Toward the Satyric

Christopher J. Gilbert Indiana University Bloomington

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article recovers the figure of the ancient satyr as a mythic modality of satire by reimagining Kenneth Burke's own satires as exemplary of satyric rhetoric. First, it dispels the notion that, on one hand, satire and the satyr are unrelated because of uncertain etymologies and, on the other, that satire is an inherently destructive critical enterprise. Myth is deployed as a constructive means of juxtaposing Burke's conceptualization of satyrs with that of Friedrich Nietzsche. The Helhaven satire and “Epilogue: Prologue in Heaven” are then presented as illustrations of the satyric lurking throughout Burke's philosophy. Ultimately, a case is made for the figure of the satyr as a mythic goad by which to revise our understanding of contemporary satire as a comic enterprise. The article also serves as a resource for conceiving satyric correctives as the comic corrective pushed to the end of its line.

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2013-07-01
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.46.3.0280
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Rhetoric Review
  2. Philosophy & Rhetoric

References (73)

  1. Acampora, Christa Davis, and Ralph R. Acampora. 2004. “Introduction” to A Nietzschean Bestiary: Becoming Anim…
  2. Baym, Geoffrey. 2005. “The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism.” P…
  3. Baym, Geoffrey. 2007. “Representation and the Politics of Play: Stephen Colbert's Better Know a District.” Po…
  4. Baym, Geoffrey, and Jeffrey P. Jones. 2012. “News Parody in Global Perspective: Politics, Power, and Resistan…
  5. Beasley Von Burg, Alessandra. 2010. “Caught Between History and Imagination: Vico's Ingenium for a Rhetorical…
Show all 73 →
  1. Borden, Sandra L., and Chad Tew. 2007. “The Role of Journalist and the Performance of Journalism: Ethical Les…
  2. Burke, Kenneth. 1947. “Ideology and Myth.” Accent 7 (4): 195–205.
  3. Burke, Kenneth. 1959. Attitudes Toward History. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  4. Burke, Kenneth. 1965. Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  5. Burke, Kenneth. 1966. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: Universi…
  6. Burke, Kenneth. 1968. Counter-Statement. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  7. Burke, Kenneth. 1969a. A Grammar of Motives. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  8. Burke, Kenneth. 1969b. A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  9. Burke, Kenneth. 1970. The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  10. Burke, Kenneth. 1971. “Towards Helhaven: Three Stages of a Vision.” Sewanee Review 79 (1): 11–25.
  11. Burke, Kenneth. 1973. The Philosophy of Literary Form. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  12. Burke, Kenneth. 2003. “Why Satire, with a Plan for Writing One.” In On Human Nature: A Gathering While Everyt…
  13. Burke, Kenneth. 2005. “The Anaesthetic Revelation of Herone Liddell.” In Here, There, and Elsewhere: The Coll…
  14. Colletta, Lisa. 2009. “Political Satire and Postmodern Irony in the Age of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.” …
  15. Connery, Brian A., and Kirk Combe, eds. 1995. Theorizing Satire: Essays in Literary Criticism. New York: St. …
  16. Connolly, William E. 2002. Identity/Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox. Minneapolis: Un…
  17. Conway, Daniel W. 1997. Nietzsche's Dangerous Game: Philosophy in the Twilight of the Idols. Cambridge: Cambr…
  18. Coupe, Laurence. 2005. Kenneth Burke on Myth: An Introduction. New York: Routledge.
  19. Day, Amber. 2011. Satire and Dissent: Interventions in Contemporary Political Debate. Bloomington: Indiana Un…
  20. Druick, Zoë. 2009. “Dialogic Absurdity: TV News as a Critique of Genre.” Television and New Media 10 (3): 294–308.
  21. Frye, Northrop. 2007. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Ed. Robert D. Denham. Toronto: University of Toronto…
  22. Gould, Debora. 2010. “On Affect and Protest.” In Political Emotions: New Agendas in Communication, ed. Janet …
  23. Graf, Fritz. 1993. Greek Mythology: An Introduction. Trans. Thomas Marier. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Unive…
  24. Gray, Jonathan. 2006. “Television Teaching: Parody, The Simpsons, and Media Literacy Education.” Critical Stu…
  25. Gray, Jonathan, Jeffrey P. Jones, and Ethan Thompson. 2009. “The State of Satire, the Satire of State.” In Sa…
  26. Gregory, Justina. 2005. A Companion to Greek Tragedy. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  27. Griffin, Dustin. 1994. Satire: A Critical Reintroduction. Lexington: University Press of Press.
