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COLT 212 - Comparative World Cinema

CRN: 11732

Instructor: Baran Germen

Term: Fall 2017

Melodrama to Camp

Melodrama has traditionally been regarded as a trivial genre mostly for female audiences despite its popularity around the globe. This course instead promotes a redefinition and reevaluation of melodrama as an indispensable narrative mode of world cinema addressing questions of class, race, gender, and sexuality in its own mold. To determine the basics of melodrama as a dominant cultural form, we will pay attention to the kinds of worlds and subjectivities created by melodramatic imagination. In what ways does the melodramatic form pit the good against the bad? By what means are conflicts raised and solved? What are the ways in which melodramas link victimhood and virtue? How and to what purpose is melodramatic pathos invoked? In light of these and similar questions, we will follow melodrama’s evolution into camp and attend to its significance for underrepresented social groups.

Satisfies General Education Requirements:

  • Group-Satisfying: Arts and Letters
  • Multicultural Courses: International Cultures (IC)