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Documenting the Expert: The Films of Errol Morris

Paasche, James C
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1186689037

Abstract Details

2007, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Popular Culture.
In a society increasingly influenced by the pronouncements of experts, it is important to examine the rhetorical construction of expertise. Experts exert their power by the language they use to describe their fields of expertise. Gaining their power by the authority invested in them within their demarcated field, experts often stray outside the boundaries of their expertise. They pass judgment or offer opinions founded not on a wealth of knowledge, but from an assumed position of power and respect. Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris focuses his films on the language of his subjects, be they worm farmers or heads of state. Morris’s desire to capture the subjective malleability of truth mirrors the expert’s verbal construction of his own expertise. Lost within the worlds they have created in their minds, Morris’s subjects offer differing examples of the expert both within the dominant power system and outside of it. Morris examines how the power of language allows his subjects to become experts in whatever field, real or imaginary, they choose. This thesis combines modern theoretical explorations of the functions of the expert with close readings of Morris’s films. By centering his films on the language of experts, Morris documents an ever-changing, highly personal form of expertise, offering oppositional examples to the hegemonic expert figure that dominates most discussions of expertise.
Marilyn Motz (Advisor)
Cinema
Errol Morris; Expertise; Experts; Documentary Film

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Paasche, J. C. (2007). Documenting the Expert: The Films of Errol Morris [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1186689037

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Paasche, James. Documenting the Expert: The Films of Errol Morris. 2007. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1186689037.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Paasche, James. "Documenting the Expert: The Films of Errol Morris." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1186689037

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1186689037
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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.