Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Luo’S Ethical Experience Of Growth In Mo Yan's Pow!, Zhenzhao Nie

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Luo's Ethical Experience of Growth in Mo Yan's Pow!" Zhenzhao Nie examines the protagonist's experience of self-discovery in the process of natural to ethical choice. Nie's analysis of the novel rests on the theoretical framework "ethical literary criticism" he developed. In the novel Luo's life is narrated in retrospect when he is attempting to become the disciple of a monk and al-though Luo does not find what he is searching for in religion, he arrives at a new stage in his life which is based on ethical principles. The young Luo is unable to make …

Ethical Dilemma And Ethical Epiphany In Mcewan’S The Children Act, Biwu Shang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Ethical Dilemma and Ethical Epiphany in McEwan's The Children Act" Biwu Shang attempts to explore the ethical nature of the child's welfare in Ian McEwan's novel. Shang examines the various legal cases processed by the British High Court judge Fiona Maye and the blood transfusion case of Adam Henry in particular. Shang argues that Maye adopts ethical criteria throughout the cases she deals with. More significantly, Adam's blood transfusion case and his consequential death lead Maye to her ethical epiphany related to the child's welfare: life is the fundamental welfare of the child and to protect …

Ethical Discourse And Narrative Strategies In Yan's老师，好美 (To My Teacher, With Love), Zhuo Wang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Ethical Discourse and Narrative Strategies in Yan's老师，好美 (To My Teacher, with Love)" Zhuo Wang discusses the way in which narrative converges with ethics at the site of a radical "ethical environment" in Geling Yan's novel. Wang focuses on how the novel's first-person confessional narration, third-person reflective narration, and online narration dialogue with and interrogate one another working together to bring forth Yan's reconsideration of the ethical dimensions of her text. Wang argues that the novel's personal and social ethics are embodied multiple narrative voices which altogether reflect on the close relationship between novels and ethical discourse …

Introduction To Fiction And Ethics In The Twenty-First Century, Zhenzhao Nie, Biwu Shang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Ethics Of Counter Narrative In Delillo’S Falling Man, Qingji He

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Ethics of Counter-Narrative in DeLillo's Falling Man" Qingji He analyzes Don DeLillo's counter-narrative in his post-9/11 novel Falling Man. The objective is to show how ethical dimensions function fundamentally in formulating an appropriate counter-narrative and why DeLillo's counter-narrative echoes views expressed in his "In the Ruins of the Future." He argues that DeLillo's counter-narrative entails the necessity of ethical consciousness and responsibility. It is Giorgio Morandi's still life paintings instead of media representation that become pivotal in Lianne's transformative and redemptive process after the terrorist attack. Similarly, David Janiak's performance art and Richard Drew's picture …

Human Cloning As The Other In Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Wen Guo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Human Cloning as the Other in Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go" Wen Guo analyzes Kazuo Ishiguro's novel with focus on Ishiguro's analogy between human cloning and people of marginality in contemporary society. Guo discusses the novel's ambience of doubt and suspense and elaborates on how the theme of otherness is addressed by Ishiguro's mock-realism in a landscape of science fiction. Further, Guo analyses the "unhomely" Hailsham of the novel, the clones' self-pursuit, and their ethical attitudes. Guo argues that in Ishiguro's novel a person's ethical choices are determined by his/her situation which confirms Ishiguro's beliefs with …

Narrative Ethics And Alterity In Adichie's Novel Americanah, Nora Berning

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Narrative Ethics and Alterity in Adichie's Novel Americanah" Nora Berning analyses Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel through the lens of a narrative ethics of alterity. Focusing on the notion of alterity, Berning argues that a specific turn-of-the-century ethics emerges in contemporary fictions of migration in general and in intercultural novels in particular. An ethical genre in its own right, such twenty-first century fictions as Americanah generate a particular kind of ethical knowledge that revolves around questions of identity and alterity and around individual and collective perceptions of self and other. By addressing the interplay of "the ethics …

Perspectives Of Ethical Identity In Ng's Steer Toward Rock And Jen's Mona In The Promised Land, Hui Su

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Perspectives of Ethical Identity in Ng's Steer toward Rock and Jen's Mona in the Promised Land" Hui Su examines Fae Myenne Ng's and Gish Jen's novels. In the novels, the protagonists make different decisions: in Steer Toward Rock Jack after displacement in China adopts US-American identity and in Mona in the Promised Land Mona, a second generation Chinese American, selects Jewish identity. Owing to their different situations, the two protagonists reflect challenges of identity building in the case of the "Other" in US-American culture and society. Su argues that Ng and Jen, although varying in their …

