A Latina Captain in Showtime's Dexter: (Un)Veiling a Progressive Image of Latinas through Discourse Analysis of Media-Audience Co-constructions of Latinidad'

This thesis focuses on Showtimes series Dexter as a rich text through which to study the production and consumption of racial and gender representations in media. More specifically, this research examines the representation of a prominent Latina character (Captain Maria LaGuerta) in Dexter and the audience readings of this character to explore the co-construction of contemporary discourses on Latinidad. On the basis of a critical discourse analysis of the television text and online viewer comments, I discuss relations between the meanings encoded in the text and the meanings co-constructed interactively by audiences online, and the ideological implications of such discourse on Latinidad given the current climate of racial relations in the United States. The analysis shows how a seemingly progressive representation of a Latina in a breakthrough role that over-steps 'old' racial and gender boundaries, does not break down the reproduction of stereotypical representations and notions of Latinidad based on homogeneity, symbolic colonization, and immigration as markers of Latina/o identity. In addition, the analysis shows how notions of Latinidad link Latina/os to ideologies of race and gender to which other minority groups are often associated in contemporary conservative discourse.

Name thesis:degree_name

Communication

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Communication and Journalism

Year

2013

Author dc:creator

• Leon, Diana

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rodriguez, Ilia
• Washington, Myra
• Lopez, Nancy

• Communication Latinidad Television

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds/73

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:cj_etds-1072