Cover not available
Part of
Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres
Edited by Assimakis Tseronis and Charles Forceville
[Argumentation in Context 14] 2017
► pp. 165–188

Chapter 6
The argumentative relevance of visual and multimodal antithesis in Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries

In this chapter we argue that certain salient contrasts that Frederick Wiseman presents non-verbally and multimodally in his Direct Cinema documentaries can be understood as antitheses that play an argumentative role. In this type of documentary, which renounces the use of voice-over narration and music, a filmmaker has to rely on cinematography and editing in combination with participants’ spoken language to guide viewers’ interpretations. We argue that the ways in which certain sequences and shots are filmed and edited as well as the way dialogue, image, and sound combine within the shot create multimodal meanings that can be accounted for in terms of antithesis and can thereby contribute to the argument developed by the filmmaker. We focus on instances of visual and multimodal antithesis in five of Wiseman’s early films (Titicut Follies, High School, Hospital, Juvenile Court, and Primate) and one later film (Zoo).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Antithesis in language and film
  • 3.The argumentative relevance of antithesis
  • 4.Documentary film as multimodal argumentation
  • 5.Visual and multimodal antithesis in Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries
    • 5.1Antithesis between sequences
    • 5.2Antithesis between shots
    • 5.3Antithesis within the shot
    • 5.4Sustained antithesis in Zoo (1993)
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • List of films
Published online: 20 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aic.14.07tse
References (56)
References
Aitken, I. (Ed.). (2013). The concise Routledge encyclopedia of the documentary film. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Atkins, T. R. (1976). Frederick Wiseman. New York: Monarch Press.Google Scholar
Bateman, J. A. (2014). Text and image. A critical introduction to the visual/verbal divide. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Benson, T. W. (1980). The rhetorical structure of Frederick Wiseman’s High School . Communication Monographs, 47, 233–261. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1985). The rhetorical structure of Frederick Wiseman’s Primate . Quarterly Journal of Speech, 71, 204–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benson, T. W., & Anderson, C. (2002). Reality fictions: The films of Frederick Wiseman (2nd ed.). Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Black, M. (1979). More about metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 19–43). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, E. F., & Sangalang, A. (2014). Juxtaposition as visual argument: Health rhetoric in Super Size Me and Fat Head . Argumentation and Advocacy, 50, 141–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buckland, W. (2015). Visual rhetoric in Michel Gondry’s music videos: Antithesis and similarity in Deadweight . Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, 5, 49–57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clifton, R. N. (1983). The figure in film. Newark: University of Delaware Press.Google Scholar
Dancygier, B., & Sweetser, E. (2014). Figurative language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
El Refaie, E. (2003). Understanding visual metaphor: The example of newspaper cartoons. Visual Communication, 2, 75–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fahnestock, J. (1999). Rhetorical figures in science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
(2003). Verbal and visual parallelism. Written Communication, 20, 123–152. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011). Rhetorical style: The uses of language in persuasion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forceville, C. (1996). Pictorial metaphor in advertising. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1999). Educating the eye? Kress and van Leeuwen’s Reading images: The grammar of visual design (1996). Language and Literature, 8, 163–178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2008). Metaphor in pictures and multimodal representations. In R. W. Gibbs (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 462–482). Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forceville, C., & Urios-Aparisi, E. (Eds.). (2009). Multimodal metaphor. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grant, B. K. (1992). Voyages of discovery: The cinema of Frederick Wiseman. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
(1998). Ethnography in the first person. Frederick Wiseman’s Titicut Follies . In B. K. Grant, & J. Sloniowski (Eds.), Documenting the documentary. Close readings of documentary film and video (pp. 238–248). Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
(2013). Hospital (US, Wiseman, 1970). In I. Aitken (Ed.), The concise Routledge encyclopedia of the documentary film (pp. 372–373). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
(Ed.). (2006). Five films by Frederick Wiseman. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Groarke, L. (1996). Logic, art and argument. Informal Logic, 18, 116–131. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Groarke, L., & Tindale, C. W. (2013). Good reasoning matters! (5th ed.). Toronto: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Iversen, M. H. (this volume). Employing film form and style in the argumentative analysis of political advertising.
Jewitt, C. (2014). An introduction to multimodality. In C. Jewitt (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis (2nd ed., pp. 15–30). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kjeldsen, J. E. (2015). The study of visual and multimodal argumentation. Argumentation, 29, 115–132. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images. The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of ChicagoGoogle Scholar
Messaris, P. (1997). Visual persuasion: The role of images in advertising. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Nichols, B. (1978). Fred Wiseman’s documentaries: Theory and structure. Film Quarterly, 31, 15–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2010). Introduction to documentary (2nd ed.). Indiana: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Phillips, B. J., & McQuarrie, E. F. (2004). Beyond visual metaphor: A new typology of visual rhetoric in advertising. Marketing Theory, 4, 113–136. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Plantinga, C. R. (1997). Rhetoric and representation in nonfiction film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Roque, G. (2012). Visual argumentation. A further reappraisal. In F. H. van Eemeren, & B. Garssen (Eds.), Topical themes in argumentation theory: Twenty exploratory studies (pp. 273–288). Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Teng, N. Y., & Sun, S. (2002). Grouping, simile, and oxymoron in pictures: A design-based cognitive approach. Metaphor and Symbol, 17, 295–316. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tindale, C. W. (2009). Commentary on Hilde van Belle’s “Playing with oppositions: Verbal and visual antithesis in the media.” In J. Ritola (Ed.), Argument cultures: Proceedings of OSSA 09 (pp. 1–5). Windsor, ON: OSSA.Google Scholar
Tseronis, A. (2013). Argumentative functions of visuals: Beyond claiming and justifying. In D. Mohammed, & M. Lewiński (Eds.), Virtues of argumentation: Proceedings of the 10th international conference of the Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA), 22–26 May 2013 (pp. 1–17). Windsor, ON: OSSA.Google Scholar
(2015). Documentary film as multimodal argumentation: Arguing audio-visually about the 2008 financial crisis. In J. Wildfeuer (Ed.), Building bridges for multimodal research: International perspectives on theories and practices of multimodal analysis (pp. 327–345). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Tseronis, A., & Forceville, C. (2017). Arguing against corporate claims visually and multimodally: The genre of subvertisements. Multimodal Communication, 6, 1–15. Published online 13 September 2017 DOI logo.Google Scholar
Tseronis, A., Forceville, C., & Grannetia, M. (2015). The argumentative role of visual metaphor and visual antithesis in ‘fly-on-the-wall’documentary. In B. Garssen, D. Godden, G. Mitchell, & A. F. Snoeck Henkemans (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th international conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation, 1–4 July 2014 (pp. 1380–1395). Amsterdam: SicSat.Google Scholar
Van Belle, H. (2013). Less ado more done. Verbal and visual antithesis in media. Informal Logic, 33, 343–360. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van den Hoven, P., & Yang, Y. (2013). The argumentative reconstruction of multimodal discourse. Taking the ABC coverage of president Hu Jintao’s visit to the USA as an example. Argumentation, 27, 403–424. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Leeuwen, T. (1991). Conjunctive structure in documentary film and television. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 5, 76–114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wildfeuer, J., & Pollaroli, C. (this volume). Seeing the untold. Multimodal argumentation in movie trailers.
Winston, B. (1979). Documentary: I think we are in trouble. Monthly Film Bulletin, 48, 2–7.Google Scholar
List of films
King, A. (Director). (1969). A Married couple.Google Scholar
Riggs, M. (Director). (1994). Black is, Black ain’t.Google Scholar
Wiseman, F. (Director). (1967). Titicut Follies.Google Scholar
(Director). (1968). High School.Google Scholar
(Director). (1969). Hospital.Google Scholar
(Director). (1973). Juvenile Court.Google Scholar
(Director). (1974). Primate.Google Scholar
(Director). (1993). Zoo.Google Scholar
Wright, B. (Director). (1937). Children at School.Google Scholar
Cited by (9)

