Dramatism

Introduction

A. Dramatism implies that life is a drama, with the focus on the acts performed by various

players. Just as in plays, the acts in life are central to revealing human motives.

B. Although Kenneth Burke is seen as the originator of dramatism, he did not use that

term himself.

1. Burke was a self-taught academician (he never received an undergraduate degree)

in the areas of literary criticism, philosophy, communication, sociology, economics,

theology, and linguistics, whose ideas have been widely applied in various

disciplines.

2. His breadth of interests and lack of formal training in any one discipline make him

one of the most studied interdisciplinary theorists.

C. Drama is a useful metaphor for Burke’s ideas for three reasons.

1. Drama indicates a grand sweep, and Burke did not make limited claims; his goal

was to theorize about the whole range of human experience.

2. Drama tends to fall into recognizable genres, and Burke felt that the way we

structure and use language may be related to the way these human dramas are

played out.

3. Drama is always addressed to an audience, so drama is rhetorical. Dramatism

studies the ways in which language and its usage relate to audiences.

II. Assumptions of dramatism

A. Three assumptions are associated with Burke’s Dramatism Theory.

1. Humans are animals who use symbols.

a. Burke argued that some of what we do is motivated by our animal nature

(fulfilling basic physiological needs such as thirst and hunger) and some of

what we do is motivated by symbols.

2. Language/symbols form a critical system for humans.

a. This assumption is similar to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (Sapir, 1921; Whorf,

1956),

which argues that, when people use language, they are used by it as well.

i. For instance, when a culture’s language does not have symbols for a given

motive, then speakers of that language are unlikely to have that motive.

ii. If a language does not have many symbols with which to express a range of

opinions, discussions are often polarized.

b. Burke asserted that words, thoughts, and actions have extremely close

connections with one another. Words act as "terministic screens" leading to

"trained incapacities," meaning that people cannot see beyond what their

words lead them to believe (Burke, 1965).

i. For example, despite educational efforts, public health officials still have

difficulty persuading people in the United States to think of alcohol and

tranquilizers when they hear the words "drug abuse."

3. Humans are choice makers.

a. Burke suggested that the deterministic ontology of behaviorism had to be

rejected because it conflicted with what he felt to be the cornerstone of

dramatism: human choice.

b. Burke’s notion of agency, or the ability of a social actor to act out of choice,

highlights this third assumption of dramatism.

i. Conrad and Macom (1995) observe that "the essence of agency is choice."

III. Dramatism as new rhetoric

A. The new rhetoric of identification

1. Although Burke discussed the traditional principles of rhetoric articulated by

Aristotle, he introduced a new aspect of rhetoric known as identification.

2. Nichols (1952) outlined the difference between Burke’s approach to rhetoric and

Aristotle’s approach: "The difference between the ‘old’ rhetoric and the ‘new’

rhetoric may be summed up in this manner: whereas the key term for the ‘old’

rhetoric was persuasion and its stress was upon deliberate design, the key term for

the ‘new’ rhetoric is identification and this may include partially ‘unconscious’

factors in its appeal."

B. Identification and substance

1. Burke asserted that all things have substance, which he explained as the general

nature of something.

a. An individual’s substance can be described in terms of demographic

characteristics, background information, and current facts such as talents and

occupation.

b. Burke argued that when there is overlap between two people in terms of their

substance, they will have identification.

i. The more overlap between individuals, the greater the identification

ii. The less overlap between individuals, the greater the division.

c. Burke recognized that two people can never completely overlap when he

asserted

that individuals can be united on certain matters of substance but at the same

time

remain unique, being "both joined and separated."

i. Burke asserted that rhetoric is needed to bridge divisions and establish

unity.

C. The process of guilt and redemption

1. Consubstantiality, or issues of identification and substance, are related to the guilt/

redemption cycle because guilt can be assuaged as a result of identification and

division.

2. Burke argued that the process of guilt and redemption underscores the entire

concept of symbolizing.

a. Guilt is a central motive for all symbolic activities, and Burke defined guilt

broadly to include any type of tension, embarrassment, shame, disgust, or other

unpleasant feeling.

b. Central to dramatism is the notion that guilt is intrinsic to the human condition.

