Overview

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. To develop this conception of melodrama, Refiguring Melodrama in Film and Television offers a novel conceptualization of the following aspects of melodrama theory: affect, interpretation, exchange, excess, sacrifice, and coincidence. These aspects of melodrama are coupled with the analysis of classic melodramas (Home from the Hill and The Story of Adele H.), contemporary films (The Piano, [Safe], and Year of the Dog), and television series (Torchwood and Lost). Refiguring Melodrama in Film and Television provides an essential new look at melodrama and its function in popular culture and media.

Full Product Details

9780739172537

Table of Contents

Reviews

With this provocative book, Agustin Zarzosa provides an important intervention for thinking about how film images have political affects. Eschewing the often tired repertoire of genre categorization, Zarzosa develops a refreshingly different theory of the melodramatic image; one that could also be extended to other image analysis. Clear examples and rich arguments connect core notions of melodrama with key theorists of the melodramatic mode, to give original readings of films and television series. A must-read book for all interested in developments in film and television theory, and philosophy of film. -- Felicity Colman, Manchester Metropolitan University

Author Information

Agustíin Zarzosa is assistant professor of cinema studies at Purchase College.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available