Melodrama

by James L. Smith

First published in 1973, this book explores the genre of melodrama. After discussing the defining characteristics of melodrama, the book examines the dramatic structures of the two major and contrasting emotions presented in triumph and defeat. It concludes with a reflection on the ways in which elements of melodrama have appeared in protest theatre.

96 pages, Hardcover

First published November 29, 1973

About the author

James Leslie Smith

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've recently discovered a series of slim paperbacks called "The Critical Idiom," published by Methuen (UK) in the 1970s. The titles are mostly one-word descriptors like "Tragedy," "Romanticism," and "Irony" (in other words, the kind of books I leap at). I don't recall ever seeing any of these titles in used bookstores.

"Melodrama" by James L. Smith is excellent. It covers the history of theatrical melodrama in a speedy 81 pages. Smith comes to praise melodrama, not to bury it. He acknowledges the trash produced in the genre but defends melodrama as a vital and necessary means of processing human experience.

Smith contrasts tragedy--a complex mode in which characters are internally divided and acquire self-knowledge painfully--with melodrama, a less complex but more popular mode in which fixed "whole" characters representing pure good and pure evil collide. Numerous scholars of film melodrama (my current area of interest) quote Smith, and he is well worth the read.

Is it because Smith is British, "pre-postmodern" and untainted by "Continental Theory" that his scholarship is so good? The cover is even set in Helvetica, which makes my reader's heart grow fonder. If the other books in the series are this good I may have to start collecting...