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University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 8913559 A critical study of the poetic voice in the narratives of selected documentary films of the 1930s Johnson, Mary Charlotte, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1989 Copyright ©1989 by Johnson, Mary Charlotte. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE POETIC VOICE IN THE NARRATIVES OF SELECTED DOCUMENTARY FILMS OF THE 1930s DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Mary C. Johnson, B.S., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1989 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Maia Pank Mertz Dr. Mojmir Drvota / Advise^ Dr. Clayton Lowe / College of ^duodtion Copyright by Mary Charlotte Johnson 1989 To Leah and Elizabeth For patience and understanding beyond their years 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I express sincere gratitude to my mentor, Dr. Maia Pank Mertz, for her sustained positive support and active guidance during my graduate studies and throughout this research. Thanks also to the other members of my advisory committee, Drs. Mojmir Drvota and Clayton Lowe for their encouragement and suggestions. Gratitude is expressed to Ann Kipp of the Rural Electric Association and to Ken Keylor of the Belmont Electric Cooperative. Sincere appreciation is expressed to Ruth Parkinson Brannan, Frank Parkinson and Jake Parkinson for graciously permitting me an interview. Additional thanks to Dr. Robert Wagner for igniting my interest in the subject and to Dr. William Stott for his inspirational text on the thirties. Special thanks to Dr. Charles Harpole for his professional guidance, constructive criticism and enduring friendship. Ill VITA 1 9 7 1 ...................... B.S. Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 1974-1985 ..... ........ Secondary English teacher Flood Junior High School Englewood, Colorado, Mt. Gilead High School Mt. Gilead, Ohio 1985 ............ M.A. The Ohio State University 1935-1988 .................. Graduate Teaching Assistant The Ohio State University, Educational Studies 1987-1988 ................ .. Graduate Research Assistant The Ohio State University, Department of Photography and Cinema PUBLICATIONS 1987 ...................... Inangaro, Logan Elm Press AWARDS AND HONORS 1987 ...................... Graduate Teaching Associate Award, The Ohio State University 1987 .......... ............$5,000 scholarship from The Women in Film Foundation FIELD OF STUDY Major field: English education Studies in: Film IV TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION............................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................... iii VITA .................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES................................. vi CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ............................... 1 Initial Research ........................... 7 Prior Research............................... 9 Definition of Terms ................. 12 De s i g n ...................................... 17 Methodology............................... 19 II. THE THIRTIES AND THE EMERGENT POETIC VOICE . 23 Whitman’s Influence ...................... 28 Pare Lorentz................................ 36 III. NIGHT M A I L .................... 42 IV. SPANISH E A R T H ................................66 V. POWER AND THE L A N D ...........................86 VI. CONCLUSION............................... 108 APPENDIX A. FILMOGRAPHY................................. 117 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................... 119 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURES PAGES 1. Words and Images in St a s i s .................. Ill 2. Words and Images in Fl u x .................... Ill 3. Words and Images in Fusion ..........Ill VI CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION The need for this dissertation originated in the secondary classroom. After eight years of daily interactions with secondary students, this researcher observed that students were becoming passive learners, relying on visual rather than lexical sources to acquire information and formulate thought. Of particular concern for this researcher was the realization that for many students, passive viewing accounted for a diminished capacity to abstract internal visual images from lexical texts. Preliminary research reiterated this concern: The fear is that the visual images automatically fed from the new electronic media constitute a passive imaging experience which may diminish our own mental ability to image, just as any physical ability that is not used tends to atrophy.i Students have become less and less able to actively participate in the making of meaning without relying upon visual cues. This is especially true for the reader. In relation to reading, stories abound indicating that poor readers can often say words correctly, but they have no sense of the meaning. In other words, no mental image arises in the mind 1 Nancy S. Thompson, "Media and Mind: Imaging as an Active Process," English Journal, 77, No. 7 (1988) , p. 47. '....... 1 to make the reader aware of the meaning of the words .2 Recent resources such as the Visual Dictionary further affirm dependency upon images for meaning. The dictionary features graphic rather than linguistic descriptions and is designed to answer the question: "Do you know what it looks like but not what it’s called?" or "Do you know what it’s called but you can’t picture it?"® The need for a Visual Dictionary may in part be attributed to an increasingly pluralistic society, yet the need may also reflect a heightened dependence upon visual stimuli in order for cognition to occur. Clearly the demand for such a reference book indicates an accelerating reliance on images in the process of making meaning. Today’s classroom communities are populated by image-dependent students. No longer does the term multiculturalism allude only to those students for whom English is a second language or those students who speak and write non-standard English; it also encompasses those students who are viewers rather than readers and writers. Foster defines the problem when he says; 2 Thompson , p. 48, ® Visual Dictionary, ed. Jean-Claude Corbeil (New York : Facts on File Publications, 1986) , p. 18. Two different cultures meet in American public schools. Young people who receive most of their information through television and films encounter the book-oriented teacher, who has experienced education as a linear, thoughtful process grounded in the use of written language.* The gap between these two cultures widens with each successive generation and each respective technological advancement. Television is a particularly seductive imparter of language and culture, not only because the medium has realistic and multi-sensory properties, but more importantly, because it is pervasive. In less than forty years, the presence of televisions in U.S. households has risen from 9% in 1950 to 98.2% in 1989. While only 1.0% of homes had multi-sets in 1950, today 62.6% of all U.S. households have more than one set.® When cable TV was made available in 1965, only 2.3% of U.S. households took advantage of this option. By 1989, 52.8% of U.S. households had cable. Only 0.2% of U.S. households subscribed to pay cable when it was introduced in 1975; today's subscribers comprise 28.9%. Perhaps the fastest growing technology is the video cassette recorder (VCR). •* Harold M . Foster, The New Literacy: The Language of Film and Television (Urbana, Illinois: National Coucil of Teachers of English, 1979) , p. vii. * Leonard C. Feldman, Television Bureau o f Advertising Survey Research, Trends in Television (tVB: À Research Trend Report, 1988) , p. 4. In 1978, only 0.3% of U.S. households had VCR’s while 66% of today's households have VCRs.* The advent of the VCR has made television even more enticing. Students are growing up in homes where videotapes rather than books line the bookshelves.