ENM5230

Melodrama in three modes

Brian McFarlane

8 points
* 2 or (when films are screened) 4 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton

Objectives As for ENM4230. A more sophisticated level of theorisation and a wider range of reading, of both primary and secondary texts, will be expected of fifth-year students.

Synopsis As for ENM4230.

Assessment Two seminar papers (1000 words each): 25% each
* Essay (4000 words): 50%

Prescribed texts (subject to availability)
* = film text

Allegret M Blanche Fury*
Braddon D Lady Audley's secret
Crabtree A Madonna of the Seven moons*
Collins W The woman in white
DuMaurier D Rebecca
Dickens C A tale of two cities
Hamilton P Gas light
Hume F The mystery of the hansom cab
Hitchcock A Rebecca*
Ophuls M Letter from an Unknown Woman*
Pinero A The second Mrs Tanqueray
Rapper I Now Voyager*
Sirk D Written on the Wind*
Stowe H Uncle Tom's cabin
Vidor K Stella Dallas*
Wilde O An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest
Wood Mrs H East Lynne

Recommended texts

Brooks P The melodramatic imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama and the mode of excess, 1976
Bratton J et al (eds) Melodrama: Stage, picture, screen, 1994
Klinger B Melodrama and meaning: History, culture and the films of Douglas SirkÇ1994