The homoerotics of the Phaedrus Page duBois “Plato’s Phaedrus, as a text of high seduction, aimed at drawing the reader toward erotic life and therefore toward philosophy, plays with the edges of the Greek definitions of male and female to liberate the reader to a paradoxical sense of the fluidity of boundaries,” (p 9) … [Read more…]
The motives of eloquence: literary rhetoric in the renaissance The motives of eloquence: literary rhetoric in the Renaissance Richard A. Lanham 1976 New Haven and London: Yale University Press The verbal style in the West: proceeded on the basis of a few simple premises: Every man possesses a central self; combine into a … [Read more…]
In the video Piéce touchée (1989) by Martin Arnold, I conducted a bit of research and found that this 16-minute film is based on an 18-second long segment of a movie from the 1950s. In Martin Arnold’s signature style, that we saw in the two previous films we watched in class (Alone. Life Wastes Andy … [Read more…]
Rape in Roman Culture By Stacy Cacciatore I visited Italy for the first time this summer, exploring Rome, Venice, Florence, Pompeii, Tuscany and Modena, an exploration of my husband’s Italian heritage (whose family is from Sicily). I love art and one of the highlights of the trip was visiting Florence’s Loggia dei Lanzi. We had … [Read more…]
In Simulacra and Simulations, Baudrillard (1994) introduces us to simulacra, which is a copy of something that no longer has an original and simulation, which is the imitation of a real-world process (167). Baudrillard provides an excellent example of simulation by using Disneyland as an example. He states that Disneyland is a play of illusions … [Read more…]
2001: A Space Odyssey, functions as prophetic rhetoric. It’s pretty amazing to watch this film in the year 2019 and recognize the sheer number of technological predictions that came to fruition that had to have been far-fetched in the year 1968. When this film was made, we had not even gone to the moon yet, however, … [Read more…]
I thought I was being particularly insightful when I told my husband a quarter of the way through 2001: A Space Odyssey that I noticed Kubrick seemed to be focusing on the eyes. However, it quickly became clear about mid-way through the movie that the focus on the eyes wasn’t a ‘hidden’ message, yet an … [Read more…]
In Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, we meet Jefferson Smith a naïve scout leader who is brought into a position of Senator because it is believed he will follow orders. Throughout this movie, I noticed was that Smith seemed to act more like a boy than a man. One component that wasn’t clear to me … [Read more…]
Using ‘film as ideology’ one can analyze how the rhetoric In Modern Times (1936) serves ideological purposes. As Blakesley states in TheTerministic Screen, “As a cultural expression, films reveal not only the predispositions of filmmakers but they also serve ideological functions in the broader culture” (38). We can see the how the ideological functions into … [Read more…]
What is Rhetoric? By W.A. Covino and D. Jolliffe is one of the best articles I’ve read on the background and basic principles of rhetoric. The authors’ address at the forefront that there is no short answer for the definition of rhetoric. Some individuals have a negative connotation of rhetoric, as “the manipulation of the linguistic … [Read more…]