Melodrama - what is it? Meaning of the word

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Reading an entertaining book, watching a picture or a performance in the theater, almost every person has heard the word "melodrama" at least once. Despite the fact that it is used quite often in speech, not everyone knows what exactly this term means and how it differs from drama.

Melodrama: the meaning of the word

This term refers to a literary genre (a subgenre of drama), whose works concentrate on demonstrating the feelings, mental and spiritual experiences of the characters in unusual circumstances for them. As a rule, in order to better reveal the inner world and motives of the characters' actions, the melodrama uses the opposition: love and hate, good and evil, honesty and deceit. Often works of this type have a sad ending, but there are exceptions.

It is worth remembering that since melodrama is an intermediate genre, it can contain elements of both tragedy and comedy.

Also, this genre is quite common in cinematography and theatrical art.

History of melodrama

The word melodrama means in Greek"dramatic song" However, the term itself has nothing to do with Ancient Greece, since it appeared in the 17th century, and besides, in Italy. At first it was used to refer to one of the types of opera.

Melodrama has evolved over time. This happened thanks to the efforts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who ensured that works of this type were not sung, but read aloud, accompanied by dramatic music, in order to increase the impact on listeners.

The first musical melodrama was the work "Pygmalion", the music for which was written by the then-famous composer O. Coigne.

During the XVIII century. the genre has undergone major changes. At one time, melodrama was very close to the comic opera, but gradually moved away from it. By the fifties of the XIX century. it spread more in the theatre. And with the advent of cinema, it has become one of its most popular genres.

Melodrama in Russian literature

The fashion for this genre came to the Russian Empire pretty soon after France. The first Russian literary melodrama is Karamzin's sentimental story "Poor Lisa".

Also Lermontov's "Masquerade" can be attributed to this genre.

Ostrovsky's plays "Talents and Admirers", "Guilty Without Guilt" and "Late Love" are considered classic melodramatic works.

In the second half of the XX century. the most famous melodrama plays belong to the playwrights A. Arbuzov, A. Salynsky and A. Volodin.

Melodrama in movies

As in literature, so in cinematography, the first melodrama films began to be shot in France at the beginning of the 20th century. However, at that time they were more like detective or horror films, as they contained a lot of bloody scenes and an intriguing mystery.

With the development of the cinema genre, melodramas began to be filmed in most countries of the world (Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Germany, the USA and the Russian Empire). It is noteworthy that in Tsarist Russia the most famous actress who starred in melodrama films was Vera Kholodnaya from Odessa. The most popular melodrama with her participation is "Shut up, sadness, shut up." The paintings "By the Fireplace", "Life for Life" and the like were also successful.

In the next two decades, melodrama did not lose its significance in cinema, but, on the contrary, only strengthened its positions. The most famous melodramas of this period are Lady Hamilton, The Lady of the Camellias and The Blue Angel.

In the 50s and 60s. films of this genre in Europe and the United States went out of fashion. But in India, melodrama films during this period began to enjoy incredible popularity. It is worth noting that, unlike European and American cinema, where melodramatic stories were more often about love, social issues were raised in Indian films.

Starting from the second half of the 60s, melodrama again becomes popular all over the world and remains so to this day. Classic films of this type are Your Name (Japan), Man and Woman (France), The Cranes Are Flying (USSR), Love Story (USA).

Distinctive features of melodrama

This genre of drama has a number of features.

• First of all, this is the exaggerated emotionality of the main characters, on which all attention is concentrated.
• The main task of works of this kind is to make readers (spectators) empathize with the characters. Melodrama appeals to emotions, not to the human mind.
• The end of a classic of this genre is tragic. However, in the XX century. with the light hand of Bertolt Brecht, who made popular the open ending in theatrical plays, this fashion spread to melodramas and became one of their distinguishing features. In recent years, melodramas have increasingly had happy endings.
• While such works sometimes raise themes of social inequality or show the attempts of an individual to resist society, a love story is at the center of the classic modern melodrama.

Melodrama is a genre of drama

Don't completely equate drama with melodrama. The latter is considered more superficial, designed mainly for a female audience.

Most often, the events of melodramatic works occur with unusual people (aristocrats, rich people, famous characters in history) and are fanned by fabulousness and a halo of romance. At the same time, classical drama often describes the fate of ordinary people, in whom everyone is able to recognize themselves or their loved ones.

Also, the way the main characters are portrayed distinguishes between drama and melodrama. In the first, the characters are more realistic, and in the second, the opposite is true. The characters of the heroes of the melodrama, as a rule, are hypertrophied, they can be easily divided into good and bad. In drama, it is often difficult to understand and categorize the characters, as their actions and feelings are extremely contradictory.

Melodramas often contain elements of eroticism, while for drama this detail is optional, and if it is, it looks more dull.

For almost four hundred years of its existence, melodrama has experienced a lot. This affected her features. Today, thanks to the development of cinema, melodrama is one of the most popular genres. Thousands of melodrama films are shot every year for every taste, and today almost every inhabitant of the planet can find a work of this kind that will suit his heart.