Abstract
It has now been a long while since the conventional, pejorative connotations of melodrama have been unsettled. In popular critical parlance the word is still used to dismiss films for contrivance, a reduction of the universe into simplistic moral bipolarity, and excessiveness of speech, gesture, and setting. Much of this is retailed from a viewpoint that places value on the plausible, the realist, and the psychological in storytelling. In European and American theatrical and film studies the common sense use of the term has been substantially challenged by a rich tradition of historical excavation and cultural analysis.
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References
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© 2011 Ravi Vasudevan
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Vasudevan, R. (2011). The Melodramatic Public. In: The Melodramatic Public. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-11812-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-11812-6_2
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