Emotional Expressionism

Book excerpt: In Emotional Expressionism: Television Seriality, the Melodramatic Mode, and Socioemotionality, E. Deidre Pribram examines emotions as social relations through the lens of dramatic television serials as contemporary melodrama. She develops the concept of socioemotionality, addressing sociocultural forms of felt experience and exploring the role of emotions in forging narrative worlds. Through detailed analyses of serials like Killing Eve, How to Get Away with Murder, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Pribram argues that the prominent role emotions play in popular mediated narratives demonstrates the crucial impact of collective emotions—activated through aesthetic attributes—on cultural storytelling. Scholars of television, communication, media, and cultural studies will find this book of particular relevance.