{"product_id":"melodrama-as-provocateur-hardback-9781478033691","title":"Melodrama As Provocateur (Hardback) 9781478033691","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eMelodrama As Provocateur\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eLinda Williams (Author), Christine Gledhill (Edited by), Laura Horak (Edited by), Elisabeth R. Anker (Edited by)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781478033691\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 14 April 2026\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e342 pages, 28 illustrations\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.63 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"Williams has been one of the outstanding American scholars of cinema, who has written about a whole series of important topics—race, documentary, pornography, melodrama—with a remarkable timeliness as well as insight. Melodrama as a topic continues to be of vital and expanding interest in the film and media studies field, and this team of melodrama scholars is of the highest order.\"—Charles Musser, Yale University \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Williams”s \u003ci\u003eMelodrama as Provocateur\u003c\/i\u003e is a comparative history of melodrama in two societies on both sides of the Atlantic. This collection changes the way we look at contemporary fictional production and challenges the dichotomy between elite and mass culture. It argues against this academic tradition and defends the idea that melodrama is the central form of American fiction, and more broadly of democratic cultures, found in most fictional cinemas around the world.”—Geneviève Sellier, coauthor of \u003ci\u003eThe Battle of the Sexes in French Cinema, 1930–1956\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Williams has been one of the outstanding American scholars of cinema, who has written about a whole series of important topics—race, documentary, pornography, melodrama—with a remarkable timeliness as well as insight. Melodrama as a topic continues to be of vital and expanding interest in the film and media studies field, and this team of melodrama scholars is of the highest order.”—Charles Musser, Yale University\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eAs one of the most influential contemporary film scholars, Linda Williams brought her critical feminist lens to some of society’s most maligned and underappreciated film genres. \u003ci\u003eMelodrama as Provocateur\u003c\/i\u003e showcases what was to be Williams's last project in which, insisting on melodrama as a cross-generic, cross-media mode, she investigates the divergence between French and American attitudes to film melodrama. A diverse group of scholars respond to her provocations, rethinking melodrama’s transnational, transmedia histories and potential futures. Their contributions examine how melodrama became, as Williams argues, the default mode of contemporary media, and demonstrate how it plays an increasingly powerful role in public discourse and political rhetoric today.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eIntroduction \/ Christine Gledhill, Laura Horak, and Elisabeth R. Ander  1\u003cbr\u003e Part I. Provocations\u003cbr\u003e 1. The Fortunes of Melodrama in France and America\u003cbr\u003e or, Why Melodrama Is Still Important \/ Linda Williams  15\u003cbr\u003e Part II. Refiguring Melodrama’\u003cbr\u003es Histories as Transnational\/Transmedial Form\u003cbr\u003e 2. On Shifting Ground: Melodrama’\u003cbr\u003es Transcultural, Transmedial, and Transhistorical Genesis \/ Matthew Buckley  65\u003cbr\u003e 3. Hollywood’\u003cbr\u003es Export to the World: Melodramas of Colonial Conquest \/ Jane M. Gaines  81\u003cbr\u003e 4. Feeling Our Way: Melodrama and Emotional Engagement \/ E. Deidre Pribram  101\u003cbr\u003e 5. Strip Thinking: Forms of Intermittent Pictorialization \/ Carolyn Williams  119\u003cbr\u003e 6. “\u003cbr\u003eAnd We Wept, Precious”\u003cbr\u003e: Motion Capture and Melodrama \/ Carla Marcantonio  137\u003cbr\u003e Part III. Melodrama’\u003cbr\u003es Fortunes in France and America: Eighteenth to Twenty-First Century\u003cbr\u003e 7. Seeking Sisterhood: French Melodrama, American Cinema, and the Case of \u003ci\u003eLes deux orphelines\u003c\/i\u003e \/ Victoria Duckett  151\u003cbr\u003e 8. Searching for Melodrama in French Versus American Cinema, 1908–\u003cbr\u003e1912 \/ Richard Abel  168\u003cbr\u003e 9. The Lost World: \u003ci\u003eLe Silence est d’\u003cbr\u003eor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e or, French (Mis)Recognition of a \u003ci\u003eMÉ\u003cbr\u003elodrame\u003c\/i\u003e That Dares Not Speak Its Name \/ Charles-Antoine Courcoux  182\u003cbr\u003e 10. “\u003cbr\u003eGrab ’\u003cbr\u003eEm by the Pussy”\u003cbr\u003e: Donald Trump and the MAGA Melodrama \/ Elisabeth R. Anker  201\u003cbr\u003e 11. Trans Melodramas \/ Laura Horak  219\u003cbr\u003e Part IV. Aesthetics and Politics of Emotion\u003cbr\u003e 12. Falling in Love and in Art: The Diva Documentary \/ Dolores McElroy  243\u003cbr\u003e 13. Melodrama as Default Mode of Popular Culture: P!nk’\u003cbr\u003es Album \u003ci\u003eTrustfall\u003c\/i\u003e (2023) \/ Martin Shingler  260\u003cbr\u003e 14. Emotional Legibility: Modernity, Melodrama, and Ambivalent Gender Justice in Bombay Cinema, 1930s–\u003cbr\u003e1950s \/ Ira Bhaskar  272\u003cbr\u003e 15. From My Sister’\u003cbr\u003es Bedside: Life and Death in the Shadow of \u003ci\u003eBlossoms Shanghai\u003c\/i\u003e \/ Zhang Zhen  293\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments  311\u003cbr\u003e Contributors  313\u003cbr\u003e Index  317\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Duke University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52591026798872,"sku":"9781478033691","price":71.79,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/melodrama-as-provocateur-hardback-9781478033691","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}