Fandom, Authenticity, and Opera

A. Fishzon

ISBN 10: 1349438200 / ISBN 13: 9781349438204

Published by Palgrave Macmillan US Sep 2013, 2013

About this Item

This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In Russia at the turn of the twentieth century, printed literature and performances - from celebrity narratives and opera fandom to revolutionary acts and political speeches - frequently articulated extreme emotional states and passionate belief. A uniquely intense approach to public life and private expression - the 'melodramatic imagination' - is at the center of this study. Previously, scholars have only indirectly addressed the everyday appropriation of melodramatic aesthetics in Russia, choosing to concentrate on canonical texts and producers of mass culture. Collective fantasies and affects are daunting objects of study, difficult to render, and almost impossible to prove empirically. Music and art historians, with some notable exceptions, have been reluctant to discuss reception for similar reasons. By analyzing the artifacts and practices of a commercialized opera culture, author Anna Fishzon provides a solution to these challenges. Her focus on celebrity and fandom as features of the melodramatic imagination helps illuminate Russian modernity and provides the groundwork for comparative studies of fin-de-siècle European popular and high culture, selfhood, authenticity, and political theater. 292 pp. Englisch.

Seller Inventory # 9781349438204

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fandom, Authenticity, and Opera
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US Sep 2013
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1349438200
• ISBN 13: 9781349438204
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 216W x 140H x 16D millimeters 216 millimeters width by 140 millimeters height by 16 millimeters depth
• Weight: 371 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In Russia at the turn of the twentieth century, printed literature and performances - from celebrity narratives and opera fandom to revolutionary acts and political speeches - frequently articulated extreme emotional states and passionate belief. A uniquely intense approach to public life and private expression - the 'melodramatic imagination' - is at the center of this study. Previously, scholars have only indirectly addressed the everyday appropriation of melodramatic aesthetics in Russia, choosing to concentrate on canonical texts and producers of mass culture. Collective fantasies and affects are daunting objects of study, difficult to render, and almost impossible to prove empirically. Music and art historians, with some notable exceptions, have been reluctant to discuss reception for similar reasons. By analyzing the artifacts and practices of a commercialized opera culture, author Anna Fishzon provides a solution to these challenges. Her focus on celebrity and fandom as features of the melodramatic imagination helps illuminate Russian modernity and provides the groundwork for comparative studies of fin-de-siècle European popular and high culture, selfhood, authenticity, and political theater.

About the Author

Anna Fishzon is Assistant Professor of History at Williams College, USA.