Instructor: Andersen MWF 10:10 AM – 11:05 AM
Nineteenth-century melodrama combined music, spectacle, intense emotions, and sweeping gestures to stage sensational stories that pit ordinary heroes against powerful villains. Due to its popular appeal, melodrama could also be used to convey a political message, critiquing forms of power through its embodied performance of race, class, and gender. In this class, we’ll study the history of melodrama from the nineteenth century to the present day. Starting with melodrama’s origins as a theatrical phenomenon, we’ll then trace the global and transmedia influence of melodrama on genres ranging from silent films to soap operas, from the Broadway musical to Bollywood.