Book/Printed Material Romancing "Yesenia" : how a Mexican melodrama shaped global popular culture

Title

• Romancing "Yesenia" : how a Mexican melodrama shaped global popular culture

Summary

• "This book considers the unexpected and mostly unexamined popularity of the Mexican film Yesenia (Alfredo B. Crevenna, 1971) in the Soviet Union. Set during the Second Franco-Mexican war, this unassuming movie melodrama was based on a successful television series, itself an adaptation of a popular women's romance graphic novel, a genre that was extremely common in mid-century Mexico. Screened in the Soviet Union in 1975, Yesenia became the highest grossing film in the history of Soviet film exhibition, unsurpassed by any movie, foreign or domestic. Based on ticket sales alone, it was seen by an astounding 91.4 million viewes in only the first year of its release. Yesenia's popularity in the socialist bloc, largely unbeknown to its Mexican producers, continued for decades after its initial release as the film migrated from cinemas to television screens and video. Boosted by its success with Soviet audiences, the film enjoyed a similarly spectacular exhibition history in China in the late 1970s, when the country was opening itself up to more international media, paving the way for other Mexican and Latin American productions broadcasted on Chinese television in decades to follow. Approaching this period restrospectively, cognizant of more contemporary developments in the global media, I conceive of this episode in film history through a framework of television culture whose increasing impact, I argue, shaped both the film's Mexican production and its subsequent reception within the Socialist bloc. I also argue that Yesenia's popularity carved out a crucial node within the global circuit of cultural and industrial networks, further enabling Latin American media's transcontinental reach"--Provided by publisher.

Names

• Salazkina, Masha, author

Created / Published

• Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2024]
• ©2024

Contents

• Introduction -- Prelude : the Soviet stardom of Lolita Torres -- Yesenia in Mexico and USSR -- Mexican vs. Soviet womanhood circa 1970 -- Between Mexican Cursilería and Russian Poshlost' -- The people, the grey market, and the ballroom gown -- Coda : Yesenia in China and the arrival of telenovelas in the Socialist world.

Headings

• -  Yesenia (Motion picture)--Influence
• -  Motion pictures, Mexican--Influence--History--20th century
• -  Motion pictures, Mexican--Soviet Union--History--20th century
• -  Socialism and motion pictures

Notes

• -  Includes bibliographical references and index.
• -  Description based on print version record.

Medium

• 1 online resource

Call Number/Physical Location

• PN1997.Y456

Digital Id

• https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/gdcebookspublic.2023054055

Library of Congress Control Number

• 2023054055

Rights Advisory

• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode External

Access Advisory

• Unrestricted online access.

Online Format

• epub
• image

LCCN Permalink

• https://lccn.loc.gov/2023054055

Additional Metadata Formats

• MARCXML Record
• MODS Record
• Dublin Core Record