This book argues that the most important connections between the New Deal and Hollywood melodrama lie neither in the New Deal iconography of these films, nor in the politics of any one studio executive. Rather, the New Deal figures prominently in Hollywood melodramas of the Depression era because these films engage the political ideas underlying welfare state policies—ideas that extended the reach of government into the private realm. As the author shows, Hollywood melodramas interrogated New Deal principles of liberal empathy—consumer citizenship, the refeudalization of the state, and minimal economic redistribution—only to support welfare-state ideology in the end.
This book argues that the most important connections between the New Deal and Hollywood melodrama lie neither in the New Deal iconography of these films, nor in the politics of any one studio executive. Rather, the New Deal figures prominently in Hollywood melodramas of the Depression era because these films engage the political ideas underlying welfare state policies—ideas that extended the reach of government into the private realm. As the author shows, Hollywood melodramas interrogated New Deal principles of liberal empathy—consumer citizenship, the refeudalization of the state, and minimal economic redistribution—only to support welfare-state ideology in the end.
Hollywood Melodrama and the New Deal: Public Daydreams
156Hollywood Melodrama and the New Deal: Public Daydreams
156Paperback(Reprint)
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781138689503 |
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Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Publication date: | 05/10/2016 |
Series: | Routledge Advances in Film Studies |
Edition description: | Reprint |
Pages: | 156 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d) |