritualistic, interrupted, everyday consumption of soap opra that has transformed th approaches to th genre. In this, th study of th ways in which th genre is watched, soap opra scholarship has been a leading site in th changed critical approaches to tlvision which characterize th cultural studies' scholarship of th 1980s. Rudolf Arnheim's essay is interesting both for th detailed delineation of soapland which it offers, much of which, like James Thurber's early article 'The Listening Women', is still relevant today, and for its spculations on th position of American women (Thurber 1948). Arnheim sees th sriais as a stereotypical product, thus justifying 'a statistical approach', in which th producers and sponsors are concerned to meet th demands and desires of th listeners. He thus expects a content analysis to yield 'not only something about th programs, but also something about th listeners. Thse stories are likely to offer a picture of th world such as a particular social group would wish it to be' (Arnheim 1944:35). This leads him, after a detailed description of th sriai world, lments of which I summarize below, and within which spcifie attention is paid to th differential rles of women and men, to try and produce 'a psychological formula of soap opra'. This Arnheim founds on th notion of identification. He argues that there is a 'surprisingly uniform' positive object of identification, a figure of moral perfection, a 'leader by personal quality' who is almost always a woman. Against this good character, there are ranged bad and weak individuals. The listener is actually like th weak characters, but her attention is drawn towards th good one, who suffers at th hands of th evil ones. He continues: she is encouraged to view failures as happening only to other people, and is confirmed in her belief that her suffering is caused not by herself, but by th imperfection and villainy of others. There is little effort to make th listener aware of her prjudices and resentments; rather, she is carefully flattered. Men are shown to be inferior to women, th working class is ignored, learning is depreciated. The egocentric and individualiste concept of a world in which th community appears mainly as a threat from outside is supportedhyenas howling round th campfire, with th law of th jungle as th only resort. Only private problems exist. (1944:77-8)

This passage invokes and anticiptes several of th classical leftist critiques of soap opra: th lvation of th individual over th social, th private over th public, figured particularly in th hyena/campfire metaphor, which also conceals a collectivist political vision of 'th community' against th law of th jungle. In th same analytic frame there is th perceived displacement of social structural inequality by individual evil and weakness. But it is th figure of th listener that is most striking. She is constructed as weak, self-deluding, irresponsible, ignorant, vain, prejudiced, and full of resentment. This figure this character in th drama of soap opra rceptionwho is clearly fminine, proves profoundly troubling to Arnheim. Her ignorance and weakness could be transformed, but it is her vulnerability to flattery, prjudice, and irresponsibility which leads him to speculate on th grounds of her dissatisfactions and resentments. Because he hypothesizes that a form of identificatory wish fulfilment structures th involvement of women listeners with th sriais, he is led ineluctably to speculate on 'th social situation of women confined to an unsatisfactory kind of home life' (Arnheim 1944:79), finally arguing: If it is true that th woman in th home has no satisfactory function to fulfil, why not prsent th problem bluntly, if possible on th basis of factual material? Why not show its causes and developments, and indicate feasible ways out, instead of conjuring up day dreams? (1944:82) Like many subsquent commentators, Arnheim's critique is hre focused on th fictiveness of sriai drama, its provision of compensatory escapism. The 'factual' and th 'feasible' in this passage partner each other in a documentary world in which things can be put 'bluntly' and on a firm 'basis'. Thse sentences display a discursive gendering, an argument about fact over fiction which is not unlike Professer Higgins's desperate plea in My Pair Lady, 'Why can't a woman be more like a man?' However, as with Betty Friedan's later investigation of'th problem that has no name' (1963), Arnheim is led to construct an analysis of women's position through a symptomatic reading of, in his case one aspect of, everyday life. Thse proto-feminist questions to some extent become submerged in Arnheim's more gnral conclusion, which pleads for an intgration of ducation and entertainment, but they are nevertheless striking comments to merge from a scholar who considers that 'th content analyst is in a position somewhat similar to that of th psychoanalyst who by interpreting th dreams of a patient, reveals th mechanism and th meaning of strivings of whose existence th patient is unaware or which he even wishes to contest' (1944:35). While Rudolf Arnheim had started his research with a concern about th ways in which escapist sriai fiction pandered to th worst

2 Olivier Burgelin (1972) offers a trenchant and standard critique of th methodology of content analysis.

48

OXFORD TELEVISION STUDIES

HOUSEWIFE IN 1940s R E S E A R C H

49

of stereotypically fminine characteristics, one of his conclusions stresses th difficults in th position of American women in th home. We hve hre an early example of th way in which soap opra as a genre has been read symptomatically. In this instance, perhaps slightly against th researcher's original intentions, soap opra is understood to tell us primarily about th condition of US women and th contradictions of contemporary femininity.

