Lit. 7-365: American Culture and Melodrama in the 19th century
Instructor: Dr. Zoe Detsi-Diamanti
Office: 309A
Office Hours: Monday 11.30-13.30, Tuesday 09.30-11.00
e-mail: , tel. 2310 997448
Course Objective: the aim of the course is to introduce students to the genre of melodrama, the most widely-accepted form of popular entertainment. Melodrama will be studied alongside the cultural, political, and social discourses from which it sprang and to which it contributed.
Attendance Policy: Although attendance is not obligatory, students should realize that literature courses require a regular presence in the classroom and an active participation in class discussions
Course Requirements: a final exam at the end of the semester.
Syllabus
· Introduction
o The aesthetics of melodrama
o The emergence of melodrama in the United States
· Melodrama and Political Propaganda
Royall Tyler, The Contrast (1787)
The Patriot (film)
· Women and Melodrama
Anna Cora Mowatt, Fashion (1845)
The Age of Innocence (film)
Julia Ward Howe, Leonora (1859)
Malena (film)
Thelma and Louise (film)
· Urban life and Melodrama
Benjamin A. Baker, A Glance at New York (1848)
Crash (film)
· Race and Melodrama
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1859)
12 Years a Slave (film)
· Melodrama and the American West
Frank H. Murdoch, Davy Crockett (1872)
The Revenant (film)
Bibliography
Barefoot, Guy. Gaslight Melodrama: from Victorian London to 1940s Hollywood.
Brooks, Peter. The Melodramatic Imagination.
Cavell, Stanley. Contesting Tears: the Hollywood Melodrama of the Unknown
Woman.
Gerould, Daniel C. American Melodrama.
Grimsted, David. Melodrama Unveiled: American Theatre and Culture, 1800-1850.
Hays, Michael. Melodrama: The Cultural Emergence of a Genre.
Kaplan, E. Ann. Motherhood and Representation: the mother in popular culture and
melodrama.
Karnick, Kristine Brunovska. Classical Hollywood Comedy.
Landy, Marcia. Imitations of Life: a reader on film & television melodrama.
McConachie, Bruce A. Melodramatic Formations: American Theatre and Society,
1820-1870.
Mason, Jeffrey D. Melodrama and the Myth of America.
Πατσαλίδης, Σάββας. Μελόδραμα Ειδολογικοί και Ιδεολογικοί Μετασχηματισμοί.
Randall, Charles H. Hisses, boos & cheers; or, a practical guide to the planning,
producing, and performing melodrama.
Williams, Linda. Playing the Race card: melodramas of Black and white from Uncle
Tom to O. J. Simpson.