Rhetoric Review Apr 2003

Symbolizing Motion: Burke's Dialectic and Rhetoric of the Body

Bryan Crable

Abstract

Abstract This essay examines the question of the body as it appears in Burke's texts. Drawing upon a rereading of-and friendly amendment to-Burke's action/motion writings, I argue that other terminologies of embodiment suffer from a lack of complexity and therefore offer not dialectics but rhetorics of embodiment. After briefly applying this reading of Burke to discourse on race and racial identity, the essay concludes that his action/motion polarity can be used as a critical instrument of sorts, prompting us to greater vigilance regarding the vocabularies of embodiment we employ, the terms we impose upon our bodies and ourselves.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2003-04-01
DOI
10.1207/s15327981rr2202_2
Open Access
Closed

Citation Context

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  2. Cardinal (2019)
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    Computers and Composition
  3. Olson (2019)
    Our Bodies and the Language We Learn: The Dialectic of Burkean Identification i…
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  4. Chávez (2018)
    The Body: An Abstract and Actual Rhetorical Concept
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Werner (2017)
    Deploying Delivery as Critical Method: Neo-Burlesque’s Embodied Rhetoric
    Rhetoric Review
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  1. Hawhee (2004)
    Burke on Drugs
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 6 works outside this index ↓
  1. Bentz Valeria Malhotra (1997)
    10.1111/0735-2751.00024
    Sociological Theory 15.1 (  ↗
  2. Burke, Kenneth. Attitudes Toward History. 3rd ed. Berkeley: U of California P, 1984.
     ↗
  3. Burke Kenneth (1976)
    10.1080/00335637609383319
    The Quarterly Journal of Speech  ↗
  4. Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. Berkeley: U of California P, 1969.
     ↗
  5. --. "(Nonsymbolic) Motion/(Symbolic) Action." Critical Inquiry 4.4 (1978): 809-38.
     ↗
  6. Wess, Robert. Kenneth Burke: Rhetoric, Subjectivity, Postmodernism. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996.
     ↗
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