Longman / Prentice Hall

English

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The Elements of Dramatism
David Blakesley, Purdue University

ISBN-10: 0205334253
ISBN-13: 9780205334254

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 2002
Format: Paper; 224 pp
Published: 10/04/2001

Suggested retail price: $29.00
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This brief paperback focuses on the analytical methods Kenneth Burke coined as dramatism, which has exerted an enormous influence for many years on people interested in the dynamics of human communication and symbol-use in many areas of study, particularly composition and speech communication.

Each chapter includes discussions of key concepts in the context of dramatism and rhetoric, extended applications of these concepts to a variety of rhetorical problems and forms (including literature, photography, and film), and clear guidelines for applying the strategies discussed to student -generated topics.

  • Clear explanations of fundamental principles of dramatism and rhetoric are found in the introduction to each chapter, chapter summaries, and in the glossary.
  • Extended examples of how key principles can be applied to texts, films, and social issues provide models and suggestions for further research and writing. These examples include: Chapter 1 (School Violence); Chapter 2 (Hitler, Propaganda); Chapter 3 (Cluster Analysis of "The Red Wheelbarrow"; The Usual Suspects; Electronic Civil Disobedience and Hacktivism); Chapter 4 (Plato; Hannibal); Chapter 5 (White Noise; Toy Story 2)
  • This text broadens the scope of dramatism beyond the dramatistic pentad to include rhetoric. Through Chapter 1 ("Dramatism, Rhetoric, and Pentad") and Chapter 3 ("Dramatism on the World's Stage"), students see that the pentad is more that just a heuristic (invention) procedure.
  • Selections from Burke's work show students first hand how Burke conceived dramatism.
  • A glossary and bibliographies provide additional resources to help students learn the principles and applications of dramatism.
  • Questions and suggestions for further discussion and study appear throughout the book, providing suggestions for putting key principles to work on student-generated topics. "Tracking Down Implications" prompts follow each reading. "Research and Writing Activities" appear at the end of each chapter.



Preface for Instructors.


Preface for Students.


Acknowledgements.


Credits.


I. Dramatism and Rhetoric.

Representative Words.

Gary Larson, The Far Side.

All the Words, a Stage.

Dramatism, Rhetoric, and the Pentad.

On Interpretation.

Kenneth Burke, "All Living Things Are Critics".

Tracking Down Implications.

Identification and Consubstantiality.

Identification and Transformation.

Logomachy: Wars of Words and Nerves.

Cooperation and Competition.

"Road to Victory": The Basis for Dramatism.

The Resources of Ambiguity.

Kenneth Burke, "Introduction: The Five Key Terms of Dramatism".

The Pentad.

The Pentadic Ratios: Scene-Act.

The Scene-Act Ratio: School Violence.

Summary.

Research and Writing Activities.

Preview of the Following Chapters.



2. The Dramatistic Analysis of Form.

The Writer's Situation.

Burke's Parlor.

Tracking Down Implications.

Piety and Form.

Types of Form.

Syllogistic Progression.

Qualitative Progression.

Repetitive Form.

Conventional Form.

Dramatism on the World's Stage.

Hitler's Polemic.

Kenneth Burke, "The Rhetoric of Hitler's 'Battle'".

Tracking Down Implications.

The Pentadic Ratios: Scene-Agent.

The Scene-Agent Ratio: The Writer as Propagandist.

Summary.

Research and Writing Activities.



3. Terministic Screens.

Representative Anecdotes.

Scope and Circumference.

Cluster Analysis.

Cluster Analysis: William Carlos Williams's, "The Red Wheelbarrow".

The Image and the Word.

Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects.

The Pentadic Ratios: Act-Agency.

"Hacktivism".

The Act-Agency Ratios of "Hacktivism".

Civil and Electronic Disobedience.

Henry David Thoreau, "Resistance to Civil Government" (Civil Disobedience).

Tracking Down Implications.

Summary.

Research and Writing Activities.



4. The Resources of Terminology.

Signs, Signifiers, and Signifieds.

"What Are the Signs of What?"

Entelechy and "Jumping to Conclusions".

The Five Dogs of Meaning.

The Strategies of Dialectic: Merger and Division.

Plato's Gorgias

Tracking Down Implications.

Dialogue and Dialetic.

Plato's Phaedrus.

The Pentadic Ratios: Agent-Purpose.

"Serial Narratives/Serial Murderers": Thomas Harris's Hannibal.

The Rhetoric of Desire.

Thomas Harris, from Hannibal.

Summary.

Research and Writing Activities.



5. The Public Memory, Spectacle, and Rhetoric.

The Dissociative Memory and "Purposive Forgetting".

Repression, Memory, and Aphasia.

Dramatism and Rhetoric as Ideological Inquiry.

Hegemony.

"To Infinity . . . and Beyond!": The Case of Toy Story 2.

The Pentadic Ratios: Scene-Purpose.

Scene-Purpose in Don DeLillo's White House.

Don DeLillo, from White Noise.

Tracking Down Implications.

The Rhetoric of Substance.

Kenneth Burke, "Paradox of Substance".

Tracking Down Implications.

Summary.

Research and Writing Activities.



Glossary.


Bibliography.


Index.

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