Melodrama: Genre, Style and Sensibility is designed as an accessible
overview of the, often complex, debates that emerge out of the connections
between melodrama and cinema. The book identifies three distinct but connected
concepts through which it is possible to make sense of melodrama; either as a
genre, originating in European theatre of the 18th and 19th century, as a
specific cinematic style, epitomised by the work of Douglas Sirk or as a
sensibility that emerges in the context of specific texts, speaking to and
reflecting the desires, concerns and anxieties of audiences. Each chapter
includes overviews of key essays, analyses of significant and widely studied
films and includes an annotated reading list.