| The Melodramatic Moment: Music and Theatrical Culture, 1790-1820 Contributor(s): Hambridge, Katherine G. (Editor), Hicks, Jonathan (Editor), Chandler, James (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 022654365X ISBN-13: 9780226543659 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $58.41 Product Type: Hardcover Published: July 2018 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Music | History & Criticism - General - Music | Genres & Styles - Classical - Literary Criticism | European - General |
| Dewey: 781.552 |
| LCCN: 2017038273 |
| Physical Information: 1" H x 6" W x 9.1" (1.30 lbs) 288 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: We seem to see melodrama everywhere we look--from the soliloquies of devastation in a Dickens novel to the abject monstrosity of Frankenstein's creation, and from Louise Brooks's exaggerated acting in Pandora's Box to the vicissitudes endlessly reshaping the life of a brooding Don Draper. This anthology proposes to address the sometimes bewilderingly broad understandings of melodrama by insisting on the historical specificity of its genesis on the stage in late-eighteenth-century Europe. Melodrama emerged during this time in the metropolitan centers of London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin through stage adaptations of classical subjects and gothic novels, and they became famous for their use of passionate expression and spectacular scenery. Yet, as contributors to this volume emphasize, early melodramas also placed sound at center stage, through their distinctive--and often disconcerting--alternations between speech and music. This book draws out the melo of melodrama, showing the crucial dimensions of sound and music for a genre that permeates our dramatic, literary, and cinematic sensibilities today. A richly interdisciplinary anthology, The Melodramatic Moment will open up new dialogues between musicology and literary and theater studies. |
Contributor Bio(s): Hambridge, Katherine G.: - Katherine G. Hambridge is assistant professor in musicology at Durham University.Hicks, Jonathan: - Jonathan Hicks is a research fellow at Newcastle University Humanities Research Institute.Chandler, James: - James Chandler is the Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and chair of the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books, including England in 1819: The Politics of Literary Culture and the Case of Romantic Historicism, also published by the University of Chicago Press. |
