Classes

Parent for all the individual classes

Burke

“In the beginning was the word” that sparked the creation of language and its complex system of signifiers, an infinite loop expanding as new ideas breathe into existence. Burke calls the rhetorical use of these symbols magic; its practitioners, spellbinders.…

Defining Rhetoric: A Vain Attempt

To begin, I would like to criticize Kenneth Burke’s complex statements for my simple mind.  Although reading Anne’s post provided clarity regarding his text and idea of  “alienation” resulting from languages’ (signifier) inability to fully express meaning (signified), I believe Burke is entirely too…

Commentary 6

The readings for this week reinforced the idea that word choice is an essential component of rhetoric. In Burke’s, Language as Symbolic Action he makes reference to how Pascal found a way around dueling. While his sneakiness had very little…

Fusion of Present and Past

Man is a symbol using animal and dramatism functions as a philosophy of human relations. Burke’s dramatism answers many empirical questions of how people explain their actions to themselves and others, and explains the different cultural and social structural influence…

Sweet and Sour

How can we see another culture as rhetorically important when we disregard the whole cultures validity as an equal?  Maybe soon as a western culture we can start to acknowledge Chinese Rhetoric as an equally valid discourse.  Our past concerns…

Commentary 5

There are so many things in life that people say a person should “take with a grain of salt;” I can’t help but wonder if translation is something I should add to my list along with the fashion ideas my…

Week 6: Everything in Moderation

The two excerpts from Xing Lu’s text “Rhetoric in Ancient China” featured attempts to open Western eyes to the Rhetoric of Ancient China through a comparison with Classical Greek Rhetoric.  Although only provided part 1 and 2, the reading centered…