Abstract
Melodrama, which simply means music with action, plays an important part within popular entertainment. Turn to any ‘soap opera’ on television and its principal features soon become apparent: the stereotyped characters, the background music which keys in the audience’s intended response, the mix of violence and farce, tragedy and comedy, the happy ending, the emphasis placed on sensation and physical events, the sentimental appeal to the emotions rather than the mind.
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References
The phrase ‘non-books’ comes from Leslie Shepard, The History of Street Literature (Devon: David and Charles, 1973), see p. 14.
See W. D. Howarth’s essay, ‘Word and Image in Pixerecourt’s Melodramas’, in D. Bradby, L. James and B. Sharrat (eds), Performance and Politics in Popular Drama (Cambridge University Press 1980) p 17
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The play is reprinted in James L. Smith, Victorian Melodramas (London: Dent, 1976).
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Spater, ibid.
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Quoted in Y. V. Kovalev, An Anthology of Chartist Literature (Moscow, 1956) p. 311.
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In Kovalev, op. cit., p. 376 — translation from the Russian.
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Raphael Samuel, Editorial Introduction to Documents on the Worker’s Theatre Movement in History Workshop (4, Autumn 1977) p. 103.
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© 1987 Andrew Davies
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Davies, A. (1987). Castles, Ghosts and Chartists: Stage Melodrama in the Nineteenth Century. In: Other Theatres. Communications and Culture. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18723-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18723-2_2
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