Synopses & Reviews
Thomas Hardy, Sensationalism, and the Melodramatic Mode provides the first full-length study of sensationalist and melodramatic elements in Hardys novels. Through a discussion of six of Hardys texts, this book demonstrates the ways in which he uses the melodramatic mode to advance his critique of established Victorian cultural beliefs through the employment of non-realistic plot devices and sensational “excess.”
Synopsis
"Thomas Hardy, Sensationalism, and the Melodramatic Mode" provides the first full-length study of sensationalist and melodramatic elements in Hardy's novels. Through a discussion of six of Hardy's texts it demonstrates the ways in which he uses the melodramatic mode to advance his critique of established Victorian cultural beliefs through the employment of non-realistic plot devices and sensational "excess." The book's three sections focus on constructions of masculinity, presentations of female embodiment, and formulations of modernity through class conflict. Additionally the study breaks down the barrier between Hardy's so-called "minor" and "major" novels by demonstrating that his anti-realist aesthetic is consistent across this artificially established division. The book will appeal to academic libraries and Hardy scholars, as well as advanced and postgraduate students interested in Hardy's fiction and in Victorian melodrama generally.
Synopsis
The first full-length study of sensationalist and melodramatic elements in Hardy's novels uses six of his texts to demonstrate the ways in which Hardy uses the melodramatic mode to advance his critique of established Victorian cultural beliefs through the employment of non-realistic plot devices and sensational 'excess.'
About the Author
Richard Nemesvari is Professor and Chair in the Department of English at St. Francis Xavier University.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Thomas Hardy and the Melodramatic Imagination * Part I: Melodramas of Masculinity--Desperate Remedies and The Mayor of Casterbridge * “‘I love you better than any man can”: Sensation Fiction, Class, and Gender Role Anxiety in Desperate Remedies * “‘No man ever loved another as I did thee”: Melodrama, Masculinity, and the Moral Occult (I) in The Mayor of Casterbridge * Part II: Sensational Bodies, Melodramatic Spectacles--Far from the Madding Crowd and A Laodicean * “‘Kiss me too, Frank . . . You will Frank kiss me too!”: Sensationalism, Surveillance, and Gazing at the Body in Far from the Madding Crowd * “‘A mixed young lady, rather”: Melodrama, Technology, and Dis/Embodied Sensation in A Laodicean * Part III Melodramas of Modernity and Class Status--The Hand of Ethelberta and Jude the Obscure * “‘Lady--not a penny less than lady”: Social Satire, Melodrama, and the Sensational Fiction of Class Status in The Hand of Ethelberta * “‘Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery?”: Sensationalist Tragedy, Melodramatic Modernity, and the Moral Occult (II) in Jude the Obscure