Contesting interpretations of "An Inconvenient Truth" that treat it as political jeremiad, autobiography, or science documentary, we contextualize the film within Joseph Campbell's monomyth and argue that its rhetorical efficacy arises in part because Al Gore's personal transformation animates the documentary footage with jeremiad advocacy. In…

A psychological/ritual model of criticism is used to examine the movie "The Deer Hunter" as a rhetorical event in which males undergo psychological change through their war and postwar experiences. The critical model depends on understanding a Jungian interpretation of the human psyche, the form and function of initiation rituals, and…

Analyzes "The Deer Hunter" in terms of a psychological/ritual model of criticism. Argues that the rhetorical force of the film is explained by men's participation in rituals, such as deer hunting, which affect the patterns of psychological change they experience during and after war. (JMF)

Expands the literature of discontent with academic scholarship by showing how malaise is grounded metaphorically in the uncritical celebration of "up" and the vilification of "down." Historicizes these metaphors through classical Greek poetry and philosophy to rediscover how flowing back and forth between Apollonian upness and…

Developing a theme drawn from speculative writing of the nineteenth century--that technology, like biological species, undergoes a process of evolution--this paper explores the thesis that if technology divides from its human creators and perfects itself until it gains the capacity for self replication, it cannot return to its creator. Using…