Rhetoric Review Jun 2007

Burke and War: Rhetoricizing the Theory of Dramatism

M. Elizabeth Weiser The Ohio State University

Abstract

While rhetoricians are familiar with Kenneth Burke's epigram Ad bellum purificandum, little attention has been paid to why the “purification of war” would be Burke's purpose in A Grammar of Motives. Yet the Grammar, with its theory of dramatism, was written throughout a conflict Burke called “the mightiest war the human race will ever experience.” This article recovers Burke's wartime writings and explores the impact of World War II on his intellectual development. Arguing that Burke's dialectical project was conceived as a specific, hortatory response to the absolutism of total war, it recontextualizes Burkean themes of ambiguity, transcendence, dialectic, and action as it “rhetoricizes” dramatism, placing it within its original cultural/material conversational parlor.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2007-06-15
DOI
10.1080/07350190701419848
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Topics
modern rhetorical theory grammar and mechanics editorial matter
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Weiser (2009)
    “As Usual I Fell on the Bias”: Kenneth Burke's Situated Dialectic
    Philosophy & Rhetoric

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CrossRef global citation count: 7 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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