Stanley Cavell identified a genre of classic American films that engaged these questions in his study of comedies of remarriage, "Pursuits of Happiness". With "Contesting Tears", Cavell demonstrates that a contrasting genre, which he calls "the melodrama of the unknown woman," shares a surprising number and weave of concerns with those comedies. Cavell provides close readings of four melodramas he finds definitive of the genre: "Letter from an Unknown Woman", "Gaslight", "Now Voyager", and "Stella Dallas".
- ISBN10 0226098168
- ISBN13 9780226098166
- Publish Date 1 February 1997
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Chicago Press
- Edition 2nd ed.
- Format Paperback
- Pages 272
- Language English
- URL http://wiley.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=9780226098166