Soap Operas and Artistic Legitimation: The Role of Critical Commentary

Abstract

This article explores the artistic legitimation process of U.S. daytime soap operas through analysis of commentary published in The New York Times from 1930 to 2010. While soap operas gained economic legitimacy over time (due to profit‐earning potential) and were popular with audiences, they were never widely classified as an “art” form. Through examination of 3 aspects of The New York Times articles—tone of critical commentary, viewership of critical commentary, and themes of critical commentary—we explore the role of evaluative press coverage in the validation, or lack thereof, of the soap opera form. Implications for the decline of the genre are also discussed.

Soap Opera, Then and Now

“…Even 1980s era attempts by feminist scholars to provide a legitimizing counter‐discourse (described above) were unable to transition soaps into an acceptable art form (Scardville ; Harrington et. al ). For decades, soaps' status as low brow has been firmly established in the cultural imagination.…”

“…National press coverage helped establish and buttress soap opera as a low-status cultural form. Even 1980s era attempts by feminist scholars to provide a legitimizing counter-discourse (described above) were unable to transition soaps into an acceptable art form (Scardville 2011;Harrington et. al 2015).…”

‘Reality’ Television Critique in Israel: How ‘Quality’ Became ‘Morality’

“…Criticism has stemmed from the understanding that 'reality' shows promote neoliberal values of harsh competition between individuals (Couldry, 2008), as well as from the realization that 'reality' television encourages and uses voyeurism, surveillance and intrusion. These are all practices which, according to study, such studies have shown that a few select soap operas have been deemed less commercial and, as such, enjoyed a certain degree of aesthetic legitimacy, alongside the economic legitimacy enjoyed by the soap opera genre in general (Harrington et al, 2015;Scardaville, 2009). Furthermore, Bourdieu himself, in his early work Photography: A Middle-Brow Art (1990b) claimed that technology-and capital-intensive cultural fields, such as film, photography and television, adopt a rather 'barbarous' version of the artistic-aesthetic discourse to claim that some cultural products in these fields are aesthetically superior to others.…”

“…Recent studies relying on the Bourdieusian perspective have shown that the field of television production can be internally divided into a field of ‘large-scale’ production, consisting for example of ‘reality’ shows, and a field of ‘restricted’ production, including instances of ‘quality’ television such as the ‘quality’ drama series (Dhoest, 2014; Lavie, 2015a; Lavie and Dhoest, 2015; Newman and Levine, 2011). Moreover, studies have claimed that the ‘large-scale’ end of television production is further divided into artifacts that are considered utterly commercial and therefore of ‘low quality’, and artifacts that are considered less thoroughly commercial and therefore in possession of more ‘artistic’ qualities (Harrington et al, 2015; Scardaville, 2009). Using the ‘soap opera’ genre as a case study, such studies have shown that a few select soap operas have been deemed less commercial and, as such, enjoyed a certain degree of aesthetic legitimacy, alongside the economic legitimacy enjoyed by the soap opera genre in general (Harrington et al, 2015; Scardaville, 2009).…”

“…Moreover, studies have claimed that the ‘large-scale’ end of television production is further divided into artifacts that are considered utterly commercial and therefore of ‘low quality’, and artifacts that are considered less thoroughly commercial and therefore in possession of more ‘artistic’ qualities (Harrington et al, 2015; Scardaville, 2009). Using the ‘soap opera’ genre as a case study, such studies have shown that a few select soap operas have been deemed less commercial and, as such, enjoyed a certain degree of aesthetic legitimacy, alongside the economic legitimacy enjoyed by the soap opera genre in general (Harrington et al, 2015; Scardaville, 2009).…”