(ii) HertaHerzog

Herta Herzog conducted research on soap opra while working for th Bureau of Applied Social Research headed by Paul Lazarsfeld. Like many of those associated with th Bureau, she was a Jewish refugee from Europe, and it is perhaps this history which underlies a dimension of her work that is rarely commented on: its topicality. The essay is, quite clearly, in terms of tone and th sens of urgency created by th entry of th USA into th war, a kind of war work. Read symptomatically, this is an essay about th necessity for political engagement, shadowed by a sens of both th fragility and th luxury of a life absorbed in th private world of home and family. There is considrable suppressed passion in her sens that US housewives should hve a civic sens. Thus her penultimate sentence is, 'We live in a world where th ultimate criterion is no longer what we like to do, but what our duty is' (Herzog 1944: 32-3). Thse very particular historical circumstances contribute to, and perhaps explain, th exhortatory project in relation to sriai listeners vident in th essay, and it is this sens of urgent global duty which underlies th project in more than one sens, and which offers very distinct contrasts to th rather more introspective concerns of some of th second-wave scholarship. Robert C. Allen, in his consistent concern with th history of US communications research, where th term 'effects' has particular rsonances, argues for th significance of Herzog's concern with th psychological and social needs soap opra listening fulfilled, rather than with th effects of listening on th audience (1985: 23). It should, however, be pointed out that Herzog herself does initially characterize her project in terms of'effects': From th standpoint of social research, we should like to know th effects of thse sriais upon th women who hve for years listened to them regularly. (1944: 3) The other point to note hre is th straightforwardness of Herzog's assumption that it is in/on women that thse effects can be discerned. She is hre reproducing th focus of th four surveys she analyses, ail of which were conducted only with women, using content analysis, notions of audience profile and structure derived from comparisons

of listeners and non-listeners, and interprtations of 'gratifications received' from interviews. Herzog uses a structuring comparison between listeners and non-listeners and is interested in whether avid listeners are (1) more isolated; (2) of 'smaller intellectual range'; (3) more concerned with personal problems than public affairs; (4) more beset with anxieties and frustrations; or (5) just heavy radio users (Herzog's numbering). For our purposes, it is th third area of enquiry which is th most interesting, in that we hve hre specified for investigation what is often seen as a characteristic of femininity: a concern with personal life and th private sphre rather than th public. Indeed, this is in some ways an example of th tautology of femininity, wherein a defming attribute of diffrence is also simultaneously potentially pathological. What is to be investigated is, in some senss, th subjectivity of hgmonie femininity, of th little woman who stays at home and dpends on her husband for news of th world of public affairs. Herzog finds th most significant diffrences between listeners and non-listeners in areas 2 and 5. That is, listeners do tend to hve less formai ducation than non-listeners, and listen to more radioas Herzog expresses it, listeners hve a 'gnral radio-mindedness'. It is th latter finding which is more conspicuous, although none is very distinctive. Herzog makes an interesting comment in her discussion of levels of ducation when she writes, 'If a woman listens extensively to daytime sriais although her ducation gives her access to a wider range of alternative expriences, then she exhibits th 'typical' characteristics of th sriai listener in a more pronounced fashion than th listener with relatively little ducation' (1944: 20). The interest lies in th notion of th 'typical' characteristics of th sriai listener, which are never really established in th article, although there is a sustained effort to discover whether sriai listeners hve a particular personality profile. But what merges as th typical characteristic of th listener is Herzog's sens of a habit of listening: 'women who hve for years listened to them regularly', 'if a woman listens extensively'. At one level, it is th habituai listening as such which is cause for concern. Apart from th fact of listening, th distinctiveness of sriai listeners is not really confirmedsriai listeners tend to be very slightly less self-assured and energetic, but do not think of themselves as worrying more. Herzog herself is extremely cautions about th 'quantitative measure of personality traits', although obviously intrigued and interested in further investigating frustrations and anxieties of listeners. It is not, historically, th relatively indeterminate findings of th surveys that should now concern us, but th proposition that there is a typical listener, and th features of that typicality. Particularly, given that th nexus of future investigation is seen to be in anxiety and frustration, while th typical listener is seen as having less assurance and

50

OXFORD T E L E V I S I O N STUDIH

energy, we hve once again th image of sriai listening as symptom of personal inadequacy and social frustration. In this context, th fate of research area 3 is interesting. Herzog understands an interest in public affairs as 'in part a matter of gnral intellectual interests' (1944: 12), and therefore, following her findings in area 2, expects that listeners will be 'somewhat laggard in this respect'. However, as there was no marked diffrence in social participation between listeners and non-listeners, another contributory lment in an interest in public affairs, she does not expect this diffrence to be marked. Her data supports her inferencesbut her conclusions display what will become th familiar dsire to increase th participation in th public sphre of th sriai fan. The particular way in which this is figured for Herzog is through participation in lections. Thus she concludes her discussion of area 3 with: By emphasising, during th pre-election period, th obligation of every American women to go th poils, th daytime sriais could undoubtedly make a valuable public contribution. (1944:15) It is only in th last section of th paper that Herzog moves to 'listeners' own reports of their listening expriences' (1944: 23). She justifies this move away from 'effects' on th grounds that she is researching a little known field in which preliminary vidence suggests that th gratifications which women drive from daytime sriais are so complex and so often unanticipated that we hve no guide to fruitful observations unless we study in dtail th actual expriences of women listening to thse programs. (1944: 23) It is this sentence which marks th significance of Herta Herzog's contribution to th study of th soap opra audience, this granting of complexity and autonomy to th listeners' expriences. She records that listeners find three major types of gratification: emotional release (through compensatory pleasure or identification), a site for wishful thinking, and a major source of advicea finding which she describes as 'striking5 and 'unexpected'. Those who listen more and those with less formai ducation were more likely to mention this gratification. As so often with audience research, th quotations from th respondents offer a vivid contrast to th surrounding material, and there is certainly hre a real sens of unhappiness eased: 'It helps you to listen to thse stories. When Helen Trent has serious trouble she takes it calmly. So you think you'd better be like her and not get upset' (Herzog 1944: 28).3 Herzog's surprise at th use of th programmes
3 Helen Trent, as described by both Kaufman (1944) and Arnheim (1944), is strikingly similar as a character to Meg in Cmssroads. See Ch. 4, below.

