CHAPTER !

" Objective

Rhetorical tradition
Interpretive !"" GROUP AND PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

communication is primarily a process of message transmission. The transmission

approach treats communication as just one part of the realm of motion, where things
Realm of motion move according to cause-and-effect laws without meaning or purpose. Although
Things moving according clouds, rocks, planets, and even animals exist only in that realm of motion, Burke
to cause/effect laws believed humans are different. Yes, like animals, humans have material bodies that
without purpose.
occupy the realm of motion and obey its laws. But unlike animals, we also possess
the capacity to engage in intentional action.2 This ability to plan and act arises from

Dramatism Symbolic action

Words as intentional
action, giving life to
our ability to use symbols. Thus, when we speak, we’re engaging in symbolic action—
using words to give life to particular motives and pursue particular goals.3 Drama
inevitably follows this dance between symbols and the motives underlying them.
For Burke, life is not like a drama; human life is drama.
particular motives and
of Kenneth Burke goals.
So Burke coined the umbrella term dramatism to describe “a technique of
analysis of language and thought as basically modes of action rather than as means
Dramatism of conveying information.”4 Almost every public utterance speaks to a moral con-
A technique of analysis of flict where something has gone wrong or might soon go awry. Presidential candi-
language and thought as dates try to craft memorable campaign slogans that capture this sense in just a few
modes of action rather
words. In the 1920s, Warren Harding promised a “return to normalcy.” In the
For Kenneth Burke, words are first and foremost action—symbolic action. And where than as means of
conveying information.
1960s, Lyndon Johnson told voters that “the stakes are too high for you to stay at
there’s action, there’s drama. home.” In 2008 Barack Obama called for “change we need,” and in 2016 Donald
So when a political candidate says her opponent lacks character or competence, Trump pledged to “make America great again.”5 But why do the words of presiden-
what is she doing? To Burke, her words don’t just advance a claim of fact or opin- tial candidates so frequently drip with doom-and-gloom negativity? For Burke, that
ion. Instead, the words are an attack. The target might craft words to defend, or isn’t just a rhetorical question. He had an answer: The nature of language itself
engage in a counterattack of his own. Like an engrossing reality show, each may leads us to believe that something is wrong with the world. And if something is
play the role of hero, victim, or villain. As a rhetorical critic, Burke believed close wrong, somebody or something needs to pay the price to make things right.
analysis of each candidate’s words could reveal their hidden motives in the drama
of the campaign. Such analysis can also unmask the drama inherent in religious
sermons, stand-up comedy, corporate training events, sports commentary, or any LANGUAGE$AS$THE$GENESIS$OF$GUILT
situation where someone engages in public symbolic action. Burke regarded human beings as symbol-using animals, and he obviously enjoyed
When you see the word critic, you might think of movie reviewers or people exploring how symbol use separates us from other creatures. He examined words,
who nag and complain. That’s not what Burke and other rhetoricians mean. In their defined words, played with words, and made up his own words. But Burke also
Critic world, critics carefully analyze the language that speakers and authors use. They try regarded our capacity for language as the source of our downfall. That’s because
Rhetorical scholar who to discern the motivations behind their messages—and often these motivations aren’t language introduced the negative. The animalistic world of motion just is; it contains
carefully analyzes the obvious. Burke devoted his career to developing vocabulary and methods that help
language of speakers and
no negative commands. But our language is filled with words like no, not, nothing,
theorists understand the connection between the symbols speakers use and their never, and prefixes such as un-, dis-, and non- that negate the meaning of other
authors.
motives for speaking in the first place. words.6 Even our definitions of words are dependent on the negative. As Burke said,
Until his death in 1993 at the age of 96, Burke picked his way through the “You can go on forever saying what a thing is not.”7
human “motivational jungle” by using the tools of philosophy, literature, psychology, Likewise, most laws tell us what we shouldn’t do: we shouldn’t steal, shouldn’t
economics, linguistics, sociology, and communication. He spent his young adult drive over the speed limit, shouldn’t smoke in a public building. We couldn’t have
years in Greenwich Village, a New York bohemian community that included poets laws without the negative. It’s necessary for humans to create the rules and stan-
E.! E.! Cummings and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Like many intellectuals during the dards for behavior that Burke called the “thou shalt nots” of life.8 These shoulds
Depression of the 1930s, Burke flirted with communism but was disillusioned by and oughts inevitably produce guilt when we fail to live up to their moral imperatives.
Stalin’s intolerance and brutality. Although he never earned a college degree, he For Burke, guilt wasn’t only a specific emotional response to a specific rule
taught for 15 years at Bennington College in Vermont and filled visiting lectureships Guilt violation, like the remorse a student might feel when caught cheating on a test.
at Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago. Burke’s writing Burke’s catchall term to Rather, Burke uses guilt as his catchall term to cover every form of tension, anxiety,
shows an intellectual breadth and depth that leads admirers to refer to him as a cover every form of embarrassment, shame, disgust, and other noxious feelings inherent in human
Renaissance man. He called himself a “gypsy scholar” and responded to questions tension, anxiety,
embarrassment, shame,
symbol-using activity. When we feel like the world isn’t as it should be, we’re expe-
about his field of interest by asking, “What am I but a word man?”1 riencing Burke’s style of guilt.
disgust, and other noxious
Like Barnett Pearce in CMM and Stan Deetz in his critical theory of commu- feelings inherent in human Burke’s Definition of Man oozes with this sense of guilt. Like most writers of
nication (see Chapters 6 and 21), Burke rejected the commonly held notion that symbol-using activity. an earlier generation, Burke used the word man to designate both men and women.
Given his record of using words to startle his readers, I wonder if he might recast

