melodramaticity

One of the heartbreak Hamlets, the almost great, is Hagar’s Horde, by George Kibbe Turner. The atmosphere, of brooding fear over the coming of the yellow fever into Memphis, is done with the effectiveness of [Edgar Allan] Poe’s best atmosphere stories; only the unneeded melodramaticity of the plot spoils the totality.

1927 October 5, Clement Wood, “Modern Fiction”, in The Outline of Man’s Knowledge […], New York, N.Y.: Lewis Copeland Company, published 30 November 1927 (6th printing), →OCLC, book III (The Outline of Literature), chapter V (American Literature), page 442

Although the drama occupies an important role in the literary creations of Bukharan Jewry in the 1930’s, serious strictures must be levelled against it not only from the point of view of content but also from the artistic aspect. Naivety, melodramaticity, cheap pathetics, the weakness of the dramatic plot, banality of language – these are the main weak points of these creations.

1972 January 30–31, Michael Zand, “The Culture of the Mountain Jews of the Caucasus and the Culture of the Jews of Bukhara”, in Aryeh Tartakower, Zelda Kolitz, editors, Jewish Culture in the Soviet Union: Proceedings of the Symposium Held by the Cultural Department of the World Jewish Congress, Jerusalem, January 30-31, 1972, Jerusalem: Cultural Department of the World Jewish Congress, published 1973, →OCLC, page 146

Whether he is conscious of it or not, [Marián] Milčák sometimes returns to a Baroque asceticism – with a Baroque melodramaticity which confronts the melodramaticity of his neo-Beat contemporaries: ‘I fought for / lines of verse / and the pale lips / of women // compassionately / killed’ or: ‘I held on to / my position / of rejection // before the veiled / cross.’

1997, Robert B. Pynsent, “Killing, Laughing and Observing: Three Trends in Contemporary Slovak Literature”, in Igor Navrátil, Robert B. Pynsent, editors, Appropriations and Impositions: National, Regional and Sexual Identity in Literature […], Bratislava: Národné literárne centrum, →ISBN, page 216

Still in the same shot, Selby’s^([sic]) asks Aileen [Wuornos] to touch her face and she accepts. The action is followed by low key lighting and non-diegetic music. The low lighting creates a sense of intimacy between the women and it is intensified by a melodic non-diegetic music which is an instrumental song which heightens the melodramaticity of the scene.

Federal University of Santa Catarina

2008 March, Raphael Albuquerque de Boer, “Is Lesbian Love Monstrous?”, in Representations of Women in the Movies The Color Purple and Monster: Questions about Sexuality and Identity, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina [Federal University of Santa Catarina], →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 Jul 2026, page 50

The extract published here concerns two distinct areas of Sabina’s historical fiction: semi-historical fiction from 1837–44 (Hrobník, Msta, Obrazy ze XIV. a XV. věku, and Čech), with an ostentatiously ahistorical treatment in the spirit of the melodramaticity of the gothic novel and earlier popular literature, and Sabina’s historical fiction from the 1860s (in particular, Hyacint), which helped to establish this kind of work in modern Czech belles‑lettres, and also his adventure literature (Ruesswurm), anticipating some later forms as well.

Czech Academy of Sciences – Institute of Czech Literature

2008 June, Michal Charypar, “Historická tematika v prózách Karla Sabiny [Historical Topics in Karel Sabina’s Fiction]”, in Česká literatura [Czech Literature], number 3 (56 overall), Prague: Akademie věd České republiky – Ústav pro českou literaturu [Czech Academy of Sciences – Institute of Czech Literature], →ISSN, →OCLC, resumé, page 367