T H E H O U S E W I F E IN 1 9 4 0 s R E S E A R C H

51

for advice, and lier stress toward th end of th article 'that there can be no doubt that a large proportion of th listeners take thse programmes seriously' (1944: 31-2), indicates that thse detailed audience interviews hve altered her perceptions of th ways in which th programmes are consumed, if not of th programmes themselves. Although she accepts what th listeners say she doesn't think it right: The overall formula for th help obtained from listening seems to be in terms of'how to take it'. This is accomplished in various ways. Thefirst of thse is outright wishful thinking. The stories 'teach' th Panglossian doctrine that 'things corne out ail right' . . . A second way in which th listeners are helped to accept their fate is by learning to project blme upon others. (1944: 28-9) In contrast with some later audience research which tends towards th destabilizing of th position of th researcher, this documentation of th way in which listeners 'use' th sriais serves to confirm th researcher's original judgement.4 Herzog opens her conclusion by saying 'Thse data point to th grt social responsibility of those engaged in th writing of daytime sriais' and finishes by arguing for th use of th sriais as a vehicle for war messages: 'We shall hve to tell how personal losses should be borne and overcome by work and understanding of higher purposes instead of being submitted to passively as undeserved suffering .. .' (1944: 32). This is a plea for th entry of women listeners into th public sphre, for gratifications to be deferred, and for personal identity to be reconfigured within a meaningful sens of national identity. This early research on radio soap opra was conducted twenty-five years before th earliest of th (second-wave) feminist research which is th main concern of this book. However, in this early work can be found tropes, thmes, concerns, and characters that recognizably return in th feminist work. Arnheim offers reflections on th position of women drawn from analyses of th sriais, and pioneers a certain kind of symptomatic reading of th genre. Ail th writers are interested in th soap fan, and Herzog explicitly points to what I hve called th 'tautology of femininity', in which a defming feature of diffrencein this case a concern with th private world in prfrence to th publicis seen as potentially pathological. The context of th Second World War offers a spcifie urgency to th dsire of ail th writers to increase th participation of soap opra listeners in public life, but this dsire too is very striking in th early feminist work, as we shall see in th next chapter.
4 Herms (1993: 99) e.g. recounts an unexpected problem in her research into th reading of wonien's magazines when she discovered that most readers understood magazine reading as an activity about which there was nothing to say. Walkerdine (1986)arid Seiter(1990)(both discussedin Ch. 5, below) offer differently self-conscious accounts of ethnographie work as destabilizing for th researcher.

r
FeministsTaking Soap Opra Seriously: The Work of Carol Lopate, Michle Mattel art, andTania Modleski
(I) Carol Lopate

FEMINISTS TAKING SOAP OPERA S E R I O U S L Y

53

position, although there are clear moments of an address to this as a reading position. My argument will be that through th analysis of th shifts of authorial voice in relation to thse positions, which are variously identifie! with each other, we can trace th contradictory and difficult articulation of th identity 'feminist (intellectual)' with her troublesome task of simultaneously addressing a women's movement and an acadmie community. Similarly, th opposition between th feminist subject and housewife object of research fluctutes, revealing th historical construction of thse identities, th ways in which they are, and are not, constructed against each other in feminist research. In each case, using Janice Radway's formulation, we can see th construction of th person 'worrying responsibly' but th worries hve diffrences as well as similarities.

s we hve seen in th first chapter, early feminist analysis of soap opra, within th gnral framework of hostility to mdia stereotyping, was dismissive or denunciatory. Soaps, not without reason, were seen as a privileged site for th reproduction of th housewife strotype, and were particularly loathed for their perceived address and appeal to women viewers. In this chapter I make analyses of th first extended feminist discussion of soap opra by non-interviewes to appear in acadmie and professional journals.1 My concerns are twofold. First, to outline th parameters within which soap opra was first seen as being of interest for feminist scholars, and to survey th theoretical and conceptual frameworks used. This is a relatively conventional approach to th establishment of a new acadmie field of study. Secondly, less conventionally, through detailed textual analyses of th language of th articles, I want to progressively trace th discursive construction of significant positions within what I would argue to be th structuring paradigmatic set for this research: woman-feminist-housewife-viewer. The fifth member of this set'intellectual', 'acadmie', or 'scholar'as I will argue below, does not at this stage appear as an explicit speaking
1 Thse were Feminist Studies (Lopate 1976) and Film Quarterly (Modleski 1979) in th USA. Mattelart's article discussed hre appeared first in English in 1982 in Media, Culture and Society. Mattelart dates itto 1981, written first in French (Mattelart 1986: 3), although it is clearly written in relation to th earlier exprience of rsidence in Chile, which she left in 1973 (with th downfall of th government of Popular Unity). Dyer, Lovell, and McCrindle (1977) presented their pioneering paper on soap opra to th Edinburgh Tlvision Festival in 1977see McGuigan (1992: 142-4) on th rception of this. Gray and McGuigan (1993) reprint this article in th section 'Some Foundations' in their popular reader on Cultural Studies. The article, and its rception, is discussed in Ch. 8, below.

