The cinema of Wes Anderson as rhetorical text: Implications for teaching rhetoric, film appreciation, and ethics in the film studies classroom

Filmmaker Wes Anderson dramatizes the interpersonal and familial relationships of unique and unorthodox characters for a sophisticated audience. Among Anderson's creations are individuals who manage and negotiate deceitfulness and deception while ironically maintaining sets of deeply held moral behaviors. In each of his feature films, Anderson focuses his attention on characters who withhold truthfulness. These characters, however, also possess highly regulated, self-monitored codes of ethics, and are typically kindhearted, well-meaning, and motivated by desires to achieve positive recognition for things like fatherhood, friendship, and romantic love. This dissertation uses the rhetorical strategies and key conceptual terminology of literary critic and philosopher Kenneth Burke to examine the ethical dimensions of Anderson's work. Additionally, strategies for teaching rhetorical criticism to undergraduate students of film studies and film communication are considered.