Leidenschaften und Ökonomie. Das russische Stummfilm-Melodrama zwischen Fin de siècle und Moderne.

Russian silent movies interconnect Modernism, melodrama and emotions. As a new medium, the cinema reflects the transformations that Modernism has effected in the emotional repertoire. In Russian silent movies feelings give room to other desires, be they sexual or economic. A consideration of Russian silent-movie melodramas in terms of the Western melodrama theories of Peter Brooks, Thomas Elsaesser, and Laura Mulvey reveals that the Russian model differs from the excessive and passionate melodrama these critics describe by being morally ambivalent or even indifferent. Emotional crises are not resolved in happy (Western) endings but culminate in catastrophes. Urban, provincial and family melodramas provide different role models for the “new woman” who marks the centre of these movies. In these Russian silent movies, modernist discourse is closely linked to gender discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]