The First Decades of Argentinian Radiodrama: Disputes in the Construction of an Acting Identity

Abstract

Radio drama was a phenomenon which revolutionised the cultural field in Argentina’s 1930s. Artists of all sorts converged, expanding the labour field in a context of economic crisis and social unrest. However, during the 1930s and part of the 1940s, radio drama was roundly criticised, thus showing society’s deeply rooted conceptions regarding art, culture, the role of the media and artists. We ask ourselves, then, what happened with the legitimacy and  the professionalization of artists in a period of cultural explosion? How did their unions face the radio drama phenomenon? Following theoretical concepts developed by Mauro  (2014a, 2014b, 2018a, 2018b), Pellettieri (2002) and Bourdieu (1967, 2000) and analising the discourses that circulated through Argentina’s cultural field of the time, this paper aims to shed light not only on the prejudice and obstacles faced by acting professionals at a turning point in their history as a collective, but also on the projection that some conceptions still have, acting against cultural workers’ self-perception.