Graduation Year
2009
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Granting Department
American Studies
Major Professor
Daniel Belgrad, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Annette Cozzi, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Andrew Berish, Ph.D.
Keywords
status, promotion, storytelling, weber, wolfe
Abstract
There is much scholarship to suggest that the idea of America is an idea of a meritocracy. Generally, the ideal construction of American meritocracy involves people working hard and being able to accomplish whatever they set their minds to. Filmmaker Robert Altman constructs a very different America. In Altman's eyes, success is achieved through promotion, either self-promotion or promotion by others. An individual's status, whether it be within a peer group or on a national level, is far more important that the actual work that that person has done. This thesis will also examine how Altman presents this promotion as a form of storytelling, and how Altman creates a relationship between promotion, storytelling, and conflict between different status structures. This analysis will include not only elements of the larger plots and themes of the selected films (Nashville, Short Cuts, and Gosford Park,) but formal analysis as well.
Scholar Commons Citation
Hicken, Walker, "Altman…Now, More Than Ever: Social Conflict in the Films of Robert Altman" (2009). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/2013
