Learning to think: Deterritorialization in Mona Lisa Smile and Dead Poets Society

Abstract

Mona Lisa Smile (2003) and Dead Poets Society (1989) are two American films that made audiences across the globe reflect their learning paradigms. A rhizomatic educational ambiance helps to transform students from a state of stasis into dynamic individuals as it deterritorializes them from indoctrination by arborescent principles put forth by the ideological apparatuses of family, educational, and cultural institutions to an individual space where they can define themselves. This research paper attempts to look at Mona Lisa Smile and Dead Poets Society as visual texts that attempted to comment upon the rigidities that existed in America during the ‘Fifties’. The conclusion provides a comparison of the learning outcomes in the two sets of learners in the films selected and describes the reasons why students in Mona Lisa Smile metamorphosize into dynamic individuals committed to a definite career path.