Melodrama, it is said, has expanded beyond the borders of genre and fiction to become a pervasive cultural mode. It encompasses distinct signifying practices and interpretive codes for meaning-making that help determine the parameters of identification and subject formation. From the public staging of personal suffering or the psychologization of the self in relation to consumer capitalism, to the emotionalization and sentimentalization of national politics, contributions to this volume address the following question: If melodramatic models of sense-making have become so culturally pervasive and emotionally persuasive, what is the political potential of melodramatic victimhood and where are its political limitations?This volume represents both a condensation and an expansion in the growing field of melodrama studies. It condenses elements of theory on melodrama by bringing into focus what it recognizes to be the locus for subjective identification within melodramatic narratives: the victim. On the other hand, it provides an expansion by going beyond the common methodology of primarily examining fictive works - be they from the stage, the screen or the written word - for their explicit or latent commentary on and connection to the historical contexts within which they are produced. Inspiration for the volume is rooted in a curiosity about melodramatic forms purported to increasingly characterize aspects of both the private and the social sphere in occidental and western-oriented societies.

Dr. Scott Loren and Prof. Dr. Jörg Metelmann teach Film and Media Studies at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. In 2013 they published the monograph Irritation of Life: The Subversive Melodrama of Michael Haneke, David Lynch and Lars von Trier Dr. Scott Loren and Prof. Dr. Jörg Metelmann teach Film and Media Studies at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. In 2013 they published the monograph Irritation of Life: The Subversive Melodrama of Michael Haneke, David Lynch and Lars von Trier

IntroductionI. Cultures of Suffering and Cinematic IdentitiesVictimhood and Melodrama: Modern, Political and MilitantThomas ElsaesserWhen is Melodrama 'Good'? Mega-Melodrama and VictimhoodLinda WilliamsMelodrama and War in Hollywood Genre CinemaHermann KappelhoffRace Interactions: Melodrama and the Ambiguities of ColorismChristof DeckerThe Purloined Letter: Ophuls after CavellUlrike HansteinII. Modernity and the Melodramatic SelfThe Melodrama of SelfEva IllouzRousseau's NightmareVincent Kaufmann'Emotional Suffering' as Universal Category? Victimhood and the Collective ImaginaryJorg MetelmannIII. Collective Traumas and National MelodramasIII.1 Legacies of 9/11The Abu Ghraib ArchiveW. J. T. Mitchell, with an introduction by Scott LorenThe Melodramatic Style of American PoliticsElisabeth AnkerTears of Testimony: Glenn Beck and the Conservative Moral OccultScott LorenIII.2 Holocaust LegaciesThe Cultural Construction of the Holocaust Witness as a Melodramatic HeroAmos GoldbergNation and Emotion: The Competition for Victimhood in EuropeUlrich SchmidPerspectivesInterview with Christine GledhillScott Loren and Jorg Metelmann