Lifers, casual offenders, and remixers: Bringing together rhetoric and feminist film and video production
Abstract
This dissertation provides a comprehensive study of film and video production by Rhetoric and Composition scholars and their students, arguing that feminist filmmaking is a useful model for academics to follow as they explore making moving images themselves and teaching their students to do so. In order to develop a taxonomy of the filmmaking work produced by rhetoricians and their students today and to unravel their theoretical and ideological reasons for working in film and video, I conducted a qualitative study where ten rhetoricians—five faculty members and five graduate students--who work in film and video production provide in-depth interviews about the role filmmaking plays in their scholarship and pedagogy. As I make my arguments, I combine their experiences with my own, being a rhetorician whose films and videos have been published in a peer-reviewed journal and screened at conferences, film festivals, and university courses. I also rely on a survey of film and video work published in online rhetoric journals to theorize the ways in which this new medium is transforming the field. Chapter 1 maps out the kind of film and video work produced by rhetoricians today and the ways in which they see that work as fitting into their academic careers. Chapter 2 defines feminist filmmaking and argues for bringing together the moving image work done by rhetoricians and feminist practices and traditions. Chapter 3 creates connections between filmmaking and the canons (ethos, pathos, and logos), kairos, invention, and memory. Chapter 4 makes an argument for film and video production to play a stronger role in the digital humanities. Chapter 5 addresses pedagogy, discussing different approaches to teaching film and video production and describing particular assignments that successfully ask students to make moving images.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Sullivan, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Rhetoric|Gender studies|Film studies
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.