Spectacle and Sensation in The Octoroon/An Octoroon

Jane Kathleen Curry

doi:10.1177/1748372719826895

Spectacle and Sensation in The Octoroon/An Octoroon

Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film ◽

10.1177/1748372719826895 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 38-58

Author(s):

Jane Kathleen Curry

Keyword(s):

Racial Stereotypes ◽

Visual Sensation ◽

Emotional Impact ◽

Visual Storytelling

Dion Boucicault's 1859 sensation melodrama The Octoroon; or, Life in Louisiana attracted audiences with emotionally charged situations, such as a slave auction, combined with the visual sensation of a realistic depiction of a scene of spectacular danger, the onstage burning of a steamboat. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' 2014 adaptation called An Octoroon, while departing significantly from Boucicault's approach to visual storytelling, also uses a visual sensation to create an emotional impact. Jacobs-Jenkins invites an audience to enjoy Boucicault's storytelling, revisiting a melodrama now rarely revived, while simultaneously inviting them to engage with and critique the troubling racial stereotypes of the original.

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Emotional Impact Feedback Changes How We Remember Negative Autobiographical Experiences

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000042 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 57 (5) ◽

pp. 354-359 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Melanie K. T. Takarangi ◽

Deryn Strange

Keyword(s):

Well Being ◽

The Other ◽

Personal Perspective ◽

Emotional Impact ◽

Potential Mechanism ◽

Negative Experiences ◽

Negative Memory ◽

The Relationship ◽

Negative Memories ◽

Over Time

When people are told that their negative memories are worse than other people’s, do they later remember those events differently? We asked participants to recall a recent negative memory then, 24 h later, we gave some participants feedback about the emotional impact of their event – stating it was more or less negative compared to other people’s experiences. One week later, participants recalled the event again. We predicted that if feedback affected how participants remembered their negative experiences, their ratings of the memory’s characteristics should change over time. That is, when participants are told that their negative event is extremely negative, their memories should be more vivid, recollected strongly, and remembered from a personal perspective, compared to participants in the other conditions. Our results provide support for this hypothesis. We suggest that external feedback might be a potential mechanism in the relationship between negative memories and psychological well-being.

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