Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the historical development of melodrama from a cultural mode of storytelling to a predominant form of political discourse in American public life. Melodrama erupts on the political stage after World War Two with the onset of the Cold War, helping to make sense of the country’s newfound role as global superpower. Melodramatic political discourse becomes a site of convergence for multiple ideas and practices already circulating in American public life: it yokes together melodramatic narratives popular in American film, cinematic modes of attraction, the inception of television and mass visual political communication, political ideals of American exceptionalism, American economic and military force, and the burgeoning fear of Communist takeover. Drawing sustenance from these varied ideas, practices, and media, melodrama rapidly gains popularity as a way of both constructing political events and legitimating expansive forms of state power meant to protect American ideals and destroy its villainous enemies. Operating episodically in political life since the mid-20th century, melodrama becomes most pervasive in the post-9/11 era, after the horrific visual spectacle of the 9/11 events cements its moral polarization and verifies its categorical distinction between victims and villains.