Ethics Of Father And Son In Ri's 流域へ (Watershed Above) And Kaneshiro's Go, Inseop Shin, Jooyoung Kim

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Ethics of Father and Son in Ri's 流域へ (Watershed Above) and Kaneshiro's GO" Inseop Shin and Jooyoung Kim discuss the ethics of father and son as they appear in the two novels by Kaisei Ri and Kazuki Kaneshiro. In both narratives the protagonists suffer from ethical conflicts with their fathers during their struggle to find their identities. The father is port-rayed as a figure who determines the ethical choices the protagonists face when they pursue their own lives. Shin and Kim argue that Korean Japanese fiction is a narrative that folds these choices back on oneself. …

The Relationship Between Elevation, Connectedness, And Compassionate Love In Meaningful Films, Sophie Janicke, Mary Beth Oliver

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Expanding on the research of meaningful entertainment media and its effects, this study investigated the relationship between experiences related to elevation responses to film. Whereas research thus far has focused primarily on portrayals of altruism to elicit elevation, the results of this study show that portrayals of connectedness, love, and kindness in meaningful films are also able to elicit feelings of elevation. Moreover, elevation mediated the relationship between meaningful films and feelings of connectedness towards the transcendent, close others and toward one’s family; compassionate love towards close others; and compassionate motivation to love and be good to humanity. The study …

Second-Billed But Not Second-Rate: A Reappraisal Of Three Character Actors From Hollywood’S Golden Age, Candace M. Graham

Theses & Dissertations

Seventy-six years ago Hollywood experienced something never before nor since seen. The year, 1939, was Hollywood’s “Dream Year” for production of some of the most memorable films of all time. Today, the term used to describe films of this success level is blockbuster. Film scholars and fans call them classics. It was the culmination of films of Hollywood’s Golden Age starring every one of Hollywood’s A-Listers of this Golden Age of film, from Don Ameche to Loretta Young. However, lost in this maze of the top-billed or leading actors were the character actors who were also known as supporting cast …

Retrograde Returns Of The American Housewife: Reimagining An Old Character In A New Millennium, Ruth Emelia Wollersheim

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the immensely popular return of the housewife character in the twenty-first century. From films like The Stepford Wives (2004), to television dramas like Desperate Housewives (2004-2012) and The Good Wife (2009- ), to reality shows like Wife Swap (2004- ), Bravo’s The Real Housewives franchise (2006- ), Basketball Wives (2010- ), Mob Wives (2011- ), and most recently on the blogosphere with personalities like The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, the housewife character has reentered our imaginations on a mass scale. This anachronistic character trend is in stark contrast to the urban, working superwoman ideal of the 1980s …

The Legends Of Bigfoot: Or How I Regained My Manhood, Blaine Mccarty

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

Masculinity is a culturally defined identity that exists with no single way to express it. However, the cultural politics police masculinity to appear natural and non-changing, but masculinity changes over history influenced by events and the culture from which it gets its definition. Because of this twofold influence on the identity, there is a constant struggle of the appropriate ways to express masculinity in its attempt to normalize itself by defining what is and is not masculine. This work examines how Bigfoot, the hairy fabled monster, embodies conversations about masculinity during a shift in the masculine identity in a constantly …

Institutional Influence On Documentary Form: An Analysis Of Pbs And Hbo Documentary Programs, Mark Joseph Irving

Theses and Dissertations

INSTITUTIONAL INFLUENCE ON DOCUMENTARY FORM - A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PBS and HBO DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMS

by Mark Irving

The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Michael Z. Newman

Beginning in the 1980s, the documentary genre has undergone a transformation to accommodate modes of stylistic expression and subjective thematic exposition previously not evident in the genre. This deviation from the form’s traditional modes of expression typically associated with fact-based, journalistic pursuits can be attributed to the institutional underpinnings of media outlets that exhibit documentary programming. These institutional factors, a consequence of an evolving marketplace and shifts …

Hollywood & Media Portrayals Of Veterans Who Suffer From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Francesca C. Katafias

Senior Theses

According to the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs: National Center for PTSD, it’s recorded that, “approximately 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom have PTSD in a given year”. In my research study, my focus is to better understand Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, how prevalent it is in military veterans, and how the media (Hollywood) projects our veterans to be to the public. There are three important questions I have put together to further explore my topic without losing direction on my prime focus. The three questions I …