!"#

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 CHAPTER 23: DRAMATISM !"% !%( GROUP AND PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

his definition with feminine vocabulary if he were writing today. But in order to To identify a speaker’s chosen scapegoat, Burke instructed critics to look for
remain faithful to what he wrote, I won’t alter his gender-loaded references. devil-terms, or words used by the speaker that sum up all that a speaker regards as
Devil-term bad, wrong, or evil. For example, in his nationally broadcast address to Congress
Man is A term that sums up all following the 9/11 attacks, President Bush used the word terror or terrorist 34
the symbol-using inventor of the negative that a speaker regards as times.13 In that speech he declared a “War on Terror,” a devil-term that shaped the
separated from his natural condition by instruments bad, wrong, or evil.
country’s foreign policy for more than a decade. More recently, in the 2016 cam-
of his own making
paign Donald Trump frequently blamed immigrants and illegal immigration for the
goaded by the spirit of hierarchy
nation’s economic, crime, and security problems.
and rotten with perfection.9
Devil-terms call for god-terms to oppose them—words summing up what the
Like Mead (see Chapter 5), Burke starts with the uniquely human ability to God-term speaker regards as righteous and good. Against the devil-term of illegal immigration,
create, use, and abuse language. The rest of his definition makes it clear that the A term that sums up all Trump often mentioned a wall he hoped to build along the southern border of the
capacity to manipulate symbols is a mixed blessing. The remaining lines suggest that a speaker regards as United States. Burke said a speaker’s god-term is best understood by other words
righteous and good.
three linguistic causes for the sense of inner pollution. that cluster around it—it can be known by the company it keeps. When he announced
By writing “inventor of the negative,” Burke reiterates that it’s only through his candidacy, Trump said it would be a “great, great wall,” that “nobody builds
human-made language that the possibility of choice comes into being. In a world walls better than me,” and “I will have Mexico pay for that wall.”14 These words
without human beings, there are no negative commands, no prohibitions. It’s only clarify Trump’s meaning by drawing attention to how the wall would demonstrate
when humans act symbolically that the possibility of No! Don’t do it! arrives. his own negotiating skill and grandeur.
The phrase “separated from his natural condition by instruments of his own Devil- and god-terms reveal another aspect of Burke’s theory: his frequent use
making” bounces off the traditional description of humans as tool-using animals. of spiritual language. Those who have rejected or never had a religious commitment
Here again, Burke suggests that our inventions—language and all the tools developed may be impatient with Burke’s use of theological terms. He made no claim to be a
with language—cause us grief. Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong man of faith, nor did he ask his readers to believe in God. Regardless of whether
will.10 When it comes to relations among people, Burke would say Murphy was an you accept the Christian doctrine of human sin, purification through the death of
optimist. That’s because language is morally loaded. Jesus, and divine redemption, Burke claimed that the “purely social terminology of
Burke wrote extensively about hierarchies, bureaucracies, and other ordered human relations cannot do better than to hover about that accurate and succinct
systems that rank how well people observe society’s negative rules. He was con- theological formula.”15 He regarded theology as a field that has fine-tuned its use
vinced that no matter how high you climb on the performance ladder, you’ll always of language, and he urged the social critic to look for secular equivalents of the
feel a strong sense of embarrassment for not having achieved perfection. A perfect major religious themes of guilt, purification, and redemption.
10 on the ladder of esteem, privilege, or power is exceedingly rare, and if ever Burke said that the speaker or author has two possible ways of off-loading guilt.
achieved, fleeting. The guilt-inducing high priests of the hierarchy are the profes- The first option is to purge guilt through self-blame. Described theologically as
sional symbol users of society—lawyers, journalists, artists, advertisers, and even Mortification mortification, this route requires confession of sin and a request for forgiveness.16 In
your professors when they assign grades at the end of the term. Confession of guilt and the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton seemed equivocal when acknowl-
In the final phrase, Burke suggests that our seemingly admirable drive to do request for forgiveness. edging she’d made a mistake by maintaining an email server in her home while
things perfectly can hurt us and others in the process. This is an example of secretary of state. Donald Trump’s grudging apology for lewd comments caught on
perspective by incongruity, or the linking of two dissonant ideas in order to provide video seemed half-hearted at best. They aren’t alone. For example, several years
Perspective by shocking new insight.11 Rolling Stone magazine used perspective by incongruity after allegations first surfaced, cycling superstar Lance Armstrong finally confessed
incongruity when they featured Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover. He to illegal performance-enhancing drug use.17 Obvious candidates for mortification
Providing shocking new appeared relaxed and stylish in the photo, like a hot new rock star might. Some often find it excruciatingly difficult to admit publicly that they are the cause of their
insight by linking two
people criticized the seeming glorification of a murderer, but an editor defended own grief. Since it’s much easier for people to blame their problems on someone
dissonant words.
the choice: “The jarringly non-threatening image of Tsarnaev is exactly the point.!.!.!. else—the second option—Burke suggested we look for signs of victimage in every
it’s Tsarnaev’s very normalcy and niceness that is the most monstrous and terrifying rhetorical act.18 He was sure we would find them.
thing about him.”12 Perspective by incongruity shocks our sensibilities but helps us Victimage is the process of designating an external enemy as the source of our
see things from a different angle. Victimage ills. Presidential candidates do that all the time in American rhetoric. Reagan blamed
Naming an external Soviet communists; Bush blamed al-Qaeda and Islamic terrorism; Obama blamed
enemy as the source of the economic policies of the Bush administration. In 2016, Bernie Sanders criticized
THE$GUILT&REDEMPTION$CYCLE'$A$UNIVERSAL$MOTIVE$FOR$RHETORIC our ills.
wealthy Wall Street bankers, Hillary Clinton branded some Trump supporters as
Scapegoat
Whatever private purpose a speaker, singer, or writer has, Burke believed that purging “deplorables” and “irredeemable,”19 and Donald Trump characterized some Mexican
Someone or something guilt is the ultimate motive for public rhetoric. He saw the quest for redemption as immigrants as “criminals, drug dealers, rapists.”20 He also gave his opponents con-
blamed for guilt. the basic plot of the human drama, even if the speaker is unaware of its force. Rhet- descending nicknames like “Lyin’ Ted” and “Crooked Hillary.” Presidential candi-
oric is the public search for someone or something to blame, a quest for a perfect dates aren’t shy about naming people and groups they oppose, and they hope you’ll
scapegoat. identify with their victimage in one key way: supporting their candidacy. Beyond

