Improving Passions: Sentimental Aesthetics and American Film

Description

Reveals a fascinating history of aesthetic debate concerning the emotional and moral functions of art When did the sentimental start to mean ‘awful’? Why are so many popular mainstream films dismissed for their sentimentality, and are there any meaningful differences between the sentimental and the melodramatic? These are some of the questions addressed in Charles Burnetts’ illuminating genealogy of the concept as both a literary genre and an aesthetic philosophy, a tradition that prefigures the advent of film yet serves as a vital framework for understanding its emotional and ethical appeal. Examining eighteenth century ‘moral sense’ philosophy as a neglected but still important intellectual area for film theory, and drawing on case studies of film sentimentality during the early, classical and post-classical eras of US cinema, Improving Passions is an innovative exploration of the sentimental tradition as both theatrical genre and cultural logic. Key features - Examines eighteenth century ‘moral sense’ philosophy and ‘sensibility’ as neglected, but important, intellectual areas for film theory - Provides case studies of film sentimentality during early, classical and post-classical eras of US cinema, focusing specifically on issues of critical reception - Engages with speculation by classical and contemporary film theorists about the ethical and affective possibilities of film - Examines new approaches to ‘affect’ in film and media philosophy that draw directly on, and reconfigure, a sentimental aesthetics Improving Passions Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Towards a Genealogy of Sentimentalism in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 2 Sentimental Aesthetics and Classical Film Theory 3 The Sentimental Chaplin: Comedy and Classical Narrative 4 Affect, or Postmodern Sentimentalism 5 The Sentiments of War in Spielberg and Tarantino 6 Sentiment and the ‘Smart’ Melodrama Conclusion Bibliography Index