Watch and Learn Rhetorical Devices in Classroom Teaching Films after 1940

Eef Masson

ISBN 10: 9089643125 / ISBN 13: 9789089643124

Published by Amsterdam University Press, 2012

About this Item

Seller Inventory # C30EF9D1384D2DC

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Watch and Learn Rhetorical Devices in Classroom Teaching Films after 1940
• Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9089643125
• ISBN 13: 9789089643124
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Since the late 1990s, there has been a marked increase in academic interest in what are sometimes called ‘utility films’, intended for purposes of information, training, teaching or advertising. Although such research was long overdue, the current academic output tends to be restricted in scope, paying little attention to the films’ textual features: the means they deploy in defending their informational, educational or commercial arguments. In the absence of such studies, the image survives of very ‘formulaic’ genres. This book seeks to modify this picture, and suggests a methodology that helps to foreground the films’ rhetorical diversity. Taking her departure from a historic collection of Dutch classroom films, Masson proposes an approach that considers an audio-visual text as part of a so-called dispositif: the set-up of technology, text and viewing situation that is relevant to the specific corpus under scrutiny.

About the Author

Eef Masson is lecturer in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam.