Today I'm continuing my discussion of key points on this week's quiz, focusing on Chapter 22, the Dramatism of Kenneth Burke. I met Professor Burke over 20 years ago when he attended a panel on which I was presenting the results of my master's thesis. He was quite elderly at the time and didn't say anything. But he was quite alert and nodded his head and smiled throughout the panel. At any rate, I'm especially interested in this chapter because of my work with his approach.
In terms of studying for the quiz, there are a number of key points you'll want to focus on. Burke considered groups of words as dances of attitudes. He called himself a gypsy scholar. According to Burke, a word a speaker uses to sum up all that is bad or evil is a devil term. From Burke's perspective, a god term is one that is above all the other positive terms a speaker uses. Burke's pentad included act, agent, agency, scene, and purpose. You'll want to know the definition of each one.
Burke calls scapegoating victimage and he refers to identification as consubstantiation. In contrast, behavioral scientists use the term homophily to refer to perceived similarity between speakers and audience members. Burke uses the term substance to refer to a person's physical characteristics, talents, and the like. According to Burke, the ultimate motivation for public speaking is purging the self of guilt. Burke's approach has been criticized because his writing is often confusing and obscure. Having read several of Burke's books in my master's program, I agree with that criticism. Still, his work has had a profound impact on the analysis of rhetoric.
~ Professor Cyborg
Week 15 #3
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Self-image affects communication. " I" is that people are birth with, but "
me " is affected by environment, family, and culture.Ting-Toomey defines
that p...
15 years ago
2 comments:
As I mentioned in one of my BLOGs, Kenneth Burke's theories are rather interesting ones. The fact that he considered himself a gypsy scholar is kind of interesting to me, considering there was a point in time that gypsies were run out of town for their beliefs. But it is a little strange to actually have someone use theological terms for theories that are not related to religion (i.e. god term/devil term). But I think it's awesome that you had an opportunity to meet him first hand, especially considering you were able to present your master's thesis.
I do want to mention that your blogs are helpful in terms of preparing us for the quiz. We will have to see with the official results of the quiz! :)
I'm glad my entries are helping, altho focusing on the quizzes does constrain me a bit in what I write about.
I did enjoy meeting Professor Burke, but having him the audience made me pretty nervous during the presentation. In terms of his focus on religion, you also have to consider when he published some of his earlier works. A Grammar of Motives came out in 1945, right at the end of WWII. A Rhetoric of Motives was published in 1950, the start of the McCarthy era and vocal anti-communism in the U.S. The Rhetoric of Religion was published in 1961. So all were influenced by the time in which they were written--a time when the U.S. was clearly defining itself in opposition to the "godless" Soviet Union and communism. For example, the phrase "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.
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