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Browsing by Author "Burgchardt, Carl, committee member"

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    A rhetoric of blood: cinematically depicting the duel
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Fischer, Christopher J., author; Diffrient, David S., advisor; Burgchardt, Carl, committee member; Moseman, Eleanor, committee member
    This thesis examines the duel as a pivotal narrative event in three case studies: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), Barry Lyndon (1975), and The Duellists (1977). I begin by introducing the duel historically and rhetorically. I argue for its importance as a cornerstone of each narrative that lends it strength to stand. In my subsequent analysis, I break the duel into its parts: the insult and challenge, role of seconds, and, finally, the combat. Analysis of the insult and challenge offers insight into the structure of narrative equilibrium and the type of transformation at work, while also delivering keen visual metaphors for various states of narrative. Subsequently, I turn to the seconds of each film as rhetorical proxies. The seconds elaborate a unique deliberative and metaphorical rhetoric that argues for the acceptance of the narrative's form. Lastly, I examine the phenomenological implications of the combat as it frames the filmic body's interaction with a viewing subject, typically referred to as the audience. I argue that this relationship forms a consubstantial bond through identification of viewing subjects. In the end, I offer the duel as a substantive way of understanding the narratives of each film and the experience offered by each film.
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    Connecting spiritual others: Gandhi and Tutu's discourses on establishing pre-dialogue foundations for interfaith encounters
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Jonas, Kyle Michael, author; Aoki, Eric, advisor; Burgchardt, Carl, committee member; Cowell, Pattie, committee member
    This thesis seeks to understand how spiritual leaders' rhetoric can work towards promoting pre-dialogue foundations for encountering spiritual others. The three research questions that guide my analysis are: first, how does the discourse of two influential spiritual leaders (i.e., Mahatma Gandhi and Desmond Tutu) provide pluralistic insight for understanding spiritual others in an interfaith context? Second, what are common themes/philosophies between these two spiritual leaders, and how do these themes provide a foundation for preparing individuals to enter interfaith dialogue with a pluralistic mindset? And third, how do relational dialectics, humility, and identification in the leaders' discourses lead to a better understanding of how spaces for interfaith dialogue are potentially opened up? In my analysis, I find that Gandhi and Tutu both define religion in a unique way that encourages interfaith dialogue. Both leaders call for humility and embody it throughout their discourse in a way that promotes self-awareness, openness, and transcendence among individuals. Dialogue's primary tension, totality, and the same/different contradiction are dialectical themes addressed by both spiritual leaders. Both leaders instill pluralistic attitudes that help individuals manage their primary tensions, reflect on their relation to spiritual others through totality, and recognize the similarities and differences between faiths. Finally, identification is prevalent throughout both leaders' discourses to reveal the theme of commonality among faiths. This thesis analyzes how Gandhi and Tutu's discourses potentially function to unite spiritual others towards goals of peaceful interfaith coexistence.
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    DC unmade: failure, fandom and the Justice League films that could have been
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Greene, Ryan, author; Diffrient, David Scott, advisor; Martey, Rosa, committee member; Burgchardt, Carl, committee member; Elkins, Evan, committee member
    Unmade films have received little attention as a general category, and this is doubly so for unmade superhero genre projects. The fact that these unfilms are failures in otherwise vibrant action franchises has typically led to their elision from canonical narratives. In studying two of the many defunct superhero films in Warner Brothers's DC catalog, it is possible to compare the failures of each in order to discern the industrial and narrative practices that contributed to their collapse. I apply scholarship on failure and comic book film adaptation to the case of George Miller's Justice League: Mortal. I trace the director's grand vision of a franchise juggernaut that was ultimately cancelled due to a confluence of bureaucratic interference and backlash against the promise of unlimited, speculative success. I then turn attention toward WB's second attempt to create a superhero ensemble film, Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon's Justice League (2017). From the ashes of the film's financial under-performance and critical failure rose a dogged fan movement to release an unknown and totally different director's cut. To understand this fan community and its impact on unproduction, I evaluate the Snyder Cut movement's defense of Zack Snyder's unmade DC Extended Universe, their battle against Warner Brothers and their refusal to accept failure. Taken together, these two unproductions demonstrate two divergent visions of failure. One lacked fan backing and so rests inert, its pieces scattered across the internet. The other rose from the unfinished realm of shadow cinema, lifted up by fans who vilified its producer while demanding that executives pay for its release.
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    Leadership, resilience, and sensemaking at Colorado State University during the COVID-19 pandemic
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Letteney, Juliet SooGin, author; Williams, Elizabeth, advisor; Burgchardt, Carl, committee member; Anderson, Ashley, committee member
    This study examines the crisis communication qualities of crisis leadership, communicative resilience, and enacted sensemaking in the case of Colorado State University's response to COVID-19 in the spring of 2020. The focus for university response is based in correspondence emailed from University President McConnell to the students. As groundwork for the study, I review crisis communication literature in general and focused studies in crisis leadership, Buzzanell's theory of constructed resilience, and Weick's enacted sensemaking. This foundation of literature informs a mixed method study comprising of a textual analysis of McConnell's correspondence and interviews with students enrolled at the time of the crisis. This methodology was used with the intention of addressing four research questions. RQ1: In what ways did President McConnell exhibit a leadership mindset in her response to the COVID-19 pandemic?, RQ2: In what ways did President McConnell's messages help construct a sense of resilience for CSU students?, RQ3A: In what ways did students make sense of the COVID-19 health crisis in the context of their student lives?, and RQ3B: What role did messages from President McConnell play in their sensemaking? These questions led to a wealth of insights about McConnell's communication in response to the pandemic and moving to virtual learning Spring 2020. Three major takeaways discussed are that the leadership role is particularly delicate in crisis situations, the practice of normalizing challenges in crisis should be paired with adjusting expectations, and that the reflex to strive for a business-as-usual approach should be cautiously balanced with an acceptance of the new normal a crisis requires.
