"Centering on a provocative posthumous essay by Linda Williams, "The Fortunes of Melodrama in France and America; or, Why Melodrama is Still Important," Melodrama as Provocateur presents new research and innovative thinking on the past, present, and future of melodrama. Williams ground-breaking opening chapter argues that melodramatic modes of imagining shape French as much as American culture from the late eighteenth century to today. Responding to Williamss provocations, fourteen scholars in theatre and film history, literary and cultural studies, screen media and cultural politics analyze transnational and transmedial forms of melodrama, ranging across plays, films, memoirs, and TV series, to news media, documentaries, pop videos, and digital technologies. Such comparative histories across centuries, cultures, and media forms radically broaden our understandings of the aesthetics and politics of melodrama today, a project made ever more urgent by melodramas increasingly powerful role in public discourse"-- Provided by publisher.