PhD: MOENS Bart (ULB) | Supervisor: NASTA Dominique (ULB) | Co-supervisor: VANHAESEBROUCK Karel (ULB)

As Peter Brooks (1976) has argued, melodrama is situated at the nexus of social and psychic change. Its mutability enabled 19th-century melodramatic practice to draw from a range of cultural forms and social arenas. One of them is the magic lantern show. Three areas of discussion emerge in relation to lantern exhibition and distribution practices: modality and genre, uses of historicization and questions of aesthetics, affect, emotion and their relationship to socio-political change. Starting from Jean-Louis Bourget's idea that melodrama is an “aesthetic of affect” and using the concept of fictional emotions (F emotions) based on empathy, and artefact emotions (A emotions) grounded in enjoying aesthetic qualities of the narrative (Tan & Frijda 1999), the PhD will analyse melodramatic aspects of magic lantern series: which narrative strategies were used to address the spectator's feelings? How did the combination of image and word, music and live performance enhance the melo-/dramatic effect on the audience? How did lantern shows on social issues such as pauperism and industrial exploitation, alcoholism and tuberculosis, loneliness and neglect of the young or the elderly question modern Belgian society?