Leisure And Posthumanism In Houellebecq's Platform And Lanzarote, Nurit Buchweitz, Elie Cohen-Gewerc

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Leisure and Posthumanism in Houellebecq's Platform and Lanzarote" Nuriot Buchweitz and Elie Cohen-Gewerc analyze Michel Houellebecq's novels in the context of leisure studies. They posit that in particular in Platform and Lanzarote Houellebecq explores leisure practices available in industrial societies marked by consumer culture. Further, Buchweitz and Cohen-Gewerc argue that the abundant depictions of leisure in Houellbecq's texts is not unintentional because he introduces the concept of the posthuman condition and rethinks agency and human selfhood as a consequence of the collapse of subjectivity. Employing postmodern indeterminacy, Houellebecq explores contemporary mores and debates the extinction of …

Une Poétique De La Mémoire : Lire Matière Grise, Le Film Du Réalisateur Rwandais Kivu Ruhorahoza (2011), Frieda Ekotto

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The film Grey Matter [Matière grise] (2011) directed by a Rwandan filmmaker Kivu Ruhorahoza, is an attempt to offer psychoanalytic approaches to understanding a 1994 Rwandan genocide within the psychic and the social. This director is interested in representing the impossible, instead, he offers a poetic representation of trauma. It may be just like a dream in his psychic, wondering whether this event really happened and how to make sense of as time settles ? This noiseless film is the first feature length narrative film directed by a Rwandan who gives the world the visual interpretation of the impact of …

Le Cinéma Face À L’Oblitération Génocidaire. Silences Éloquents Et Hors-Champ Intérieur Chez Philippe Van Leeuw Et Kivu Ruhorahoza, Alexandre Dauge-Roth, Ayse Irem Ikizler

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Philippe Van Leeuw and Kivu Ruhorahoza’s cinema proposes an esthetic and ethical gaze that distances itself from the historic realism that defines the majority of the films on the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. By conferring an unprecedented eloquence to different types of silence and by maintaining viewers in a concerted state of ignorance, both filmmakers question societies’ will to know within the legacy of genocide and their willingness to culturally acknowledge the traumatic resonance of its aftermath.

Overt And Covert Shandyism Of Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol, Margarit Ordukhanyan

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Overt and Covert Shandyism of Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol" Margarit Ordukhanyan examines Vladimir Nabokov's 1942 novel, an unusual biography of the nineteenth-century Russian author. Ordukhanyan discusses parallels between Nabokov's biography of Gogol and Laurence Sterne's Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. She highlights the direct allusions and textual references Nabokov makes to Sterne's novel and argues that Nabokov uses Tristram Shandy as the model for creating and interpreting his biography of Gogol by fictionalizing Gogol and portraying him as a Shandean character. Further, Ordukhanyan discusses how Nabokov uses Sterne's novel to undermine the genre of literary …

The Minstrel Legacy: African American English And The Historical Construction Of "Black" Identities In Entertainment, Jennifer Bloomquist

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Linguists have long been aware that the language scripted for "ethnic" roles in the media has been manipulated for a variety of purposes ranging from the construction of character "authenticity" to flagrant ridicule. This paper provides a brief overview of the history of African American roles in the entertainment industry from minstrel shows to present-day films. I am particularly interested in looking at the practice of distorting African American English as an historical artifact which is commonplace in the entertainment industry today. Dialogue which is clearly meant as an imitation of African American English still results in the construction of …

Purkeys' 25 Year Journey, Ashleigh Brooke Galligan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The documentary film Purkeys’ 25 Year Journey takes an in-depth look at the Purkey’s family and the business they started in 1990. This 17 minute film focuses on Bruce Purkey and his daughter Robyn. They began Purkeys by supplying batteries, alternators and other parts of a heavy-duty vehicle’s electrical system to one customer, JB Hunt. As the company grew they began to be known across the nation for finding creative solutions to the electrical issues trucking fleets faced. Bruce led the team and received multiple patents for his innovations. In, 2010 Bruce’s son Justin Purkey joined the team and quickly …

Viewing Film From A Communication Perspective: Film As Public Relations, Product Placement, And Rhetorical Advocacy In The College Classroom, Robin Patric Clair, Rebekah L. Fox, Jennifer L. Bezek

