Complejos de inferioridad y superioridadEstudio comparado de la representación del personaje inmigrante en Fawlty Towers y Aída, entre la xenofobia y la parodia

Abstract

The characters of Manuel (Andrew Sachs) in Fawlty Towers (BBC: 1975-79) and Machupichu (Óscar Reyes) in Aída (Telecinco: 2005-) are significant examples of the representation of the immigrant on television and they lead us to reflexions about the world geopolitical order, the role of Spain in it and its evolution from the seventies to the present. The analogies between the clumsy Spanish immigrant subjugated by his boss in an English hotel in the mid 1970�s and the current South American immigrant exploited by his recalcitrant slave driver employer in a decaying neighbourhood of Madrid seem pretty obvious and show the shift in role of Spaniards since Franco�s death, the subsequent policy of openness and the differences in the approaches in relation to the geographical and historical context. These shows have been accused of being both xenophobic representations and a satirical mockery of xenophobia, opening the visual text to an ambivalent reading especially interesting for the field of Reception Theory. From academic perspectives close to Cultural Studies and specifically Postcolonial Studies the article has three main aims in the analysis of Fawlty Towers and Aída: ? To describe constants of representation of the immigrant character framing them in the tradition of TV studies about social groups. ? To point out Spain�s shift of role from a migrant-sending to a host country in the context of the last forty years. ? To analyse the possible readings of the texts depending of the ideological discourse about immigration policies.