Emotional Expressionism: Television Serialization, the Melodramatic Mode, and Socioemotionality

In Emotional Expressionism: Television Seriality, the Melodramatic Mode, and Socioemotionality, E. Deidre Pribram examines emotions as social relations through the lens of dramatic television serials as contemporary melodrama. She develops the concept of socioemotionality, addressing sociocultural forms of felt experience and exploring the role of emotions in forging narrative worlds. Through detailed analyses of serials like Killing Eve, How to Get Away with Murder, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Pribram argues that the prominent role emotions play in popular mediated narratives demonstrates the crucial impact of collective emotions—activated through aesthetic attributes—on cultural storytelling. Scholars of television, communication, media, and cultural studies will find this book of particular relevance.

Table of Contents:
Part I: Outlining the Field Chapter One: Socioemotionality and Popular Mediated Narrativity Chapter Two: The Melodrama of Television Serialization Chapter Three: Emotional Expressionisms Part II: About Emotions Chapter Four: Characterizing Emotions Chapter Five: Emotion as Structuring Device Chapter Six: Genre and Tone Chapter Seven: Collective Emotions and Audiences

About the Author :
E. Deidre Pribram is professor emerita of the Communications Department at Molloy University.

Review :
Pribram presents the complex theory of socioemotionality through the lens of television and melodrama, providing concrete examples of how the theory may be applied to show how emotionality “embraces ‘political, contextual, ethical, and lived’ phenomena.” Using television serials such as How to Get Away with Murder, Killing Eve, Mad Men, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Pribram applies specific aspects of the theory to illustrate how it combines fluidly with the aesthetics of the medium and its narrative modes to present a more robust reading of “character, structure, genre and content.” In addition, she examines the symbiotic relationship between socioemotionality and melodrama, explaining how the approach to a dramatic television serial, even set during the same era, can diverge based on the emotional context through which showrunners create the programs, especially those creators influenced by political and/or ethical nostalgia. Serving as an excellent resource for researchers and scholars, Pribram’s text demonstrates how the influence of society’s collective emotions directly impacts the narrative structures of mass media, specifically dramatic television serials, which lend themselves more readily to melodrama and, consequently, socioemotionality. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. Applying the concept of socioemotionality to recent television series from the Anglophone world, Emotional Expressionism: Television Serialization, the Melodramatic Mode, and Socioemotionality presents readers with an excellent overview of the current research on melodrama and makes a convincing argument for the specific relevance of the melodramatic mode in contemporary ‘quality’ or ‘prestige’ television. Interdisciplinary in the best sense of the term, well-researched, and lucidly written, this book constitutes a much needed and important addition to the existing scholarship on public feeling, television culture, affect, and the melodramatic mode.