Melodrama

Melodrama

Author: John Mercer

Publisher: Wallflower Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 9781904764021

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Melodrama: Genre, Style and Sensibility is designed as an accessible overview of the, often complex, debates that emerge out of the connections between melodrama and cinema. The book identifies three distinct but connected concepts through which it is possible to make sense of melodrama; either as a genre, originating in European theatre of the 18th and 19th century, as a specific cinematic style, epitomised by the work of Douglas Sirk or as a sensibility that emerges in the context of specific texts, speaking to and reflecting the desires, concerns and anxieties of audiences. Each chapter includes overviews of key essays, analyses of significant and widely studied films and includes an annotated reading list


Book Synopsis Melodrama by : John Mercer

Download or read book Melodrama written by John Mercer and published by Wallflower Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Melodrama: Genre, Style and Sensibility is designed as an accessible overview of the, often complex, debates that emerge out of the connections between melodrama and cinema. The book identifies three distinct but connected concepts through which it is possible to make sense of melodrama; either as a genre, originating in European theatre of the 18th and 19th century, as a specific cinematic style, epitomised by the work of Douglas Sirk or as a sensibility that emerges in the context of specific texts, speaking to and reflecting the desires, concerns and anxieties of audiences. Each chapter includes overviews of key essays, analyses of significant and widely studied films and includes an annotated reading list


Star Studies

Star Studies

Author: Martin Shingler

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-07-25

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 1838718354

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Martin Shingler presents the mother volume for Palgrave's Film Stars series in three easily-navigable chapters in which he provides a summative and instructive account of star studies for today's film student. Via a critical evaluation of the work of leading film scholars, he provides a convincing argument for howthis important area of film studies has evolved. Building on this, he offerssome new directions for star scholarship, and ends by offering the film student a useful set of themes and issues for his or her own investigation. 'Star Studies' is the perfect companion for the student who wishes to foster further research on stardom across a wide range of contexts, from national cinemas, to mainstream and marginal cinemas, to different historical periods and beyond.


Book Synopsis Star Studies by : Martin Shingler

Download or read book Star Studies written by Martin Shingler and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martin Shingler presents the mother volume for Palgrave's Film Stars series in three easily-navigable chapters in which he provides a summative and instructive account of star studies for today's film student. Via a critical evaluation of the work of leading film scholars, he provides a convincing argument for howthis important area of film studies has evolved. Building on this, he offerssome new directions for star scholarship, and ends by offering the film student a useful set of themes and issues for his or her own investigation. 'Star Studies' is the perfect companion for the student who wishes to foster further research on stardom across a wide range of contexts, from national cinemas, to mainstream and marginal cinemas, to different historical periods and beyond.


Melodrama Unbound

Melodrama Unbound

Author: Christine Gledhill

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2018-05-08

Total Pages: 761

ISBN-13: 0231543190

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For too long melodrama has been associated with outdated and morally simplistic stereotypes of the Victorian stage; for too long film studies has construed it as a singular domestic genre of familial and emotional crises, either subversively excessive or narrowly focused on the dilemmas of women. Drawing on new scholarship in transnational theatrical, film, and cultural histories, this collection demonstrates that melodrama is a transgeneric mode that has long spoken to fundamental aspects of modern life and feeling. Pointing to melodrama’s roots in the ancient Greek combination of melos and drama, and to medieval Christian iconography focused on the pathos of Christ as suffering human body, the volume highlights the importance to modernity of melodrama as a mode of emotional dramaturgy, the social and aesthetic conditions for which emerged long before the French Revolution. Contributors articulate new ways of thinking about melodrama that underscore its pervasiveness across national cultures and in a variety of genres. They examine how melodrama has traveled to and been transformed in India, China, Japan, and South America, whether through colonial circuits or later, globalization; how melodrama mixes with other modes such as romance, comedy, and realism; and finally how melodrama has modernized the dramatic functions of gender, class, and race by orchestrating vital aesthetic and emotional experiences for diverse audiences.


Book Synopsis Melodrama Unbound by : Christine Gledhill

Download or read book Melodrama Unbound written by Christine Gledhill and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 761 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For too long melodrama has been associated with outdated and morally simplistic stereotypes of the Victorian stage; for too long film studies has construed it as a singular domestic genre of familial and emotional crises, either subversively excessive or narrowly focused on the dilemmas of women. Drawing on new scholarship in transnational theatrical, film, and cultural histories, this collection demonstrates that melodrama is a transgeneric mode that has long spoken to fundamental aspects of modern life and feeling. Pointing to melodrama’s roots in the ancient Greek combination of melos and drama, and to medieval Christian iconography focused on the pathos of Christ as suffering human body, the volume highlights the importance to modernity of melodrama as a mode of emotional dramaturgy, the social and aesthetic conditions for which emerged long before the French Revolution. Contributors articulate new ways of thinking about melodrama that underscore its pervasiveness across national cultures and in a variety of genres. They examine how melodrama has traveled to and been transformed in India, China, Japan, and South America, whether through colonial circuits or later, globalization; how melodrama mixes with other modes such as romance, comedy, and realism; and finally how melodrama has modernized the dramatic functions of gender, class, and race by orchestrating vital aesthetic and emotional experiences for diverse audiences.


