The Lexicons of Cult Film: Rhetoric, Media, and The Big Lebowski

In this paper, we explore how The Big Lebowski provides “equipment for living,” to explain the Lebowski phenomenon and answer the question: How do individuals use The Big Lebowski to communicate across cultures? In answer to this question, we argue that the shared lexicon of the cult film serves as a diagnostic tool, which fans use to identify each other, size up their situation, and determine a course of action. In one sense, the film is both a representative anecdote and an unrepresentative anecdote, which draws viewers into a comic frame and allows them to see new ways of thinking and acting in an otherwise typical situation. Ultimately, the co-opting of the film’s ethos and lexicon by fans “individualizes” popular culture, subverting film (a big-budget medium historically dominated by the auteur-director model) and positioning fans as both artistic consumers and creators.