Search

¿Qué hace que una telenovela con una temática como la que presenta Betty, la fea haya calado en gustos tan disímiles al colombiano y latinoamericano seguidores del género? La telenovela es un género que tuvo su origen y se ha cultivado, principalmente, de este lado del mundo. Betty, la fea, cumple con los elementos arquetípicos que identifican a quien la ve con lo que está viendo. Lo que hace a esta historia especialmente atractiva es la forma cómo está profundamente atrincherada en el mito del amor romántico aun cuando su energía representacional está canalizada en las tensas negociaciones morales, económicas y emocionales que complican los rituales del cortejo. No se dice aquí que la vida sea idílica, tranquila, armónica, siempre gratificante, se trata de un discurso que propone una reflexión sobre la inversión de los modelos arquetípicos de la novela en América Latina. Why a soap opera with an argument like Betty, la fea is a big hit into so dissimilar tastes like the Colombian and Latin-American followers of the genre? The soap opera is a genre that had its origin, principally, of this side of the world. Betty, the ugly one, has the archetypal elements that identify whom it sees with what it sees. The most attractive of this history is the form how it is deeply entrenched in the myth of the romantic love even if its energy is canalized in the tense moral, economic and emotional negotiations that complicate the rituals of the courtship. It is not said here that the life should be idyllic, calm, harmonic, and always happy; this soap opera proposes a reflection on the investment of the archetypal models of the novel in Latin America.

The global television landscape in the first decade of the 21st century is a complex terrain of contradictory developments and trends. Since the early years of television the United States has been the most important exporter of TV series, TV serials and game shows. But nowadays times have changed. Admittedly the USA is still the leading nation in selling TV fiction all over the world, but since the deregulation of the TV market in Western Europe in the 1990s Great Britain and the Netherlands are the leading exporters of non-fiction formats like reality shows, Australia sells its soap operas all over the world and Latin American countries are important exporters of telenovelas. At the beginning of the 21st century the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea made its way around the world. Several countries bought the rights to produce a local adaptation of the format. For example ABC produced Ugly Betty in the United States, the German channel Sat.1 produced Verliebt in Berlin, and there is a Russian adaptation Ne Rodis’ Krasivoy. This article compares several local adaptations of the telenovela: the Colombian original and the adaptations in Germany, Russia, Spain and the USA. It looks at the dramaturgical and narrative proximities and differences of the adaptations and focuses on the textual conditions of international success.