Carol Lopate's 1976 essay ' "Daytime Tlvision": You'll Never Want to Leave Home' offers th first US revisionist discussion of soaps. Although she cites research by Arnheim (1944) and Downing (1974) as well as th more popular work by LaGuardia (1977), th article makes no attempt to locate itself within th mass communications paradigms of th US, and is more directly related to other early feminist analyses of mdia such as those by Germaine Grer (1971), and th radical critiques of Hollywood cinma associated with magazines lkejumpcut2 in its combination of sharp observation, intuition, and radical common sens. This is clearly position-taking, polemical writing. The political impulses behind th work are signalled by th places of publication, both academically marginalfirst, in 1976, Feminist Studies, and secondly, in th following year, th more widely available Radical America (Lopate 1977). The political impulses are primarily articulated in a discussion of th family, an institution which she sees soaps as eroticizing, while family members, particularly women, are simultaneously infantilized. She supports this account of th constitution and reprsentation of th family with textual analysis of daytime sriai drama, showing that life outside th family is consistently shown to be dangerous, while incest and quasiincestuous relationships become a dominant thme through th dramatic logic of this focus on th family: Daytime tlvision crtes th eroticized family and offers its romances as th solution to th life journey. It promises that th family can be everything, if only one is willing to stay inside it. (Lopate 1977:51)
2 Jumpcut, an American left-wing film magazine, specialized in political reviews of Hollywood cinma in th 1970s.

54

O X F O R D T F I F V I S I O N S T U D I i :S

F f M I N I S l S UKING S O A P O P E R A S E R I O U 5 L Y

55

The discussion of soaps occurs within th largcr framework ol an examination of US daytime programming. This was, in 1976, a relatively innovatory projectRaymond Williams' classic formulation of'flow' had first been articulated in 1974 in response to US tlvisionand this innovation is marked by Lopate in a paragraph which resonates through much of th subsquent more acadmie work: It is difficult to talk about daytime tlvision. Those who know it are experts who cannot be surprised by new bits of information, and only nod with a knowing look at any insight or analysis. On th other side are th people who hve never turned on th tlvision before th six o'clock news, or who only switch channels rapidly in disgust when searching for their children's daytime programs. For them, daytime tlvision is a world of screaming women and MCs or murky family scnes. That is ail they wanttoknow. (1977:34) With this paragraph Lopate points to a rcurrent issue in th study of popular culture, particularly in th 1970s and early 1980s, in which th unselfconscious expertise of fans exists in a quite separate sphre from that in which more legitimate cultural pursuits and competencies are discussed and analysed. The opposition of thse two sphres, th sphre of fandom/consumption and th sphre of analysis (political or acadmie, or some mixture of both), provides a fundamental binary opposition which structures nearly ail th work on soap opra, as I will show. Within this binary opposition we can locate th figure of th researcher, a solitary figure ('It is difficult to talk about daytime tlvision' ), who in one way or another moves between th two fields, bringing material from one to bear on th other and vice versa. This purveyor of out-of-place knowledge constantly risks th dismissive nod, th characterization of th cautious work of cultural translation and analysis as banal, obvious, and unnecessary.3 Or, as Gillian Skirrow has observed, th rle of th researcher can be voyeuristic unless she too has a place in th pleasures: In investigating popular culture th only way not to feel like a snooping health visiter, sniffing out whether someone's environment is fit to live in, is to examine some aspect or form ofit which evokes passionate feelings in oneself. (1986: 115)
3 Clifford Geertz offers an loquent account of this problem for th anthropologist in a postmodern era: 'The basic problem is neither th moral uncertainty involved in telling stories about how other people live nor th epistemological one involved in casting those stories in scholarly genresboth of which are real enough, are always there and go with th territory. The problem in that now that such matters are coming to be discussed in th open, rather than covered up with a professional mystique, th burden of authorship seems suddenly heavier' (1988: 138). Williarnson (1986) and Morris ( 1988) offer differently inflected critiques of th cultural studies engagement with th popular.

I will return to Skirrow's passionatc solution, but hre would locale Lopate's pioneering essay within th rhetorical structure of much of this work which constitutes th cultural researcher as explorer in th dark continent of popular culture. In this way, th researcher is always other to th work, and indeed frequently receives instruction in ils pleasures and procdures. Thus Lopate, at th end of her article, acknowledges th help of her friend Irena Klenbort in th following terms: I should like to thank Irena Klenbort, whose insights were invaluable in helping me develop some of th ideas in this paper, and who furnished me with examples from her more extensive soap opra watching. (1977: 51) This explicit dniai of any history of soap opra viewing was anticipated in th article with a disavowal of th skills of this viewing: 'Until I got to know th stories, th afternoon felt like one long, complicated saga of family tragedy and romance, punctuated, of course, by frquent and rptitive advertisements' (1977: 41). We see clearly hre th tension between claiming authority as an intellectual and possessing too grt comptences in th sphre of popular culture.4 Lopate indeed, in th biographical note which appears after her article in Radical America, dclares that she has 'stopped watching tlvision and is now writing fiction' ( 1977: 51 ). It is Lopate who first formultes th corrlation between th rhythm of daytime programming and housework which is developed with such influence by Modleski in 1979. Lopate too first suggests that th commercials which interrupt soap opra can be understood to offer commodity-based solutions to th narrative dilemmas of th sriais, a point later developed by Flitterman (1983). Lopate argues that it is th game shows scheduled in th morning which are paced to allow housework: The tone and format of th game shows and sriais fit th daily rhythm of th housewife. The noise of th game shows' shrieks and laughter injects th home with th needed adrnaline for getting up in th morning and doing th heavy chores. The heartbreak, confusion, restrained passion, and romance of families in th soaps provides th anaesthesia to fill out th hollows of long afternoons when children are napping and there is ironing or nothing at ail to be donc. (1977: 34-5) She repeats this point later in th essay in a way which also reminds us that she is not a habitue of daytime tlvision when she observes, ' [o] n days when I hve tried to sit through morning tlvision, I got a splitting headache. It is not meant to be sat with' (1977:41).
4 See Allen (1985: p. ix) for a similar disclaimer.

