A Pentadic Analysis of Celebrity Testimony in Congressional Hearings

KB Journal: The Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society Sep 2009 web Open Access

A Pentadic Analysis of Celebrity Testimony in Congressional Hearings

Abstract

The existing literature on celebrity testimony in Congress suggests that celebrities are nothing more than pawns of committees who use these witnesses to publicize their hearings. The current study modifies this understanding by looking at the rhetoric of celebrities using Burke’s dramatistic pentad of act, scene, agent, agency and purpose. Our use of Pentadic analysis, which takes the perspective of the witnesses rather than the perspective of the committee, reveals a much different view of celebrities and their purposes for testifying. We argue that the scene-act ratio dominates the rhetoric of celebrity witnesses: Celebrities portray their testimony as giving voice to the voiceless (act) and as motivated by significant societal ills (scene). They commonly use emotional appeals (agency) toward the self-professed end of improving the lives of the less fortunate (purpose) and downplay their own celebrity status (agent).

Journal: KB Journal: The Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society
Published: 2009-09
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Topics: rhetorical criticism
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