Tag Archive
BURKE BABY!
Burke really felt that rhetoric happened from action. Rhetoric occurs when a person is in the moment a “dramatistic” approach to creating and defining what it is. I take from this that rhetoric never dies but is a type of organism, always changing and evolving. This seems true when you think about how many... »
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. Certainly some validity resonates from his comment, for skilled orators “induce action in people”... »
(Re)Defining Rhetoric
Based on the readings for the week, it seems to me that the 20th century recovery of rhetoric is about defining what is entailed when we talk about rhetoric. Not necessarily satisfied with the way rhetoric was being treated, intellectuals like Kenneth Burke and Chaim Perelman took it upon themselves to remind us what... »
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 to do with language and much more to do with action, his actions were... »
Burke and Weaver and the Power of Filters
Can we ever see the world as it really is? Metaphysical questions such as this go back a long way, and my grasp of all the centuries of ontological and epistemological philosophical wrangling is superficial at best. That we are the creators of our own realities is an idea that shows up in various... »
Terministic Screens
Tina Bell 5001 Commentary Week 6 26 March 2009 Terministic Screens What is reality? According to Kenneth Burke, reality resides in the symbol system we use. Members of societies in various cultures and from various time periods have used particular sets of symbols to create realities. The use of the symbols is both literal and abstract. Today, we believe... »
Commentary #2 A Rhetoric of Motives by Kenneth Burke
In the chapter from A Rhetoric of Motives, author Kenneth Burke establishes that rhetoric serves a “realistic function” (Burke 43). He argues that rhetoric serves a purpose in our language–it has a job. Then, as a recurring theme in our readings, we hear an argument where a rhetorician defends his craft against the... »