Browsing by Author "Steven B. Katz, Committee Chair"

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The Rhetoric of Reality Television: A Narrative Analysis of the Structure of 'Illusion'
(2005-08-10) Reid, Gwendolynne Collins; Steven B. Katz, Committee Chair; Carolyn R. Miller, Committee Member; Devin A. Orgeron, Committee Member
In the last ten years, the reality television phenomenon has transformed the face of television in the United States. Much of the programming real estate previously occupied by traditional narratives, such as miniseries, sitcoms and movies of the week, has been replaced by reality shows. Because the term reality television is used to refer to a diverse range of programs, defining it has proven difficult for scholars and viewers alike; however, reality television is generally understood to refer to unscripted programs without professional actors filmed using a fly-on-the-wall observational style that blends the notions of public and private. This observational style and reality television's historical roots in documentary has led many scholars and critics to condemn it for its perceived lack of formal appropriateness and for how it breaks the faith with viewers by using documentary conventions for entertainment or sensational purposes. My thesis, however, takes a different position, arguing that reality television has more in common with the narrative programs it replaces than with documentary: its rhetoric is a narrative rhetoric. Whereas documentary most often uses argument as a primary mode within which narration may figure, reality programs operate within a primarily narrative mode. Indeed, through a variety of means, including editing and show design (as opposed to scripting), reality programs use narrative structures to tell dramatic stories about (or using) real people. After surveying over eighty reality shows, I defined four categories of narratives consistently told through reality programs: le panoptique, les jeux, la reconstitution historique, and la mátamorphose. I then selected four corresponding programs for narrative analysis: Real World, The Bachelor, Colonial House, and I Want a Famous Face. Based on the premise put forward by several scholars such as Walter Fisher and Donald Polkinghorne that narrative is "the primary form by which human experience is made meaningful" and indeed may be the means by which we order and comprehend all of our experience (Polkinghorne 1), my thesis proposes that the success of the reality television phenomenon may be due to the narrative structures that order and construct its reality. In order to better understand the stories reality programs tell and the rhetorical situation reality television operates within, my thesis analyzes the selected reality shows using the method of narrative analysis suggested by Fisher's paradigm of narrative rationality. Fisher suggests that audiences accept or reject narratives based on whether they meet or fail the tests of narrative coherence (structural, material and characterological) and narrative fidelity, and that successful narratives are rhetorical in the sense that they becomes guides "to thought and action in the world" (90). Though reality television may be historically rooted in a set of economic exigencies and technological opportunities networks experienced in the late eighties and nineties, my narrative analysis suggests that the programs are also coherent according to Fisher's criteria and are likely to resonate in terms of values with their audiences, at least partially accounting for the phenomenon's continued success. I conclude, however, that we may also need to add Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality to our critical vocabulary in order to situate and understand reality television as itself part of a larger progression of what we call 'reality' that includes blogs, video games, chat rooms and virtual communities.
Terministic Screens and Cultural Perspectives: A Pentadic Analysis of the Attribution of Motive for the September 11th Event
(2003-08-15) Wicker, Emily Dunn; Steven B. Katz, Committee Chair; Carolyn R. Miller, Committee Member; Patricia Lynne, Committee Member
The research in this project examines the motives attributed in different cultural perspectives for the September 11th attack on the United States using Kenneth Burke's rhetorical theory of Dramatism to examine speeches and articles that were published immediately following the attack. The dramatistic, or pentadic, analysis focuses on four different cultural perspectives: France as represented by Le Monde Diplomatique, Iran as represented by the Tehran Times, Israel as represented by the speeches of Ariel Sharon, and the United States as represented by the speeches of George W. Bush. In each perspective, five elements are defined and analyzed: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. The analysis is in hypertext. By doing the analysis in hypertext, one cultural perspective is not privileged over another. Thus the reader is able to see how one perspective describes the event, and can link either to another screen in that perspective or to a corresponding screen in another perspective. The analysis is preceded by a Critical Framework that explains key terms used in the analysis. A conclusion is also included to summarize findings in the analysis and to discuss implications arising from the analysis. The Conclusion shows how each perspective has a way of seeing and not seeing the event, and how we can learn from our observations.
Women in the Rabbinate and in American Fiction: A Literary and Ethnographic Study
(2006-04-27) Bogdanoff, Helene Rebecca; Deborah Hooker, Committee Member; Steven B. Katz, Committee Chair; Nick Halpern, Committee Member
The purpose of this research has been to describe the conflicts of gender and Judaism in American Fiction containing women rabbis as central characters. Jewish women for centuries have accepted their roles in Jewish life and observances. Jewish women of the twentieth century questioned why they too could not be rabbis, which led to the ordination of the first women rabbi in 1972. The fiction written on women rabbis faces the challenges to portray the spiritual and social equality of the women rabbis while keeping in tact and honoring the parts of Jewish tradition that appear to be most crucial or defining. This thesis presents Jewish laws and traditions having to do with women, showing the conflicts between Jewish tradition and female rabbis in the plots of six novels and two short stories written on the subject. The sexual nature of the fiction written on this subject presents contemporary Judaism with a number of problems. I describe the representations of innovations in Judaism surrounding these issues, and then I relate the issues in Judaism back to the novels and short stories. For this thesis, I interviewed three female rabbis from the North Carolina Triangle area. The interviews reveal certain unresolved anxieties and issues in Judaism and how American Judaism might react to the presence of women as viable members of the rabbinate in the future. Thus, this project provides a discussion of the inherent and new issues in American Judaism that are brought about by the ordination of female rabbis and portrayed in American fiction.