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 CHAPTER 23: DRAMATISM !%) !%! GROUP AND PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

God.”24 Although Ruth and Naomi came from different generations, cultures, and
religious upbringings, they found common ground. That’s identification.
One of the most common ways for speakers to identify with audiences is to
lash out at whatever or whomever people fear. (“My friend is one who hates what
I hate.”) Burke was not an advocate of such identification through devil-terms and
victimage, but he said he couldn’t ignore the historical pattern of people uniting
against a common enemy (“congregation through segregation”25). His most famous
rhetorical analysis was of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, a book that blamed Jewish people
for all of Germany’s problems.26 This symbolic victimage was followed by extermi-
nation in death camps.
Audiences sense a joining of interests through style as much as through content.
Burke said the effective communicator can show consubstantiality by giving signs in
language and delivery that his or her properties are the same as theirs. During World
War II, President Roosevelt achieved identification with the American public through
his “fireside chats” on the radio, a popular medium at the time. Although Donald
Trump is a wealthy New York businessman, during his campaign he spoke in plain,
simple sentences that connected with the rural poor. For both presidents, their form
“My fellow victims!.!.!.” led some members of their audience to think they were “talking sense.” On the other
©Peter Steiner/The New Yorker Collection/The Cartoon Bank hand, Trump’s simple style alienated some affluent and educated voters.
For Burke, identification is the key to persuasion—without identification, there
is no persuasion. For an aspiring presidential candidate, that means crafting mes-
sages designed to build that sense of identification. But that wasn’t Burke’s main
politics, other types of speakers hope you’ll identify with them so much that you’ll concern. He was more interested in examining rhetoric after the fact to discover
buy their product, donate to their cause, or convert to their religious faith. what motivates the speaker. His dramatistic pentad is a tool for doing just that.