  28. Gross, Alan G., and Ray D. Bearin. 2003. Chaïm Perelman. Albany: State University of New York Press.
  29. Grossberg, Lawrence. 2010. Cultural Studies in the Future Tense. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  30. Harold, Christine. 2004. “Pranking Rhetoric: ‘Culture Jamming’ as Media Activism.” Critical Studies in Media …
  31. Hatab, Lawrence J. 2004. “Human-Animality in Nietzsche.” In A Nietzschean Bestiary: Becoming Animal Beyond Do…
  32. Hawhee, Debra. 2011. “Toward a Bestial Rhetoric.” Philosophy and Rhetoric 44 (1): 81–87.
  33. Hess, Aaron. 2011. “Purifying Laughter: Carnivalesque Self-Parody as Argument Scheme in The Daily Show with J…
  34. Hume, Kathryn. 2007. “Diffused Satire in Contemporary American Fiction.” Modern Philology 105 (2): 300–25.
  35. Hynes, Maria, Scott Sharpe, and Bob Fagan. 2007. “Laughing with the Yes Men: The Politics of Affirmation.” Co…
  36. Jaspers, Karl. 1997. Nietzsche: An Introduction to the Understanding of His Philosophical Activity. Baltimore…
  37. Jay, Paul, ed. 1990. The Selected Correspondence of Kenneth Burke and Malcolm Crowley, 1915–1981. Berkeley: U…
  38. Jones, Jeffrey P. 2010. Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement. Lanham, MD: Rowma…
  39. Kenny, Robert Wade. 2006. “The Phenomenology of the Disaster: Toward a Rhetoric of Tragedy.” Philosophy and R…
  40. Linkins, Jason. “Colbert Study: Conservatives Don't Know He's Joking.” Huffington Post, 29 Jan. 2011. http://…
  41. Loeb, Paul S. 2010. The Death of Nietzsche's Zarathustra. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  42. Love, Robert. 2007. “Before Jon Stewart.” Columbia Journalism Review, Mar./Apr., 33–37.
  43. Mali, Joseph. 2002. The Rehabilitation of Myth: Vico's “New Science.” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  44. McGeough, Ryan. 2011. “The Voice of the People: Jon Stewart, Public Argument, and Political Satire.” In “The …
  45. McKain, Aaron. 2005. “Not Necessarily Not the News: Gatekeeping, Remediation, and The Daily Show.” Journal of…
  46. Meddaugh, Priscilla Marie. 2010. “Bakhtin, Colbert, and the Center of Discourse: Is There No ‘Truthiness’ in …
  47. Murray, Peter Durno. 1999. Nietzsche's Affirmative Morality: A Revaluation Based in the Dionysian World View.…
  48. Nietzsche, Friedrich. 2006a. The Birth of Tragedy. Trans. William A. Haussmann. New York: Barnes and Noble.
  49. Nietzsche, Friedrich. 2006b. “On Truth and Lies and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense.” In The Nietzsche Reader, ed. K…
  50. Perelman, Chaïm. 1979. “Analogy and Metaphor in Science, Poetry, and Philosophy.” In Chaïm Perleman, The New …
  51. Perelman, Chaïm, and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. 1991. The New Rhetoric. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame…
  52. Plett, Heinrich. 2004. Rhetoric and Renaissance Culture. Berlin: Die Deutsche Bibliothek.
  53. Puttenham, George. 1936. Arte of English Poesie. Ed. Gladys D. Wilcock and Alice Walker Cambridge: Cambridge …
  54. Quintero, Ruben. 2007. “Pope and Augustan Verse Satire.” In A Companion to Satire: Ancient and Modern, ed. Ru…
  55. Rueckert, William H. 1969. “Tragedy as the Representative Anecdote.” In Critical Responses to Kenneth Burke, …
  56. Rueckert, William H. 1982. Kenneth Burke and the Drama of Human Relations. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of Ca…
  57. Rueckert, William H. 1994. Encounters with Kenneth Burke. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
  58. Self, John W. 2011. “The (not-so) Laughable Political Argument: A Close-Textual Analysis of The Daily Show wi…
  59. Spariosu, Mihai I. 1991. God of Many Names: Play, Poetry, and Power in Hellenic Thought, from Homer to Aristo…
  60. Spicer, Robert N. 2011. “Before and After The Daily Show: Freedom and Consequences in Political Satire.” In “…
  61. Storey, Ian C. and Arlene Allan. 2005. A Guide to Ancient Greek Drama. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  62. Test, George A. 1991. Satire: Spirit and Art. Gainsville: University of Florida Press.
  63. Trzaskoma, Stephen M., R. Scott Smith, and Stephen Brunet, eds. 2004. Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary So…
  64. Van Rooy, C. A. 1965. Studies in Classical Satire and Related Literary Theory. Leiden: Brill.
  65. Vico, Giambattista. 1999. New Science. Trans. David Marsh. London: Penguin.
  66. Villa, Dana R. 2000. “Democratizing the Agon: Nietzsche, Arendt, and the Agonistic Tendency in Recent Politic…
  67. Vivian, Bradford. 2007. “Freedom, Naming, Nobility: The Convergence of Rhetorical and Political Theory in Nie…
  68. Zappen, James P. 2009. “Kenneth Burke on Dialectical-Rhetorical Transcendence.” Philosophy and Rhetoric 42 (3…