56

OXFORD TELEVISION STUDIES

FEMINISTS T A K I N G SOAP OPERA SER10USLY

57

In contrast, th afternoon sriais hve a less frantic pace. Lopate points to th expansion of narrative time which allows narrative (real life) interruption, but also has spcifie emotional consquences: 'Everyday life, which often induces boredom and restlessness when taken in its own time, becomes filled with poignancy when th moment can be languished upon' (1977: 47). Although Lopate herself is ambivalent about this dwelling on everyday life, we see hre th reformulation, after Herzog (1944), of one of th key thmes in th analysis of soap opra. Everyday life, and its appropriate concerns and competencies, is a representational domain with which revisionist work on soap opra becomes increasingly occupied. And in this discussion of women's everyday life, and th rle therein of 'women's genres' like soap opra, one of th key dilemmas of contemporary feminism is articulated. The question, as we hve seen in Chapter 1, is that of th attitude to th fminine sphre. Crudely, is it good because it is women's culture, or is it bad because it is a culture of oppression? Lopate argues that there is, within daytime sriais, a utopian gendered division of labour which is produced by this extension of time: 'The daytime sriais prsent a world where everyonenot just women has time to deal with th personal and emotional problems of those who are dear to them' (1977:47). This formulation captures precisely th ambivalence of th attitudes towards th labour of personal life. On th one hand, there is th rcognition that there is an important labour in dealing with th personal and emotional problems of dear ones, but on th other, th rcognition is devalued because only women 'hve time' to do it. Hence th way in which th emotional hothouse atmosphre of daytime soaps, in which both women and men sweat, can be seen to be utopian. So Lopate distrusts, but also recognizes, th lure of th emotional excess of th sriais. As an emancipatory alternative, she proposes a developmental model in which women leave 'this infantile world' (1977: 48), learning about silence and solitude (implicitly by turning off th tlvision), and thereby gaining a grown-up self. So on th one hand Lopate is arguing that thse shows construct women as infantile: To th viewer at home, th message ritrtes th closed-in sensibility of traditional family morality. The family... is th only place where one will be understood and trusted and where one can try to understand and trust. (1977:49) On th other, she is accepting/proposing that femininity, or th femininity of thse Viewers at home', is indeed in some ways infantile, and must be transformed or transcended: While th soap opras are clearly peopled by adults, th characters do not hve to suffer th isolation and aloneness that is part of th

adult state as v/e know it. But they also do not gain th power and autonomy that are its rewards. (1977:50) Lopate's lvation of th 'adult state' as a dsirable goal casts doubt on Ann Kaplan's characterization of this essay, using her adaptation of Kristeva's schma, as 'stage two feminism', th rejection 'of th mle symbolic order in th name of diffrence', or radical feminism (Kaplan 1987:226-7).5 Lopate, although clearly hostile to th family, as Kaplan points out, is, as I hve shown, in fact also much more within a libral or equal rights feminist paradigm, with th key aspiration for women being adulthood. In this way Lopate's essay contains th implicit acceptance of th inferiority of femininity as addressed by daytime tlvision. This in turn returns us to th peculiar position of th feminist researcher, th equivocations in relation to her own tlvision expertise, th prsentation of herself as in some ways a stranger in a strange land.

(ii) Michle Mattelart

Thse proccupations, diffrences, and difficulties return in th work of Michle Mattelart, th second author for discussion. The inflections and positions are diffrent, but th discursive nodal points, 'housewives/ordinary women' and 'everyday life', reappear. Michle Mattelart, while rsident in Chile until 1973, and subsequently from France, wrote a sries of articles about Latin American popular mdia which were collected in English in 1986 (Mattelart 1986). We shall hre be concerned with th articles written in 1981 and 1982 which analyse th Latin American fotonovela and telenovela (Mattelart 1982; 1986:5-24). As a preliminary, it should be observed that ail Mattelart's work of this period is structured through three main concerns: th expanding, transnational quality of mdia markets; th political/ideological rle of mdia messages; and th specificity of fminine exprience and th address to women within th mdia. The particular political context in which she was writing, and on which she was reflecting, provides material for a sustained engagement with women as a politically conservative force which is unusual in feminist writing, one of th few other examples being Beatrix Campbell's 1987 study of British Conservative voters (see also Jacqueline Ros (1988) on Margaret Thatcher). It is this much more directly political projectth collection is dedicated to Latin American friends who hve diedwhich informs Mattelart's analysis
5 Although both printings of Carol Lopate's article are under th name Lopate, E. Ann Kaplan ( 1987) refers to th author as Carole Aschur [sic]. Carol Ascher has subsequently publlshed a biography of Simone de Beauvoir (1981) and short stories and essays (1993)