IDENTIFICATION'$WITHOUT$IT*$THERE$IS$NO$PERSUASION
THE$DRAMATISTIC$PENTAD'$A$LENS$FOR$INTERPRETING$SYMBOLIC$ACTION
The late Harry Chapin (who happened to be Burke’s grandson) captured some of
Burke’s dramatistic pentad enables the critic to dig beneath surface impressions in
the tragedy and comedy of everyday life by putting words to music in story songs
Dramatistic pentad order to identify the complex motives of a speaker or writer. As Burke said, it’s a
people could identify with. His classic “Cat’s in the Cradle” is the timeless tale of A tool critics can use to shorthand way the rhetorical critic can “talk about their talk about” in a meaning-
a father too busy to spend time with his son. Parents who listen to the lyrics realize discern the motives of a ful way.
they have a part in the drama rather than the role of passive listener. They can’t speaker by labeling five
help but identify with the drama portrayed in the song. key elements of the In a well-rounded statement about motives, you must have some word that names
For Burke, identification with the speaker isn’t just a fleeting sense of connec- drama: act, scene, agent, the act (names what took place in thought or deed), and another that names the
tion. Instead, without identification, there is no persuasion.21 Unless we identify with agency, and purpose. scene (the background of the act, the situation in which it occurred); also you
the drama portrayed by the speaker, persuasion won’t occur. Although he was a must indicate what person or kind of person (agent) performed the act, what
great admirer of Aristotle’s Rhetoric (see Chapter 22), Burke was less concerned means or instruments he used (agency), and the purpose.27
with enthymeme and example than he was with a speaker’s overall ability to identify
To demonstrate the dramatistic pentad, I’ll focus on a speech President Obama
with the audience and vice versa.
gave at a campaign rally on July 13, 2012. After calling for wealthy Americans to
Identification is the common ground that exists between speaker and audience.
pay higher taxes to develop infrastructure, he said:
Identification Burke used the word substance to describe a person’s physical characteristics, talents,
The common ground occupation, friends, experiences, personality, beliefs, and attitudes. The more overlap If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on
between speaker and between the substance of the speaker and the substance of the listener, the greater your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was
audience;
the identification. Behavioral scientists have used the term homophily to describe just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I
consubstantiality.
perceived similarity between speaker and listener,22 but again, Burke preferred religious worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something—there are a whole
language rather than scientific jargon. Borrowing from Martin Luther’s description bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the
of what takes place at the communion table, Burke said identification is consubstan- line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Some-
tiality.23 This religious term calls to mind the oft-quoted Old Testament passage where body helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed
Ruth pledges solidarity with her mother-in-law, Naomi: “For where you go I will go, you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business—you
and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented

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 CHAPTER 23: DRAMATISM !%+ !%, GROUP AND PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies five elements (and, therefore, each of these philosophies). The critic can start by
could make money off the Internet.28 identifying the two elements of the pentad most heavily emphasized in the speech.
Ratio These two elements create the dominant ratio that provides the most insight into
Some people identified strongly with Obama’s words. Others opposed the The relative importance of the speaker’s motivations.31 Obama’s speech emphasizes scene first, and then act.
drama he described. The pentad helps us understand why. We’ll start by identifying any two terms of the In the second half of the passage, he devotes five full sentences to describing
the five elements present in the speech. pentad as determined by
aspects of the scene around successful businesspeople: teachers, roads, bridges,
their relationship.
Act. To Burke, the act is the most important element of the pentad, “foremost the Internet, the American system. In the drama he describes, the scene drives
among the equals.”29 The act is what was done. Without action, there is no the successful acts within it. In this scene–act ratio, business success and failure
drama, and multiple acts form the plot of the drama. In Obama’s speech, the occur as a by-product of elements of the scene, not the purpose or agency of
central act is achieving success, particularly in business. business owners.
Agent. An act implies an agent—the person who committed the act. In Obama’s Obama’s immediate audience seemed to identify with this deterministic drama.
speech, the agents are the people (particularly business owners) who have They applauded, laughed, and cheered “yeah!” and “right!” throughout.32 Business
achieved success. owners had a very different reaction and countered with a drama of their own.
Obama’s challenger Mitt Romney voiced their version of the story: “To say that
Agency. An act also implies a procedure for how the act was done. In this Steve Jobs didn’t build Apple, that Henry Ford didn’t build Ford Motors!.!.!. to say
speech, Obama doesn’t give a tutorial on how he thinks business owners achieve something like that! .! .! . [is] insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in
success. Instead, he argues what agency is not. Intelligence and hard work aren’t America.”33 Many of Obama’s opponents adopted the refrain featured at the 2012
it, because some smart people who work hard don’t succeed. Republican convention: “We built it.” Those three words establish an agent–act ratio.
Scene. Agent, act, and agency imply a scene where they take place. Obama In that story, good deeds (like success) come from good people. That also implies
describes the environment of business owners (agents) who have achieved success bad deeds (failure) come from bad people—an unsettling thought for those who fall
(acts)—the infrastructural, technological, and educational features around them. on hard times through no fault of their own.
Purpose. The purpose behind the act addresses the motive of the agent. The
final sentence quoted above suggests why Obama thinks business owners seek CRITIQUE'$EVALUATING$THE$CRITIC’S$ANALYSIS
success: to earn money.
Kenneth Burke was perhaps the foremost rhetorician of the twentieth century.
Now, before we go further, I need to warn you against a misunderstanding that Today, rhetorical critics continue to draw on the pentad to analyze a speaker’s words
trips up some students. Observe that the elements of the pentad describe the drama and motivations. Universities offer entire courses on Burkean analysis. The Kenneth
described in the speech. They do not describe the speech itself. In other words, the Burke Society holds conferences and competitions that give his followers the oppor-
agent isn’t President Obama, the scene isn’t the campaign rally, the act isn’t giving tunity to discuss and delight over his wide-ranging thoughts. KB Journal exists solely
a speech, the agency isn’t the rhetorical devices he used, and the purpose isn’t to to explain, clarify, and critique Burke’s ideas through debate and qualitative research.
persuade voters. That basic description isn’t rhetorical criticism. Remember that He obviously had something to say, and a community of agreement continues to
Burke was interested in how speakers engage in symbolic action. He thinks Obama have something to say about him.
is portraying a drama for his audience. If we identify with the drama, then we’re Burke’s concept of rhetoric as identification was a major advance in a field of
persuaded, and Obama’s symbolic action worked. The pentad helps us map how knowledge that many scholars had thought complete. Rather than opposing
Obama tries to build that identification by examining relationships, or ratios, among Aristotle’s definition, he gave it a contemporary luster by showing that common
the pentad’s parts. ground is the foundation of persuasive appeals. Nevertheless, his thoughts about
redemption remain controversial. Perhaps that’s because his “secular religion” takes
God too seriously for those who don’t believe, yet not seriously enough for those
RATIO'$THE$RELATIVE$IMPORTANCE$OF$EACH$PART$OF$THE$PENTAD
who do. Both camps have trouble with Burke’s unsubstantiated assumption that
Burke associated each part of the pentad with a corresponding philosophy.30 Speak- guilt is the primary human emotion that underlies all symbolic action. Whatever
ers who emphasize the act demonstrate a commitment to philosophical realism you think about these issues, it’s clear Burke provided creative and new understand-
(“actions speak louder than words”). A focus on the agent as instigator of the act ing of what people are really doing when they talk.
is consistent with philosophical idealism (“the mind and heart of the person is what I appreciate Burke’s commitment to an ethical stance that refuses to let desir-
matters”). A long description of agency resonates with pragmatism (“let’s just get able ends justify unfair means. He urged speakers not to make a victim out of
the job done”). Emphasis on scene downplays free will and exhibits an attitude of someone else in order to become unified with the audience. But some scholars don’t
situational determinism (“I couldn’t help it”). And an extended discussion of the think he did enough to clarify values or reform society. The late Phyllis Japp
agent’s purpose reflects a quest for ultimate meaning that resonates with mysticism (University of Nebraska–Lincoln) wrote that, as a feminist reader of Burke, she
(“what is the real meaning of life?”). found in his writings “an indispensable array of guerrilla tactics for survival in a
After the critic has labeled the act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose, the next field of masculinist symbols.” But at other times, she met “passages that seem alien
step is to discern the relative importance that the speaker gives to each of these to my [female] experience of the world and engage concepts that fail to include my

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