Celluloid Nationalism and Other Melodramas

Celluloid Nationalism and Other Melodramas

Author: Susan Dever

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0791486656

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Explores issues of representation and rebellion in Mexican and Mexican American cinema.


Book Synopsis Celluloid Nationalism and Other Melodramas by : Susan Dever

Download or read book Celluloid Nationalism and Other Melodramas written by Susan Dever and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores issues of representation and rebellion in Mexican and Mexican American cinema.


The Melodramatic Imagination

The Melodramatic Imagination

Author: Peter Brooks

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1995-01-01

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780300065534

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In this lucid and fascinating book, Peter Brooks argues that melodrama is a crucial mode of expression in modern literature. After studying stage melodrama as a dominant popular form in the nineteenth century, he moves on to Balzac and Henry James to show how these "realist" novelists created fiction using the rhetoric and excess of melodrama - in particular its secularized conflicts of good and evil, salvation and damnation. The Melodramatic Imagination has become a classic work for understanding theater, fiction, and film.


Book Synopsis The Melodramatic Imagination by : Peter Brooks

Download or read book The Melodramatic Imagination written by Peter Brooks and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lucid and fascinating book, Peter Brooks argues that melodrama is a crucial mode of expression in modern literature. After studying stage melodrama as a dominant popular form in the nineteenth century, he moves on to Balzac and Henry James to show how these "realist" novelists created fiction using the rhetoric and excess of melodrama - in particular its secularized conflicts of good and evil, salvation and damnation. The Melodramatic Imagination has become a classic work for understanding theater, fiction, and film.


Melodrama

Melodrama

Author: Jonathan Goldberg

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2016-07-22

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0822374048

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Offering a new queer theorization of melodrama, Jonathan Goldberg explores the ways melodramatic film and literature provide an aesthetics of impossibility. Focused on the notion of what Douglas Sirk termed the "impossible situation" in melodrama, such as impasses in sexual relations that are not simply reflections of social taboo and prohibitions, Goldberg pursues films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Todd Haynes that respond to Sirk's prompt. His analysis hones in on melodrama's original definition--a form combining music and drama--as he explores the use of melodrama in Beethoven's opera Fidelio, films by Alfred Hitchcock, and fiction by Willa Cather and Patricia Highsmith, including her Ripley novels. Goldberg illuminates how music and sound provide queer ways to promote identifications that exceed the bounds of the identity categories meant to regulate social life. The interaction of musical, dramatic, and visual elements gives melodrama its indeterminacy, making it resistant to normative forms of value and a powerful tool for creating new potentials.


Book Synopsis Melodrama by : Jonathan Goldberg

Download or read book Melodrama written by Jonathan Goldberg and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2016-07-22 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering a new queer theorization of melodrama, Jonathan Goldberg explores the ways melodramatic film and literature provide an aesthetics of impossibility. Focused on the notion of what Douglas Sirk termed the "impossible situation" in melodrama, such as impasses in sexual relations that are not simply reflections of social taboo and prohibitions, Goldberg pursues films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Todd Haynes that respond to Sirk's prompt. His analysis hones in on melodrama's original definition--a form combining music and drama--as he explores the use of melodrama in Beethoven's opera Fidelio, films by Alfred Hitchcock, and fiction by Willa Cather and Patricia Highsmith, including her Ripley novels. Goldberg illuminates how music and sound provide queer ways to promote identifications that exceed the bounds of the identity categories meant to regulate social life. The interaction of musical, dramatic, and visual elements gives melodrama its indeterminacy, making it resistant to normative forms of value and a powerful tool for creating new potentials.


The Shifting Definitions of Genre

The Shifting Definitions of Genre

Author: Lincoln Geraghty

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2008-03-24

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 0786434309

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Histories of science fiction often dicuss Fritz Lang's Metropolis as a classic work within the genre--yet the term "science fiction" had not been invented at the time of the film's release. If the genre did not have a name, did it exist? Does retroactive assignment to a genre change our understanding of a film? Do films shift in meaning and status as the name of a genre changes meaning over time? These provocative questions are at the heart of this book, whose thirteen essays examine the varying constructions of genre within film, television, and other entertainment media. Collectively, the authors argue that generic labels are largely irrelevant or even detrimental to the works to which they are applied. Part One examines the meanings of genre and reveals how the media is involved in the production and dissemination of generic definitions. Part Two considers specific films (or groups of films) and their relationships within various categorizations. Part Three focuses on the closely tied concepts of history and memory as they relate to the perceptions of genre.