58

OXFORD TELEVISION STUDIES

and her investigation of th appeal of what she calls th 'order of th heart'. Thus although Mattelart is hostile to 'The ideological fonctions of thse narratives' (1986: 14), she recognizes their appeal to women she works with politically, and her grasp of what is at stake is rather more complex than that of some of th later defenders of sriai fiction. The core of Mattelart's approach, within th triple emphasis outlined above, is through th notion of time. This she articultes first through a reprise of one of th dominating concerns of feminist intellectual work in th 1970s, th domestic labour debate, arguing for th invisible and reproductive necessity of women's work in th home (Bland et al. 1978). She thus proposes, like ail female commentators before and after, th centrality of th figure of th housewife in th analysis of mdia addressed to women. However, it is important to note that Mattelart's concern with th domestic economy is consistently articulated with Marxist-influenced analysis of international capitalism. Unlike both Lopate and Modleski, th housewife for Mattelart is explicitly part of a global economy. She concludes this part of her argument: The genre of th women's broadcasts may differ (afternoon magazines, tlvision sriais, radio sriais); th values around which their thmes are structured can correspond to diffrent points in women's relation to capital... But they still hve in common th purpose of integrating women into their everyday life. (1986:9) She sees two dimensions to th intgration of women into everyday life. There is first th homology between th rptitive, quotidian sriai format and domestic labour, an aspect of th relation between women and domestic sriais which subsquent commentators amplify. Secondly, there is th 'symbolic revenge on th triviality of everyday life' (1986: 13) provided by melodramatic coincidence or th unusual adventures of th heroine. Mattelart's political objection to 'th rpressive order of th heart' which she sees as th organizing drive of romantic and melodramatic fiction is that it offers only individual, not collective solutions, with its 'two helpmates: Nature and Fate'(1986:13). This critique of romance/melodrama is in some ways th traditional Marxist one, except that Mattelart, like Lopate before her, offers a specifically feminist inflection in her concern that heroines should develop into 'independent individual [s] ', rather than be swept up by Destiny. Unusually though, for feminist work of this period, Mattelart is concerned with th actual rception of this fiction, and with th contradictory aspects of its appeal. She quotes from analyses

KMINISTS TAKING 50AP OPERA SERIOUSLY

59

t)l thc sriais made by politically active working-class women, and goes on to observe: We cannot simply ignore th appeal and th pleasure (however bitter-sweet it may be when it goes hand in hand with a social and political awareness) produced by thse fictional products of th cultural industry. There is a problem hre, and one hitherto scarcelytaclded. (1986:15) It is in answer to this problem that she proposes further hypothses about temporality and femininity, hypothses which are closest to Julia Kristeva's notions of women's time, developed in her essay 'Le Temps des femmes' (Kristeva 1979). Kristeva describes female psychic subjectivity as constituted in relation to both cyclical and monumental time, which she opposes to th time of history, linear time. Mattelart uses thse oppositions to theorize th fascination of'Thse vast stories, delivered in daily instalments and repeated daily': 'By cultivating th enjoyment of this non-forward-looking sens of time, thse stories would tend to hinder women's access to th time of history, th time of project' (1986: 16). Mattelart, however, does not stop hre with women outside history but goes on to speculate about th positive value of this alternative, non-linear time. This then allows her to move back to a discussion of th value of reproductive work, in which she argues for th importance of restoring value to areas that are not directly productive. It is thus Mattelart, ramer than Lopate, who more fully occupies a position that might fleetingly be characterized as radical feminist, in that she argues for a clbration of women's specificity, but of course she does so, at least at th international, macroeconomic level, within a Marxist Framework, reinscribing th significance of class. In her moves from multinational mdia corporations to th psychic structure constituted by biological reproduction, Mattelart's analysis is more ambitious and more global than any of th subsquent work. She is also most successful in retaining a sens of th contradictory nature of what she is investigating, in her invocation of th 'bitter-sweet pleasure' gained by consumers. Mattelart strongly invokes th figure of th housewife/mother, but this figure is a complex one, with access to understanding and psychic rhythms denied to those more fully in th historical, and thus not simply 'lacking'. Her own relation to this figure is less conflicted than that of many other writers. Perhaps this is because of th Chilean exprience when she was involved both in research and policy for th Allende government and in tlvision programming (Mattelart 1986: 3). As witness to, and theorist of, th strongly conservative rle that can be played by women in times of social crisis, Mattelart uses a notion of fminine specificity while not at any point assuming, as is sometimes th case

60

OXFORD TELE VISION STUDIES

FF.MINISTS T A K I N G SOAP OPERA SE R I O U S L Y

61

with Western feminism, that this is necessarily progressive.6 She is thus able to occupy th position 'woman' as she writes, while at th same time being very clear about her distance from some other women.

