Imperial Affects
Sensational Melodrama and the Attractions of American Cinema
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Rutgers University Press
Published:21st Jul '17
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£124.00(9780813583037)
Imperial Affects is the first sustained account of American action-based cinema as melodrama. From the earliest war films through the Hollywood Western and the late-century action cinema, imperialist violence and mobility have been produced as sites of both visceral pleasure and moral virtue. Suffering and omnipotence operate as twinned affects in this context, inviting identification with an American national subject constituted as both victimized and invincible—a powerful and persistent conjunction traced here across a century of cinema.
"Eagle skillfully juggles debates around the meaning and cultural relevance of melodrama, the relationship between sensationalism and modernity, and the cultural work done by the Western. This is a first-rate book that makes important contributions to film studies, American studies, and cultural studies more broadly." -- Sarah Hagelin * author of Reel Vulnerability *
"Rich in historical and critical insights, Eagle vividly demonstrates why the intimate connection between melodrama and action/violence matters so profoundly for our thinking about the cinema, gender, race and nationalism." -- Yvonne Tasker * author of Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre and the Action Cinema *
ISBN: 9780813583020
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 18mm
Weight: 440g
286 pages