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    Presentation of the warrior hero and the symbolism of death in Apocalypse Now, Black Hawk Down, and Stop-Loss: a study of script and film texts
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Kelly, Fern Anita, author; Lamanna, Carrie A., advisor; Kiefer, Kathleen, committee member; Burgchardt, Carl, committee member
    This thesis discusses the presentation of archetypal characters and the depiction of death in both the scripts and films for Apocalypse Now, Black Hawk Down and Stop-Loss. The project's main focus is on how ideals are presented differently at different time periods and because of shifting public opinions of a conflict. It emphasizes the difference between the post-Vietnam War film and the post-9/11 War film in their presentation of American ideals through their main character and depiction of death. This thesis also suggests a curriculum using the War film genre in a composition classroom to encourage student's analysis of script and film texts and aid in the production of multimodal texts.
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    Reckoning with identity: the changing dynamics of television representations in the American South
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Scroggins, Emily, author; Diffrient, David Scott, advisor; Burgchardt, Carl, committee member; Gudmestad, Robert, committee member
    The American South is a continually understudied and misrepresented region of the United States. Televisual representations of the region typically rely on the Southern Imaginary, a collection of predetermined stereotypes and ideas about the South, to inform their depictions of Southerners and their identities. These representations tend to be one-dimensional and inauthentic to those who have and continued to live in the region. Recently, media depictions of the American South are attempting to challenge the Southern Imaginary and present a more nuanced and legitimate representation of Southerners. This project investigates how the nuanced representations of race, gender, and sexuality coupled with the settings of Hart of Dixie (CW, 2011-2015), One Mississippi (Amazon, 2015-2017), and Atlanta (FX, 2016-present) work to influence audiences' perceptions of the Southern region of the United States. Ultimately, I address the question: in what ways are modern television depictions of the South fighting against the Southern Imaginary and how does this influence the audiences' understanding of the South as both an actual regional space and a discursive construct? Investigation into the attempts to alter the Southern Imaginary can shed light on the falsities that television depictions of the region utilize to ensure that the South remains a social and political scapegoat for problems of the entire nation thus stagnating progress for all.
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    Shout amandla!: a rhetorical analysis of Helen Zille
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Sauter, Emily Susan, author; Anderson, Karrin Vasby, advisor; Burgchardt, Carl, committee member; Davis, Sandra, committee member
    As women have attained more prominent political positions, the study of gender, communication, and electoral politics has expanded over the last few decades. Public address scholarship in particular has covered speeches by many women, from Angelina Grimke to Hillary Clinton, from Sojourner Truth to Eleanor Roosevelt. However, as scholars in Communication Studies have begun concerning themselves with the rhetoric of political women, much of that attention has been focused on U.S. American women. This thesis expands that conversation by exploring the rhetoric of a woman politician acting outside the U.S. American context. This project examines the complex and varied rhetorical strategies employed by Helen Zille. The goal of this work is threefold: First, I hope to gain a deeper understanding of how women in developing nations impact and shape the political landscape through their rhetorical effort by examining the situation of a specific figure. I believe this case study offers important insight into the rhetoric of women leaders acting in the context of a developing, post-colonial nation. Second, this work examines how constitutive rhetoric functions in South Africa's complex political landscape. Third, this project responds to the need for more scholarship that examines rhetoric in non-U.S. contexts. More broadly, this project addresses the question of how Zille's rhetoric functions to overcome barriers of race, class, and gender as she works towards the 2014 presidential elections. This study will be guided by two major theories, Eugene White's theory of exigential flow and Maurice Charland's theory of constitutive rhetoric. In addition, in order to truly understand how Zille's rhetoric functions, I will explore the unique post-colonial mindset of South Africa that is a defining feature of Zille's rhetorical situation.
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    (We)ducation: a narrative and autoethnographic analysis of the teaching and learning process postured as an intimate relationship
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Modesti, Sonja, author; Jennings, Louise, advisor; Anderson, Karrin, advisor; Burgchardt, Carl, committee member; Banning, Jim, committee member
    This project argues that the roles of teacher and learner are no longer definable by traditional conceptualizations, and instead, the intimacy with which teachers and learners experience these roles is comparable to a deeply meaningful, multi-faceted relationship. Many of the dynamics present in the traditional conceptualization of an intimate relationship are the material and embodied dynamics also experienced by teachers and learners as they engage the educational journey. Therefore, this study seeks to identify learners' and teachers' relationship(s) with education as "intimate." Structured as a series of critical scholarly reflections based on a review of the personal and professional life documents of a learner and teacher who has served as a public educator, college professor, and graduate student, this project is written in the style of autoethnographic, narrative vignettes. The journey as a teacher and learner is chronicled, punctuating and analyzing the similarities between the process of teaching and learning and theoretical features of an intimate relationship. Each vignette recounts a conceptual intersection that is both literally and metaphorically linked to themes located in the discourse of interpersonal relations. Analysis of the vignettes reveals a three-part conclusion about the general, theoretical, and embodied relationship between teaching, learning, and intimacy. Thus, the narrative and the accompanying reflections and analyses raise and (re)frame current theoretical, pedagogical, and philosophical questions about education, pedagogy, individual and cultural/institutional change, and identity.