Melodrama and the Affective Arts of the Nineteenth Century

In this essay I want to consider some of the ways in which nineteenth-century art, drama, and literature emotionally engaged their audience through melodrama, an affective form that aimed at a physical response in the subject as much, or more, than a cerebral one. Effects were harnessed to produce affects: sometimes tears, sometimes suspense. I want to approach this topic through the melodramatic representation of the city