The Philosophy of Melodrama

This paper outlines a philosophy of melodrama. It argues that, in a non-trivial sense, melodrama tutors us in the meaning of good and evil in a secular world through an appeal to our emotions. Specifically, it claims that melodrama asserts a reality of good and evil that is not based on a transcendental theology, and it exemplifies the Humean connection between our capacity to feel sympathy, or care and concern for others, and our moral sense. In addition, it proposes to account for the role of sentimentality in our emotional response to melodrama by articulating the relationship of sentimentality to causally induced mimetic responses.