Improving Passions : : Sentimental Aesthetics and American Film / / Charles Burnetts.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Complete eBook-Package 2017
• VerfasserIn: Burnetts, Charles,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (192 p.) :; 12 B/W illustrations

Reveals a fascinating history of aesthetic debate concerning the emotional and moral functions of artWhen 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 featuresExamines eighteenth century ‘moral sense’ philosophy and ‘sensibility’ as neglected, but important, intellectual areas for film theoryProvides case studies of film sentimentality during early, classical and post-classical eras of US cinema, focusing specifically on issues of critical receptionEngages with speculation by classical and contemporary film theorists about the ethical and affective possibilities of filmExamines new approaches to ‘affect’ in film and media philosophy that draw directly on, and reconfigure, a sentimental aesthetics

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- 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