“Tragedy-lite” or “Melodrama”? In Search of a Standard Generic Tag

摘要

Among critics who work from a dramatic or dramatistic perspective, our field seems to be at odds over what generic label or labels to use for discourse that is other, or mainly other, than comic or burlesque. For quite a long time, the name “tragic” was the stated or implied choice for much, or at least some, of that rhetoric. Some recent scholars are now describing such address as “melodramatic.” Their reasons for doing so carry some weight. This essay, however, argues for retention of “tragic frame” as title of choice for explicitly persuasive speech of the most virulent, victimizing kind.