Theses/Dissertations - Communication Studies

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Affective identification with animals in the public sphere in earth, the movie.
(2010-06-23T12:32:18Z) Greenwalt, Dustin A.; Bass, Jeff Davis, 1951-; Communication Studies.; Baylor University. Dept. of Communication Studies.
Following Derrida's Introduction to Dissemination; "I will not feign, according to the code, either premeditation or improvisation. These texts are assembled otherwise, it is not my intention here to present them." Animal films are tied to a system of liberalism and the objectification of nature that has developed through the historical confluence of visuality, anthropomorphism, and a fascination with nature. Sequences in Earth produce collective fantasies of a pristine nature, containing a marked absence of connection between growing environmental destruction, and the modernist forms of consumption that underwrite western society. Further, Earth naturalizes discourses through anthropomorphic images, naturalizing the domination of humans and animals in everyday practice. Challenging critical rhetorics that reaffirm critique at the level of discourse, Earth calls forth an interrogation of the ethical possibilities offered by a greater awareness of the material processes of nature, and their influence on the cultural imagination.