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
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (7)

  1. Rhetoric Review
  2. Computers and Composition
  3. Rhetoric Review
  4. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Rhetoric Review
Show all 7 →
  1. Advances in the History of Rhetoric
  2. Rhetoric Society Quarterly

References (33)

  1. 10.1111/0735-2751.00024
    Sociological Theory 15.1 (  
  2. Bernasconi, Robert, and Tommy L. Lott, eds. The Idea of Race. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2000.
  3. Biesecker, Barbara A. Addressing Postmodernity: Kenneth Burke, Rhetoric, and a Theory of Social Change. Tusca…
  4. Burke, Kenneth. Attitudes Toward History. 3rd ed. Berkeley: U of California P, 1984.
  5. Extensions of the Burkeian System. Ed. James W. Chesebro. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P
Show all 33 →
  1. 10.1080/00335637609383319
    The Quarterly Journal of Speech  
  2. Burke, Kenneth. Dramatism and Development. Barre, MA: Clark UP, 1972.
  3. Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. Berkeley: U of California P, 1969.
  4. Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action. Berkeley: U of California P, 1969.
  5. --. "(Nonsymbolic) Motion/(Symbolic) Action." Critical Inquiry 4.4 (1978): 809-38.
  6. --. "(Nonsymbolic) Motion/(Symbolic) Action." Critical Inquiry 4.4. Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purp…
  7. --. "(Nonsymbolic) Motion/(Symbolic) Action." Critical Inquiry 4.4. The Philosophy of Literary Form. 3rd ed. …
  8. New Rhetorics. Ed. Martin Steinmann, Jr. New York: Scribner's
  9. --. "(Nonsymbolic) Motion/(Symbolic) Action." Critical Inquiry 4.4. A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: U of Cal…
  10. --. "(Nonsymbolic) Motion/(Symbolic) Action." Critical Inquiry 4.4. The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logo…
  11. Communication: Ethical and Moral Issues. Ed. Lee Thayer. New York: Gordon and Breach
  12. Crusius, Timothy W. Kenneth Burke and the Conversation After Philosophy. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1999.
  13. Duncan, Hugh Dalziel. Communication and Social Order. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1962.
  14. The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison. Ed. John F. Callahan. New York: Random
  15. Foss, Karen A., and Cindy L. White. "'Being' and the Promise of Trinity: A Feminist Addition to Burke's Theor…
  16. Philadelphia Inquirer
  17. Hannaford, Ivan. Race: The History of an Idea in the West. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1996.
  18. Henderson, Greig. "Dramatism and Deconstruction: Burke, de Man, and the Rhetorical Motive." Kenneth Burke and…
  19. Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. New York: Vintage, 1992.
  20. Muir, Star A. "Toward an Ecology of Language." Kenneth Burke and the 21st Century. Ed. Bernard L. Brock. Alba…
  21. Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. 2nd ed. …
  22. Schmitt, Eric. "For 7 Million People in Census, One Race Category Isn't Enough." New York Times 13 Mar. 2001:…
  23. Smedley, Audrey. Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview. Boulder: Westview, 1993.
  24. Southwell, Samuel B. Kenneth Burke and Martin Heidegger, With a Note Against Deconstruction. Gainsville: U of…
  25. Stevenson, Dina. "Lacan, Burke, and the Human Motive." Kenneth Burke and the 21st Century. Ed. Bernard L. Bro…
  26. Thames, Richard H. "Nature's Physician: The Metabiology of Kenneth Burke." Kenneth Burke and the 21st Century…
  27. Wess, Robert. Kenneth Burke: Rhetoric, Subjectivity, Postmodernism. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996.
  28. Journal of the American Forensic Association