• Choosing a Rhetoric of the Enemy: Kenneth Burke's Comic Frame, Warrantable Outrage, and the Problem of Scapegoating

    Author(s):
    Gregory Desilet (see profile)
    Date:
    2011
    Subject(s):
    Rhetoric, Burke, Kenneth, 1897-1993, Conflict management--Study and teaching (Higher)
    Item Type:
    Article
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/e03p-0y85
    Abstract:
    Kenneth Burke's dramatistic theory of rhetoric presents a significant tension between an “Iron Law of History” and a “comic” attitude. Comic framing in ironic awareness of one's own shortcomings in a conflict, as well as those of one's opponent, moderates aggression but also appears to dissolve the ground for the identification and censure of wrongdoing. Nevertheless, this did not prevent Burke from engaging in the censure of wrongdoing. Although Burke does not explicitly and adequately counter the apparent inconsistency, he implicitly provides a meta-perspective advancing a possible resolution. Forceful scapegoating of scapegoating itself, through comic irony and double-visioned analysis, can guide, in serial progression, warfare and redemptive reunion. Wartime speeches of Franklin D. Roosevelt illustrate the larger comic framing inherent in a rhetorical movement from “factional tragedy” to “comic” regard and reconciliation.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1080/02773945.2011.596177
    Publisher:
    Informa UK Limited
    Pub. Date:
    2011-9-6
    Journal:
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
    Volume:
    41
    Issue:
    4
    Page Range:
    340 - 362
    ISSN:
    0277-3945,1930-322X
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    1 year ago
    License:
    Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

    Downloads

    Item Name: pdf choosing-a-rhetoric-of-the-enemy-rsq-2011.pdf
      Download View in browser
    Activity: Downloads: 355

    Back to Deposits