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Academics approach film from multiple perspectives, including critical, literary, rhetorical, and managerial approaches. Furthermore, and outside of film studies courses, films are frequently used as a pedagogical tool. Their relevance in society as well as their valuable use in the classroom makes them an important and pragmatic medium deserving further attention. The ability of film to be used in a socio-political way may sustain, challenge or change the status quo, which supports studying film as well as teaching students about the power of film. The purpose of this article is to share the development of a course which points out …

"Brother," Enjoy Your Hypermodernity! Connections Between Gilles Lipovetsky's Hypermodern Times And Post-Soviet Russian Cinema, James M. Brandon

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

In prominent French social philosopher Gilles Lipovetsky’s Hypermodern Times (2005), the author asserts that the world has entered the period of hypermodernity, a time where the primary concepts of modernity are taken to their extreme conclusions. The conditions Lipovetsky described were already manifesting in a number of post-Soviet Russian films. In the tradition of Slavoj Zizek’s Enjoy Your Symptom (1992), this essay utilizes a number of post-Soviet Russian films to explicate Lipovetsky’s philosophy, while also using Lipovetsky’s ideas to explicate the films. Alexei Balabanov’s 1997 film Brat (“Brother”) is examined in the context of Lipovetsky’s work, along with other films …

Panic At The Drive-In: Affordance, Moral Panic, And Drive-In Theatres, Maria Chatzifilalithis

The Partisan

No abstract provided.

Mdocs Poster-2015-11-11, Sixty Years Young, Michael Zhou

MDOCS Publications

In support of the 60th anniversary of the Adult and Senior Center of Saratoga, Skidmore students prepared a video and exhibition, Sixty Years Young, drawing on the Center's archives and interviews, documenting its past, present and hopes for the future.

Human Trafficking And Film: How Popular Portrayals Influence Law And Public Perception, Jonathan Todres

Jonathan Todres

No abstract provided.

He_Rtland: The Violence Of Neoliberalism, Hector Sotomayor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Perhaps, under the consciousness of today, “neoliberalism” has defined our world during the previous and current centuries more than any other socioeconomic system. But the evolution of this ideology, which initially aimed to enhance, or rather, reinvent capitalism and individual freedom, has, in essence, induced an unrecognized problem. I argue that neoliberalism is the catalyst for much of the hostility in this globalized society where tensions and poverty are casualties of individual and corporate prosperity. Because of this revelation, I argue that neoliberalism inadvertently instills violence that is both unseen and gendered. In order to formulate my argument, I introduce …

Happiest People Alive: An Analysis Of Class And Gender In The Trinidad Carnival, Asha L. St. Bernard

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Many of the marketing strategies inherent to the modern version of the Trinidad Carnival include texts that represent Trinidadians as young, fit, bikini-wearing, party enthusiasts. In these advertisements, Trinidadians are often characterized as carefree and welcoming to anyone participating in the much-anticipated annual festival. However, dominant narratives highlight certain groups and cultural aspects of the island while frequently masking several inequalities. They cleverly conceal other narratives and therefore marginalize groups and individuals from the very festival that is understood by many as a national symbol. Through informal participant-observation, and an analysis of some of the main promotional material, in particular …

Realizing The Witch: Science, Cinema, And The Mastery Of The Invisible [Table Of Contents], Richard Baxstrom, Todd Meyers

Cinema & Media Studies

Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan (The Witch, 1922) stands as a singular film within the history of cinema. Deftly weaving contemporary scientific analysis and powerfully staged historical scenes of satanic initiation, confession under torture, possession, and persecution, Häxan creatively blends spectacle and argument to provoke a humanist re-evaluation of witchcraft in European history as well as the contemporary treatment of female “hysterics” and the mentally ill.

In Realizing the Witch, Baxstrom and Meyers show how Häxan opens a window onto wider debates in the 1920s regarding the relationship of film to scientific evidence, the evolving study of religion from historical and …

Exploring The Role Of Identification And Moral Disengagement In The Enjoyment Of An Antihero Television Series, Sophie Janicke, Arthur A. Raney

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Affective disposition theory explains well the process of enjoying hero narratives but not the appeal of narratives featuring antiheroes. Recent antihero studies suggest that character identification and moral disengagement might be important factors in the enjoyment of such fare. The current study builds on this work. A sample of 101 self-identified fans and nonfans of the television series 24 viewed a condensed version of Season 1, providing evaluation of various protagonist perceptions, moral judgments, and emotional responses to the narrative, as well as overall enjoyment. As expected, fans reported greater liking of the protagonist and greater enjoyment. But more importantly, …