Imitations of Life: Two Centuries of Melodrama in Russia by Louise McReynolds , Joan Neuberger (review)

Abstract

892 Reviews the reader would benefit from a good working knowledge of both the Shakespeare and the Pushkin works in question. University of Bristol Helen Galbraith Imitations of Life: Two Centuries of Melodrama in Russia. Ed. by Louise McReynolds and Joan Neuberger. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press. 2002. xii + 34opp. ?15.30. ISBN 0-8223-2790-2. Louise McReynolds and Joan Neuberger have done their readers a great service by gathering together such an interesting collection ofessays on the history ofthat muchneglected and all too often simply dismissed aspect of Russian popular culture, the melodrama. In their introductory chapter the editors brieflydevelop an antithesis between ideas and thingsas characteristic of Russian culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and rightly describe melodrama as 'a genre perennially popular with consumers of commercial entertainment but long held in contempt by those distrustful of popular tastes' (p. 4). They go on to challenge the traditional notion that 'Melodrama resolved conflicts by reaffirmingrather than challenging contemporary hierarchies and was presumed, therefore, to leave its audiences satisfied with the status quo' (p. 6). They point out that 'One of melodrama's essential properties lies in its en? gagement with contemporaneous social issues' (p. 9), and several ofthe essays in this collection demonstrate their argument that melodrama has historically helped the broad masses to cope with the traumas of social, economic, and political change. My only quarrel with the editors' introduction has nothing to do with Russian and Soviet melodrama, but everything to do with historical truth?the whole truth and nothing but the truth! They say that their passion for melodrama was inspired inter alia by Douglas Sirk, 'a refugee Weimar intellectual who found his way to Hollywood' (p. 10). Indeed he did, but this description glosses over the fact that he directed his firstmajor filmmelodramas in the Third Reich from 1935 to 1937 under his original name Detlef Sierck. Nothing wrong with this, since he was German by birth, but at least two of these films (Zu neuen Ufern and La Habanera, both 1937 and starring Zarah Leander) definitely carry a message of Aryan superiority. But let us get back to Russia. The contributions to this volume are universally lucid and intelligent and represent a pleasing mixture of old faces and new. Richard Stites examines imported melodrama in the late Tsarist period while Beth Holmgren dis? cusses the significance of female death. The intervening chapter, by Julie A. Buckler, looks at the image of Russia in nineteenth-century Western melodrama. To say that this chapter sits uncomfortably beside the others is not to comment adversely on its (high) content or value, but it is to criticize the editors fornot having contextualized it effectively enough. Otto Boele considers Count Amori's response to three scandalous examples ofthe melodramatic novel and Louise McReynolds traces the image of disturbed domesticity in Russian silent films. Julie A. Cassiday has contributed an interesting piece on the use of melodrama in the temperance campaign after the October Revolution, while Lars T. Lih examines the role of melodrama in creating the myth of the Soviet Union. All these break new ground. As the volume proceeds chronologically, it broadens its melodramatic scope. Alex? ander Prokhorov follows the development of the Soviet family melodrama in films from Waitfor Me to The Cranes are Flying, Susan Costanzo looks at a Moscow student theatre production, and Joan Neuberger convincingly rescues Nikita Mikhalkov's Slave of Love from its critics. The volume ends with a fascinating study of funerals by Helena Goscilo, mischievously entitled 'Playing Dead: The Operatics of Celebrity Funerals, or, The Ultimate Silent Part'. MLRy 100.3, 2005 893 Unusually for a scholarly collection, the reader gets the impression that all the contributors enjoyed writing their pieces. Even more unusually, the volume does not sufferfrom that bane of many conference collections, looseness or incoherence. This is a very tight and well-edited volume, perhaps because it does not result from an academic conference but from a meeting of like minds, or 'webmates', as the editors call them. Woe betide us, though, if those who fund our conferences find out that '@style' can produce such valuable scholarly work. Swansea University Richard Taylor...