Book Synopsis The Shifting Definitions of Genre by : Lincoln Geraghty

Download or read book The Shifting Definitions of Genre written by Lincoln Geraghty and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2008-03-24 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Histories of science fiction often dicuss Fritz Lang's Metropolis as a classic work within the genre--yet the term "science fiction" had not been invented at the time of the film's release. If the genre did not have a name, did it exist? Does retroactive assignment to a genre change our understanding of a film? Do films shift in meaning and status as the name of a genre changes meaning over time? These provocative questions are at the heart of this book, whose thirteen essays examine the varying constructions of genre within film, television, and other entertainment media. Collectively, the authors argue that generic labels are largely irrelevant or even detrimental to the works to which they are applied. Part One examines the meanings of genre and reveals how the media is involved in the production and dissemination of generic definitions. Part Two considers specific films (or groups of films) and their relationships within various categorizations. Part Three focuses on the closely tied concepts of history and memory as they relate to the perceptions of genre.


Studying Talk to Her

Studying Talk to Her

Author: Emily Hughes

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2015-05-01

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 1800346840

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Provides an in-depth analysis of Talk to Her, including both the formal elements of the film (its narrative, genre, and auteur study) and the themes and issues it raises.


Book Synopsis Studying Talk to Her by : Emily Hughes

Download or read book Studying Talk to Her written by Emily Hughes and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-01 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides an in-depth analysis of Talk to Her, including both the formal elements of the film (its narrative, genre, and auteur study) and the themes and issues it raises.


The Cambridge Companion to English Melodrama

The Cambridge Companion to English Melodrama

Author: Carolyn Williams

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-10-04

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1108606113

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This newly commissioned series of essays by leading scholars is the first volume to offer both an overview of the field and also current emerging critical views on the history, form, and influence of English melodrama. Authoritative voices provide an introduction to melodrama's early formal features such as tableaux and music, and trace the development of the genre in the nineteenth century through the texts and performances of its various sub-genres, the theatres within which the plays were performed, and the audiences who watched them. The historical contexts of melodrama are considered through essays on topics including contemporary politics, class, gender, race, and empire. And the extensive influences of melodrama are demonstrated through a wide-ranging assessment of its ongoing and sometimes unexpected expressions - in psychoanalysis, in other art forms (the novel, film, television, musical theatre), and in popular culture generally - from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.


Book Synopsis The Cambridge Companion to English Melodrama by : Carolyn Williams

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to English Melodrama written by Carolyn Williams and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-04 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This newly commissioned series of essays by leading scholars is the first volume to offer both an overview of the field and also current emerging critical views on the history, form, and influence of English melodrama. Authoritative voices provide an introduction to melodrama's early formal features such as tableaux and music, and trace the development of the genre in the nineteenth century through the texts and performances of its various sub-genres, the theatres within which the plays were performed, and the audiences who watched them. The historical contexts of melodrama are considered through essays on topics including contemporary politics, class, gender, race, and empire. And the extensive influences of melodrama are demonstrated through a wide-ranging assessment of its ongoing and sometimes unexpected expressions - in psychoanalysis, in other art forms (the novel, film, television, musical theatre), and in popular culture generally - from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.


Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and The Studio System

Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and The Studio System

Author: Thomas Schatz

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Published: 1981-02

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13:

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The central thesis of this book is that a genre approach provides the most effective means for understanding, analyzing and appreciating the Hollywood cinema. Taking into account not only the formal and aesthetic aspects of feature filmmaking, but various other cultural aspects as well, the genre approach treats movie production as a dynamic process of exchange between the film industry and its audience. This process, embodied by the Hollywood studio system, has been sustained primarily through genres, those popular narrative formulas like the Western, musical and gangster film, which have dominated the screen arts throughout this century.


Book Synopsis Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and The Studio System by : Thomas Schatz

Download or read book Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and The Studio System written by Thomas Schatz and published by McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. This book was released on 1981-02 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The central thesis of this book is that a genre approach provides the most effective means for understanding, analyzing and appreciating the Hollywood cinema. Taking into account not only the formal and aesthetic aspects of feature filmmaking, but various other cultural aspects as well, the genre approach treats movie production as a dynamic process of exchange between the film industry and its audience. This process, embodied by the Hollywood studio system, has been sustained primarily through genres, those popular narrative formulas like the Western, musical and gangster film, which have dominated the screen arts throughout this century.