Contesting Tears: The Hollywood Melodrama of the Unknown Woman

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".