“It's essentially as though this were killing us”: Kenneth burke on mortification and pedagogy

Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jan 1997

“It's essentially as though this were killing us”: Kenneth burke on mortification and pedagogy

Ellen Quandahl San Diego State University

Abstract

[A]ll. . . transcending of the thing by its name is toward death. And in this sense, even the most vital of language is intrinsically deathy. It is a realm of essence such that, without the warm blood of live bodies to feed it, it cannot truly exist. The spirit of all symbol systems could be said to transcend the body in this sense, taking on a dimension that can also be named by our good word for death: immortality. (Language as Symbolic Action 342)

Journal: Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published: 1997-01-01
DOI: 10.1080/02773949709391085
Open Access: Closed
Topics: rhetorical theory

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Cites in this index (2)

Kastely (1996)

Kenneth Burke's Comic Rejoinder to the Cult of Empire

College English
Hassett (1995)

Constructing an ethical writer for the postmodern scene

Rhetoric Society Quarterly

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Desilet Gregory (1989)

10.1080/00335638909383862

Quarterly Journal of Speech ↗
McMahon Robert (1989)

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PMLA ↗
Salvatori Mariolina (1996)

10.2307/378854

College English ↗

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