ABSTRACT
Due to the inherently transitory nature of the medium of radio, the lack of recordings and the incompleteness of radio archives, many of Latin America's radionovelas have not survived, or are not remembered as individual entities. In Argentina, the published scripts of the novelas radioteatrales confirm that there was a readership for them although reading the serials was an activity that could take place in conjunction with listening to the serials. In La ta Julia, the radio serials are used to convey Pedro Camacho's descent into madness. From the plots of social melodrama, recognisable as a staple of serialised radio drama, the narratives become increasingly exaggerated and fantastical as the writer loses his grip on reality. Due to circumstances beyond the control of Gonzlez Pulido and his fellow radio writers, the novela radioteatral as a cultural phenomenon faded into obscurity as it gave way to its greatest legacy, the telenovela.
