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Performing Arts General

Improving Passions

Sentimental Aesthetics and American Film

by (author) Charles Burnetts

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Initial publish date
Apr 2019
Category
General
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781474431699
    Publish Date
    Apr 2019
    List Price
    $32.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

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 18th 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.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Charles Burnetts teaches film in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Kings University College, The University of Western Ontario.