This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Sarkar, B. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The Melodramas of Globalization

University of California, Santa Barbara, sarkar{at}filmandmedia.ucsb.edu

This article posits a homology between (1) the developmentalist logic endemic to hegemonic discourses of globalization and (2) the logic of the `too late' that drives the melodrama genre, to argue that the experience of globalization is, itself, highly melodramatic. Focusing on the far-reaching transformations of the Mumbai-based film industry and its global epiphenomenon `Bollywood', the article critically analyzes the hooplas and anxieties that structure contemporary Indian cultural nationalism. Countering overarching prognoses of global homogenization, it draws attention to the myriad ground-level transactions through which difference is capitalized and managed. This understanding of melodrama as the persistence of difference helps explain the continuing popularity of the genre in the global South.

Key Words: Bollywood • cultural nationalism • difference • globalization • melodrama

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?