Cited by nine other publications

Hassan, Inas Hussein & Sara Yahya ElMansy
2023. Between Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and Instagram Narratives: Multimodal Argumentation in Arab Netizens’ Perlocutionary Acts Towards Captain America 4 . Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies ► pp. 189 ff. DOI logo
Leal, Vanesca Carvalho
2021. Rhetoric and Visual Argument: proposition of methodological models based on the analysis of infographics . Revista da ABRALIN ► pp. 759 ff. DOI logo
Kashanizadeh, Zahra & Charles Forceville
2020. Visual and multimodal interaction of metaphor and metonymy. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 7:1 ► pp. 78 ff. DOI logo
Kashanizadeh, Zahra & Charles Forceville
2022. Visual and multimodal interaction of metaphor and metonymy*. In Visual Metaphors [Benjamins Current Topics, 124], ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Poppi, Fabio Indìo Massimo & Peter Kravanja
2019. Actiones secundum fidei1. Metaphor and the Social World 9:1 ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Miño Puga, María Fernanda
2018. The Manabí project: participatory video in rebuilding efforts after the earthquake. Studies in Documentary Film 12:3 ► pp. 190 ff. DOI logo
Tseronis, Assimakis
2018. Multimodal argumentation: Beyond the verbal/visual divide . Semiotica 2018:220 ► pp. 41 ff. DOI logo
Tseronis, Assimakis
2021. From visual rhetoric to multimodal argumentation: exploring the rhetorical and argumentative relevance of multimodal figures on the covers of The Economist. Visual Communication 20:3 ► pp. 374 ff. DOI logo
Forceville, Charles
2017. Interactive documentary and its limited opportunities to persuade. Discourse, Context & Media 20 ► pp. 218 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 january 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.