Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts

by Ben Singer

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231113293
• ISBN13: 9780231113298
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.0" x 9.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher