Re-visiting Melodrama in Contemporary Television Symposium

 Friday, 27th March, 9.30am – 5.30pm

Department of Theatre, Film & Television, University of York


Guest Participant: Professor Christine Geraghty



In the clamour to critique and interpret particular forms of ‘complex television’ (Mittell, 2012 - 2015), a focus on narrative structure and aesthetic style has tended to leave less room for considerations of reception, affect, and emotion.  Moreover, certain kinds of television dominate in these discussions, leaving a gap in the debate around contemporary dramatic forms outside ‘quality’ or ‘cinematic’ television.  

Nevertheless, primetime television has seen significant recent success for programmes developed upon the emotional power of melodrama, from Scandal in the US to Last Tango in Halifax in the UK. There is good reason to revisit and explore melodramatic television, particularly when paired with recent research on emotion and affect within cultural studies.  In Linda Williams’s recent On the Wire she argues for the potential of the melodramatic in television to bring together ‘the individual and the institutional’ in a way ‘that allows us to picture the political and the social totality of what ails contemporary urban America and to imagine what justice could be’ (2014, 5).  This interpretative framework might be productively applied to a wide range of other television texts.  It’s time to take melodrama in television seriously again and to consider how we define it. 
 
We will examine the melodramatic mode in contemporary television, and interrogate its influence on tone, storytelling, screenwriting, reception, as well as the television industry.  We want to reopen conversations about the value and meaning of melodrama in the current context, and consider its potential to offer a different form of engagement with television than that which presently dominates. 


The symposium is free, but places are limited and will be offered on a first come basis, so please register by emailing: 
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Directions to The Department of Theatre, Film and Television: 
http://www.york.ac.uk/tftv/contact/maps-and-directions/

This Symposium is hosted by the Department of Theatre, Film & Television & the Northern Television Research Group and organised by Dr Kristyn Gorton, Dr Hannah Andrews and Dr Amy Holdsworth (Glasgow).