(iii) Tania Modleski

Tania Modleski's 1979 article 'The Search for Tomorrow in Today's Soap Opra' has been referred to in nearly ail subsquent studies of soap opra. The arguments most frequently cited are first th suggestion that soap opra, in its rptition and lack of resolution, is a fminine narrative form. Secondly, th article is known for th hypothesis that American daytime soaps characteristically construct a maternai position for their viewers, which is an engagement with Laura Mulvey's influential 1975 argument that classical Hollywood cinma constructs a masculine spectator position. This vocation of th soap viewer as an 'idal mother' has proved particularly rsonant within feminist film and tlvision studies, partly because it is one of th first attempts to specify a fminine viewing positionan quivalent within thse disciplines to early formulations in th debates in literary studies about reading as/like a woman (Culler 1983:43-63). Modleski's other significant argument at this stage is about th villainous figure in US daytime drama, whom she argues is 'an outlet for fminine anger' (1979:17),butwhomshealsoseesasfundamentalto th psychic dynamic of th programmes, as I discuss at more length below. This 1979 article is later combined with a paper, 'The Rhythms of Rception' (1983), presented to Ann Kaplan's confrence on tlvision at Rutgers University in 1981 to form chapter 4 of Modleski's 1982 book Loving with a Vengeance (Kaplan 1983a). The Rutgers paper is published alone in 1983, but it is to th combination pice, also called 'The Search for Tomorrow in Today's Soap Opras', to which many subsquent critics make rfrence.7 Thse I will address briefly hre, before returning to th 1979 version for a more detailed textual analysis. I am privileging th 1979 version because th earliest formulations of feminist research on soap opra are th richest in th tensions of articulating th project. For th period of this case study, it was th journal version that was most available, since th widely distributed Methuen dition of Loving with a Vengeance was not published until 1985.
6 Mattelart's 1975 essay 'The Fminine Side of th Coup', written about th rle of women in bringing about th downfall of th Allende government, is in fact included as a later chapter in th 1986 collection. 7 Thus both Seiteretal. (1989a) and Geraghty(1991) refertothe book version, which confusingly hastwo publishers, th Shoestring Press in 1982 and Methuen in 1985 (which then becomes part of th Routledge list).

Loving with a Vengeance, th published form of what was originally Modleski's Ph.D. dissertation, includes th discussion of soap opra as th final chapter of a work which addresses a range of fiction aimed at womenHarlequin romances, Female Gothic, and soap opra. As with Lopate and Mattelart, we see that it is th address of th mdia fictions for womenramer than genre or mdium which is dcisive in th slection for study. Modleski, in th prface to her book, points out that The prsent work was conceived and undertaken out of concern that thse narratives were not receiving th right kind of attention. I try to avoid expressing either hostility or ridicule, to get beneath th embarrassment, which I am convinced provokes both th anger and th mockery, and to explore th reasons for th deep-rooted and centuries old appeal of th narratives. Their enormous and continuing popularity, I assume, suggests that they speak to very real problems and tensions in women's lives. (1982:15) Hre again is th voice of th critic who is worrying responsibly, but hre also is th clear formulation of a new intellectual enterprise. Thus th concern with narratives which were not 'receiving th right kind of attention' is articulated with notions of hostility, ridicule, and embarrassment which must be overcome in order to understand th ways in which th very popularity of thse stories speaks, just as Mattelart also suggests, to Very real problems and tensions in women's lives'. Modleski's analysis has been extremely generative for both textual analysis and ethnographie investigations. In fact, th empirical projects both complicate and to an extent contradict her analysis, but that is not hre our primary concern,8 and indeed it should be pointed out that Modleski herself claims no empirical vrification. My concern hre, though, is with Modleski's ambivalent construction of th figure of th feminist critic and th housewife audience, rather than with th empirical audience investigated by later scholars using Modleski's schma. Modleski's original 1979 article is written mainly in an impersonal third person, exemplified in th opening proposition, 'In soap opras th hermeneutic code prdomintes'. This voice is maintained for th majority of th essay, with an occasional shift to first person for points
8 Seiter and Kreutzner (1989) used Mdleski's analysis of soap opra to govern part of th agenda in their cross-cultural ethnography of soap opra viewers. Their researcri indicated extensive conscious rsistance by working-class wornen, to th position of 'idal mother' that Modleski described, as well as explicit admiration for th villaine5S. Thse findings do not substantially undercut Modleski's analysis of th textual structuring of soap opra, although they do disprove her hypothses about how women watch th programmes. That is, rnethodologically, they establish that viewers' readings cannot be deduced from textual exegesis.

62

OXFORD TELEVISION STUDIES

of argument and controversy, 'I believe...' (1979: 12). Unlike Lopate, Modleski does not initially differentiate herself from th soap watching audience, and uses th first person plural to refer to this audience in th way which is quite common in both literary and film criticism when th author claims that th text makes certain demands of 'us' th audience, or that 'we' understand a particular device in a certain way. The diffrence in th 'we' and 'us' that Modleski uses, which again is not marked, is that it is, as th article progresses, clearly revealed to be fminine. This is revealed quite interestingly after th key formulation of th subject/spectator of soaps being constituted 'as a sort of idal mother' (1979: 14). At th end of this paragraph, Modleski observes: 'Thus soaps convince women that their highest goal is to see their families united and happy, while consoling them for their inability to bring about familial harmony'. This is th first use of 'women' in th article, and also marks th point where Modleski moves out of this identity: 'them'. Hre, it seems clear that th sparation between 'women' and th author is effected by th author's ability to see th double ideological opration of th soap text on (other) women. Modleski develops her thesis about th maternai viewing position of th soap spectator into an argument that this multiply identified, and hence ultimately powerless, figure, is th libral core of shows that are thus constituted as libral at a formai level. Within this tolrant structure, th figure of th villainess functions as th safety valve for what Modleski terms fminine anger, but also, through transforming traditional fminine weaknesses into strengths, offers a type of monstrous fminine. This character, evoking contradictory hatred and identification in th viewer, is theorized by Modleski to provoke, in Freud's terms, rptition compulsion. That is, through th viewer's identification with both th villainess and her opponents, th viewer becomes psychically caught up in 'internai contestation' and begins to drive pleasure from rptition as such. 'In this way', Modleski suggests, 'soaps help reconcile her to th meaningless, rptitive nature of much of her life and work within th home' (1979:17). The viewer has hre become singular, partly necessarily because it is almost impossible to discuss psychic processes of this kind in th plural. However, significantly, there is also hre th thinly concealed proposition that th situation of th housewife is psychically pathological in that it requires adjustment to a routine both meaningless and rptitive. Modleski develops thse arguments considerably in th 1981 paper which, as its title suggests, is specifically concerned with homologies between th formai structures of th tlvision text and th domestic day. Although she expresses disagreement with Lopate on th issue of soap construction of th family, and th viewer's relation to th family, her notion of th rhythm of rception and domestic

