This dissertation builds upon the relatively young fields of visual and
environmental rhetoric and analyzes the rhetoric of natural history filmmaking, focusing
on the ways in which the genre illustrates the complex relationship between
contemporary culture and the environment. Each text demonstrates how the constructs
of “nature” and “wilderness” perform necessary cultural work by representing particular
ideals that change to meet the public’s shifting needs. Nature performs various roles,
serving as a source of knowledge, solace, wonder, mystery, anxiety, truth, identity, and
affirmation. The dominance and immediacy of visual culture make the natural history
film, along with advertising, one of the most significant sources of meaning regarding
the natural world. These films employ familiar syntactic and semantic cues such as
sentimental parent/offspring interactions, authoritative narration that limits the ability of
the audience to interpret freely, and a musical score that influences the viewer’s
emotional response to certain scenes. The net result of these rhetorical practices is a
distancing of the viewer from the natural world that destabilizes the attempts of many
eco-political programs to emphasize the interconnectedness of ecological systems and
their components.
The emergent genre of big-budget nature films (BBNFs) is a distinctly modern and
extremely popular take on natural history filmmaking that has more in common with
summer blockbusters and wildlife theme parks than its predecessors with an
unprecedented ability to influence public perception of the natural world. Even as environmental concerns become increasingly dire, the BBNF tends to commodify death
and extinction, avoid political engagement, reduce engagement with nature to its most
sentimental and violent moments, perpetuate the perceived separation between humans
and their environment, and provide a soothing escape to a virtual environment that too
often seems unaffected by climate change and habitat destruction. The BBNF has the
potential to undermine environmental and conservation efforts. It also exemplifies what
some ecocritics have termed “ecopornography,” an exploitative representation that
objectifies its subjects, encourages viewers to develop identifications with unrealistic
images rather than their real-world analogs, and helps enable unethical behavior toward
the environment and nonhuman animals. At stake in this dissertation is a deeper
understanding of how natural history filmmaking affects the public’s awareness of (and
role in) the environment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/151234 |
| Date | 16 December 2013 |
| Creators | D'Amico, Lisa Nicole |
| Contributors | Killingsworth, Jimmie, Robinson, Sally R, McCann, Janet, Shandley, Robert |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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