Identification and Property: Burke's and Lincoln's Ratio of Act and Purpose

Advances in the History of Rhetoric Jan 2009

Identification and Property: Burke's and Lincoln's Ratio of Act and Purpose

Don J. Kraemer

Abstract

AbstractMust acts of identification via an inclusive “we” mystify the inequalities they are meant to transcend? One answer lies in this essay's reading of Abraham Lincoln's and Kenneth Burke's rhetoric, a reading that tracks (especially through Lincoln's rhetoric) the “ways of identification,” ways which Burke claimed “are in accordance with the nature of property.” Identification in Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address confirms much of Burke's theory, yet Lincoln's career of appeals to the connections between property and propriety—and in particular the specific identifications made by such appeals in the Second Inaugural—suggests that Burke's presentation of identification is itself a kind of mystification that can lead to under-reading the ways of identification.

Journal: Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published: 2009-01-01
DOI: 10.1080/15362426.2009.10597379
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Topics: rhetorical theory

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (2)

Kraemer (2008)

“It may seem strange”: Strategic Exclusions in Lincoln's Second Inaugural

Rhetoric Review
Jordan (2005)

Dell Hymes, Kenneth Burke's "Identification," and the Birth of Sociolinguistics

Rhetoric Review

Also cites 8 works outside this index ↓

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Burke (1973)

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Critical Inquiry ↗
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This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War

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Philosophy and Rhetoric ↗
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The Idea of Identification

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Communication Quarterly ↗

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