In the eye of the beholder : rhetorical presence in visual representations of fast-fashion workers
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: English, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Knezevic, Mia
issued: 2019-04-16T22:20:33Z
issued: 2019
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: On April 23, 2013, the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 1,000 people in what is considered the largest factory disaster in modern times. While brands and factories scrambled to do damage control, a new wave of human rights discourse emerged in an effort to encourage shoppers to consider the impact of their consumption on the lives of fast-fashion workers. With these discourses as context, this thesis examines six visual artifacts which make use of rhetorical presence to portray the fast-fashion worker. Emphasized in the work of Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, presence provides a means for the rhetor to highlight the most important or salient components of an argument. In order to create a more sophisticated rhetorical analysis, this thesis takes two realms together: the rhetorical, in which the persuasive techniques used within the images are examined, and the cultural, which details the experiences of fast-fashion workers, the emphasis on maximized profits and the influence these have on the content of visual rhetorical artifacts. The thesis first examines Fashion Revolution’s “Who Made My Clothes?” campaign, which is intended to increase brand transparency by portraying workers, then examines an H&M eco-conscious advertisement and an opposing anti-advertisement by Clean Clothes Campaign, and ends with an examination of two additional genres, protest art and the documentary photograph, in which the creator of the artifact speaks on behalf of the fast-fashion worker, effectively removing her agency. Through these examples, I argue that, whether for profit, social action, or simply reportage, the depictions of fast-fashion workers fulfill each institution’s rhetorical purpose, but in doing so, also create inaccurate, one-dimensional portrayals of workers as content, suffering, or entirely absent.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/69724
note: IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: RHETORICAL PRESENCE IN VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF FAST-FASHION WORKERS by Mia Knezevic B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2017 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (English) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2019 © Mia Knezevic, 2019 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: In the Eye of the Beholder: Rhetorical Presence in Visual Representations of Fast-Fashion Workers submitted by Mia Knezevic in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Examining Committee: Judy Segal, English Supervisor Ian Hill, English Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract On April 23, 2013, the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 1,000 people in what is considered the largest factory disaster in modern times. While brands and factories scrambled to do damage control, a new wave of human rights discourse emerged in an effort to encourage shoppers to consider the impact of their consumption on the lives of fast-fashion workers. With these discourses as context, this thesis examines six visual artifacts which make use of rhetorical presence to portray the fast-fashion worker. Emphasized in the work of Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, presence provides a means for the rhetor to highlight the most important or salient components of an argument. In order to create a more sophisticated rhetorical analysis, this thesis takes two realms together: the rhetorical, in which the persuasive techniques used within the images are examined, and the cultural, which details the experiences of fast-fashion workers, the emphasis on maximized profits and the influence these have on the content of visual rhetorical artifacts. The thesis first examines…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2019-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0378251
language: eng
degree discipline: English
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/69724