The notion of mode is critical in the reevaluation of melodrama. As a mode, melodrama appears not only as a dramatic genre pervaded by sensationalism, exaggerations, and moral polarities, but also as a cultural imaginary that shapes the emotional experience of modernity, characterized by anxiety, moral confusion, and the dissolution of hierarchy. Despite its usefulness, the notion of mode remains mystifying: What exactly are modes and how do they differ from genres? Refiguring Melodrama in Film and Television: Captive Affects, Elastic Sufferings, Vicarious Objects argues that, whereas genres divide a universe in terms of similarities and differences, modes express or modify an indivisible whole. This study contends that the melodramatic mode is concerned with the expression of the social whole in terms of suffering. Zarzosa explains how melodrama is not a cultural imaginary that proclaims the existence of a defunct moral order in a post-sacred world, but an apparatus that shapes suffering and redistributes its visibility. The moral ideas we associate with melodrama are only a means to achieve this end.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2012
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-7253-7
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-7254-4
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
173
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
Introduction: The Outwitted Critic No access Pages 1 - 8
1. Modalities of Melodrama No access Pages 9 - 26
2. Affect, Affection, Affectation No access Pages 27 - 46
3. Diagnosing Suffering No access Pages 47 - 66
4. Trafficking in Sacred Objects No access Pages 67 - 86
5. Sacrifice and the Animal Melodrama No access Pages 87 - 104
6. The Excesses of the Posthuman Melodrama No access Pages 105 - 124
7. The Outside and the Coincidence Machine No access Pages 125 - 144
Conclusion: Tragedy and Melodrama No access Pages 145 - 151
Bibliography No access Pages 152 - 160
Film and Television References No access Pages 161 - 164
