Author

Publication

2001 - Columbia University Press, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

90,750 words, Guess

Page Count

363 pages

Identifiers

and 3 more
  • Library of Congress Control Number00064547
  • Goodreads5672265
  • LibraryThing434126

Classifications

  • DDC791.43/653
  • LCCPN1995.9.M45 S56 2001

Description

In this groundbreaking investigation into the nature and meanings of melodrama in American culture between 1880 and 1920, Ben Singer offers a challenging new reevaluation of early American cinema and the era that spawned it. Singer looks back to the sensational or "blood and thunder" melodramas (e.g. The Perils of Pauline, The Hazards of Helen, etc.) and uncovers a fundamentally modern cultural expression, one reflecting spectacular transformations in the sensory environment of the metropolis, in the experience of capitalism, in the popular imagination of gender, and in the exploitation of the thrill in popular amusement. Written with verve and panache, and illustrated with 100 striking photos and drawings, Singer's study provides an invaluable historical and conceptual map both of melodrama as a genre on stage and screen and of modernity as a pivotal idea in social theory. -- from back cover.

Subjects

Series Statement

  • Film and culture

Other Editions

  • Melodrama and modernity: early sensational cinema and its contextsColumbia University Press2001-01-01

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