Dissertation
Cindy Sherman: The Rhetoric of Writing with the Star
(1999)
Abstract
My dissertation proposes an arts model of humanities learning for a computerized networked writing environment. Through case studies of Picasso's cubist paintings, Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, and the Hollywood star system, I discuss the invention of a new rhetoric for media practices within the institutional frames of art and entertainment. My goal is to develop a rhetoric for hypermedia practices within education. As a work of heuretics, which uses the logic of invention rather than interpretation, my dissertation explores art, theory and criticism as resources for a hybrid genre of writing within electronic media. In this genre, students produce their own film stills and criticism. The context for this project is Hollywood's use of "the star." Hollywood and its stars produce a way of communicating in formation bodily, through looks and poses which have spread through the culture. Sherman appropriates these behaviors for works of high art, showing that the products of Hollywood can be remotivated for other purposes. My appropriation of Sherman's work for a pedagogical project follows the example set by Sherman herself . The dissertation uses the inferential criticism of Michael Baxandall and James Peterson to construct a poetics from Sherman's work. This poetics, in turn, becomes the basis for humanities writing in electronic media.
Disciplines
Publication Date
Spring May, 1999
Degree
PhD
Field of study
Cultural Studies
Department
English
Advisors
Gregory Ulmer
Citation Information
Barry J Mauer. "Cindy Sherman: The Rhetoric of Writing with the Star" (1999) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/barry-mauer/13/