Domestic Melodrama as Genre (Discussion)

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Molly Haskell

  1. Groups 1, 2, and 3: What three types of women does Haskell find in the woman's film? Describe a character in a relatively recent film (say, since the 1980s) who exemplifies each type.
  2. Groups 4, 5, and 6: What are the woman's film's four main themes? Do you see them operating in the two melodramas we've viewed: Ordinary People and Imitation of Life (1934)?
  3. : How is hostility toward children expressed in the woman's film? Have you seen it in a recent American film?
  4. : What impact does the issue of race have on the woman's film? Compare/contrast the white and black mothers (Bea and Delilah, respectively) in Imitation of Life.
  5. : What theme does Haskell see that entwines the domestic and the romantic? Have you seen it in a recent American film?

Only one extra credit question may be answered.

21st-century melodramas

Film melodramas released since 2000.

Bibliography

  1. Molly Haskell, "The Woman's Film," in From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (New York: Penguin, 1974; revised edition 1987) 153-188.

Footnotes

  1. In spring 2010, this discussion was combined with Domestic Melodrama Since World War II (Discussion), into Domestic Melodrama as Genre (2010 Discussion).