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...
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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.' 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 texts, this book demonstrates the ways in which Hardy used the melodramatic mode to advance his critique of established Victorian cultural beliefs through the employment of non-realistic plot devices and sensational "excess."
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Cover; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; List of Figures; Acknowledgments; Introduction: Thomas Hardy and the Melodramatic Imagination; Part I Melodramas of Masculinity-Desperate Remedies and The Mayor of Casterbridge; 1 " 'I love you better than any man can' ": Sensation Fiction, Class, and Gender Role Anxiety in Desperate Remedies; 2 " '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
3 " 'Kiss me too, Frank . . . You will Frank kiss me too!' ": Sensationalism, Surveillance, and Gazing at the Body in Far from the Madding Crowd4 " '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; 5 " 'Lady-not a penny less than lady' ": Satire, Melodrama, and the Sensational Fiction of Class Status in The Hand of Ethelberta
6 " 'Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery?' ": Sensationalist Tragedy, Melodramatic Modernity, and the Moral Occult (II) in Jude the ObscureNotes; Bibliography; Index
