For years, teachers have taught me to pay attention to my
rhetorical situation when I communicate. They’ve told me that each unique
rhetorical situation calls for a unique approach towards delivering a message.
Because of this, I’ve always viewed essays, poems, news articles, TV, and
movies as separate and exclusive modes of communication that have little
overlap with other each other. Film directors follow the “film-making rules”
while authors follow the “literature rules.” But this year, I’ve realized that
these different modes often share many concepts and techniques with one another.
Often, a good example of juxtaposition can be found anywhere from novels to
documentaries.
When working on my presentation on Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a
Professor, I was surprised at how often Foster’s literature concepts kept appearing
in movies, TV shows, songs, and even commercials. While Foster focused on
identifying his patterns and meanings in literature, my presentation helped me
find those same patterns and meanings in pop culture. It showed me that having
different rhetorical situations doesn't necessarily entail using entirely
different rules and techniques for communication. After seeing how a
low-brow comedy film like Pineapple Express utilized the same
concept of communion that the Bible does, I finally understood that.
One example in particular really helped me understand this.
In The Nuts and Bolts of
College Writing, Michael Harvey says writers use punch lines, a “technique
a comedian uses to make people laugh” (45), to organize sentences and deliver
their messages more clearly in an essay. To me, this was like a craftsman from
one profession borrowing a tool from a different craftsman's in a different
profession. Even though an essay-writer and a comedian may have different
rhetorical situations, there’s no reason they can’t use common techniques to
deliver their messages.
Andrew, I like how you talked about how you kept seeing Foster's literature concepts in movies, TV shows, and in other media. I have also been seeing a lot of his concepts in movies and shows and it's surprising how I ever missed them in the first place. I also found the point that you made about how having different rhetorical situations doesn't mean you have to use different techniques really interesting. That was something that I didn't think about before. I suppose that was one of the points of doing the presentation is to see that all of these concepts and techniques can be connected through different pieces of work. I think the best example of this that you used was with the Pineapple Express and the Bible having similiar concepts used in them.
ReplyDeleteAndrew--Your second point on how Foster's literary patterns also applied to pop culture got me wondering exactly how aware these advertisers and low-brow comedians are of the patterns they're using. For example, when Ms. Holmes pointed to the Coca-Cola ad for an example of communion, do you imagine that the writers of that ad were thinking "Oh, yeah, people feel together when they're eating, let's advertise our product as this great unifying beverage" or were they actively trying to tap into that literary "Communion" trope. I think that perhaps it isn't so much that literary patterns that Foster talks about extend to areas beyond literature--instead, the literature reflects the patterns that exist in our culture. If so, it would be natural that other aspects of our creativity--like ads and low-brow comedy--would automatically include these bits of our culture, whether the creators were cognizant of what they were doing or not. Sorry for the rambling--this is just a more roundabout way of thinking of your point! It was really thought-provoking.
ReplyDeleteAndrew--I agree that the powerpoint this summer allowed me to look more closely at identifying themes and symbols in forms of communication other than literature. One movie that I also found loosely based on the Bible, is Harry Potter. In my opinion Harry is almost like a Christ figure whereas Voldemort can be seen as anti-Christ. I find it interesting that you think that each rhetorical situation is closely related and therefore similar techniques should be used in each work. I don't completely agree on this idea because in my opinion each "situation" varies and therefore should be crafted differently.
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