Fronteiras da Alteridade no Documentário e na Ficção: Imigrantes, Refugiados e suas Representações na Cultura Audiovisual

This paper discusses the formulation of boundaries between identity and alterity in the representation of refugees and immigrants in audiovisual culture. Specifically, we examine the circulation and reverberation of what we call alterity narratives, seeking to understand how subjects represented in documentary and fictional works read their content. We explore concepts from language, culture and media studies – such as social representation, translation, boundary, mediation and mediatization – and conducted semi-open interviews with ten immigrants and refugees. The research subjects were also invited to watch scenes from two documentaries and a telenovela to evaluate the ways in whichboundaries are constructed and their universes of origin are translated into these narratives. We note that the processes of mediatization of alterity tend to reduce complexity in extreme ways and are based on judgments and valuation processes when designating cultural difference.