F E M I N I S T E T A K I N G SOAP O P E R A S E R I O U S L Y

63

work is very similar. The crux of Modleski's argument in 1979, though, is th linking of th formai qualities of soapsrptition, interruption, and lack of resolutionwith a feminist aesthetics. She makes thse links in two sentences: Clearly, women find soap opras eminently entertaining, and an analysis of th pleasure that soaps afford can provide dues not only about how feminists can challenge this pleasure, but also how they can incorporate it. For, outrageous as this assertion may at first appear, I would suggest that soap opras are not altogether at odds with a possible feminist aesthetics. (1979:18) This passage displays a clear sparation between th author and 'women', with th author explicitly addressing herself to feminists. The key words are 'dues' and 'outrageous'. 'dues' clearly reveals that this is an enterprise of dtection, th analysis of soap opra will render information about other pleasurespleasures that must be challenged. So th justification of th acadmie enterprise to other feminists is in its gathering of politically useful knowledge. However, within this address to an imagined sceptical feminist audience, Modleski is also making a polemical point: 'outrageous as this assertion may first appear ...'. So this 1979 pice is written against th grain of feminist attitudes to popular tlvision, insisting that there is something hre to be taken seriously. Both words disappear in th later version, where th sentences are split: Clearly, women find soap opras eminently entertaining, and an analysis of th pleasure thse programs afford can provide feminists with ways not only to challenge this pleasure but to incorporate it into their own artistic practices (1982:104) and a page later: Indeed, I would like to argue that soap opras are not altogether at odds with an already developing, though still embryonic, feminist aesthetics. (1982:105) Thse rewritten versions, smoother, more confident, less embattled, also give much less sens of th author as caught between th positions of 'woman' and 'feminist'. Although this is evidently partly attributable to th author's greater ease with a rewritten argument, I would suggest that th period between th publication of th first and second versions was critical in th changing status of soap opra not least because of th impact of th original 1979 version. Finally, I want to point to th way in which th argument about feminist aesthetics is made, for hre we see a diffrent audience addresscd. Hre, what is notable is th way in which th argument is mudf with rfrence to modernist fiction by women writcrs

64

OXFORD TELEVISION STUDIES

FEMINISTS T A K I N G SOAP OPERA S E R I O U S L Y

65

Nathalie Sarraute and Ivy Compton-Burnettas well as to feminist critics such as Claire Johnston and Mary Ellman. Certain levais of cultural capital are assumed hre, and we can see th way in which th cross-class category, women, which gnrtes a fminine aesthetic, is constructed by an explicit argument across th divisions of class between women who read Nathalie Sarraute and women who watch Ryan's Hope. However, given, as we hve already noted, what it is 'outrageous' to suggest, it is to th readers of Nathalie Sarraute and Ivy Compton-Burnett that th article, and th argument, are addressed. The feminist intellectual is prsent, but not yet fully formed, not yet a speaking part. This 1979 essay, which has normally been approached for what it tells us about soap opra, offers a fascinating glimpse of an mergent speaking position. Modleski, defending serious attention to soap opra from feminist dismissal, calls on a high cultural rpertoire as resource and defence. The study of soap opra was at this stage too provocative to stand alone. Carol Lopate, as we hve seen, first formultes many of th ideas that become most significant in th feminist critical approach to soap opra. Arguably, because her work was less acadmie and more explicitly political than Modleski's, she is less well known as a source. Also significant hre may be that fact that she did not pursue an acadmie career in this field. Similarly Michle Mattelart's research is not extensively referenced by anglophone scholars, although her work is granted due significance in th burgeoning literature on South American telenovelas.9 Of th scholarship discussed hre, it is th work of Tania Modleski to which nearly ail Anglo-American writers on both soap opra and popular genre fiction refer. Ail of this research is concerned with theorizing relationships between everyday life, tlvision, and th housewife. As becomes clear in th early work discussed in th interviews, particularly that of Dorothy Hobson, th analyses were not determinedly mdiumor genre-specifk. Radio, game shows, and women's magazines ail appear as comparisons and quivalents to soap opra. Instead, th specificity with which this early research is concerned is that of femininity, and particularly, th exprience of th housewife. As th detailed textual analysis hre offered demonstrated, in th construction of this figure as an interesting audience, there is also th beginnings of th construction of her other, th feminist critic. This figure, as Janice Radway suggests, worries responsibly about th consumers of sriai drama. She does this in ways closely related to th concerns expressed in Chapter 3, particularly by Herta Herzog. Mattelart in particular is concerned by th relationship between
9 Seee.g. Martln-Barbero(1995).

vicwing and civic involvement, while managing to articulatc a quilc complex understanding of th contradictory pleasures oftdcnoveltis. Each author, in diffrent ways, is concerned with th rptitive routine of domestic labour, and it is to th fantasy of everyday life that we now turn.