3. The process of feeling guilt and attempting to alleviate it finds its expression in

Burke’s cycle, which follows a predictable pattern: order or hierarchy, the negative,

victimage (scapegoat or mortification), and redemption.

a. Order or hierarchy suggests that social order exists in the form of hierarchies,

which are created through our ability to use language (e.g., rich and poor,

haves and have-nots).

i. These categories form social hierarchies, and we often feel guilt as a result

of our place in the hierarchy.

b. The negative refers to the time when people see their place in the social order

and seek to reject it. Saying "no" to the existing order is both a function of our

language abilities and a testament of our status as choice makers.

c. Victimage refers to the way in which we attempt to purge the guilt we feel as

part of the human condition. There are two types of victimage: mortification

and scapegoating.

i. Mortification is defined as apologizing for the wrongdoing and blaming

ourselves.

ii. Scapegoating is defined as assigning guilt to some sacrificial vessel. By

sacrificing the scapegoat, the actor is purged of sin.

d. Redemption involves a rejection of the unclean and a return to a new order

after guilt has been temporarily purged.

i. Inherent in the concept of redemption is the notion of a "redeemer," who in

the Judeo-Christian tradition is the Savior (Christ) or God.

ii. When politicians blame problems on the media or on the opposing party,

they place themselves in the position of potential redeemer—the one who

can lead the people out of their troubles.

iii. A key to understanding redemption is knowing that guilt is only

temporarily relieved through the redeemer or any other method because, as

any order or hierarchy becomes established, guilt returns to plague

humans.

D. The pentad

1. Burke’s method for applying his theory toward an understanding of symbolic

activities is known as the dramatic pentad.

2. The pentad can help determine why a speaker selected a particular rhetorical

strategy for identifying with an audience.

3. The pentad consists of the act, the scene, the agent, agency, purpose, and attitude.

a. The act is simply what a person does.

b. The scene provides the context surrounding the act.

c. The agent is the person or people performing the act.

d. Agency refers to the means used by the agent to accomplish the act.

i. Possible forms of agency include message strategies, storytelling, apologies,

and speech making.

e. Purpose refers to the goal the agent had in mind for the act or the reason the act

was performed.

f. Attitude refers to the manner in which an actor positions him- or herself

relative

to others.

4. When using the pentad to analyze a symbolic interaction, the analyst first

determines all the elements of the pentad and identifies what occurred in a

particular act. After labeling the points of the pentad and fully explicating each, the

analyst then examines the dramatistic ratios, or proportions of one element relative

to another.

a. By isolating any two parts of the pentad and examining their relationship to

each other, the analyst determines a ratio.

i. For example, an agent-act ratio is at issue when we attempt to understand

how a good person might do a bad thing.

b. An examination of the dramatistic ratio allows for the evaluation of rhetorical

strategies.

IV. Critique of dramatism

A. Some critics complain that Burke’s dramatism is overly complex, confusing, and

difficult to comprehend.

1. Nichols (1952) suggested that Burke is difficult to read but observed that some of

the difficulty arises from "the compactness of his writing, the uniqueness of his

organizational patterns, the penetration of his thought, and the breadth of his

endeavor."

B. Dramatism is too wide in scope.

1. Because Burke’s goal was to explain the whole of human experience, critics charge

that the theory is too broad to be meaningful.

C. Aspects of dramatism require extension and modification.

1. Condit (1992) highlights areas that Burke left undeveloped and that should be used

as starting points for moving post-Burke. These contexts include gender and

culture.

a. Condit argues that Burke’s approach needs to be broadened to include women

and to move past a focus on one sex or the other and be truly inclusive of both.

i. We need to change both our language and our thinking about women, men,

sex,

and inclusivity for significant progress to occur.

b. Condit also suggests that Burke emphasized universality among cultures at the

expense of particularity.

i. Condit takes issue with Burke’s assumption that victimage is a transcultural

experience, a method for purging guilt in all cultures. She suggests that

cultures different from Western Christian ones (the basis of Burke’s notion

of victimage) might not see victimage as the dominant motive for human

activity.