Dramatism

"All the world’s a stage."

William Shakespeare

Dramatism, introduced by rhetorician Kenneth Burke, made its way into the field of communication in the early 1950s as a method for understanding the social uses of language and how to encounter the social and symbolic world of a drama (Brock, Burke, Burgess, Parke, and Simons 1985). Dramatism is the belief that language is a strategic, motivated response to a specific situation (Griffin 2006). It views language as a mode of symbolic action rather than a mode of knowledge (Burke 1978). Kenneth Burke's view was not that life is like a drama, but that life is a drama: that humans by nature see and interpret situations as drama. Dramatism theory has the layout of a play, complete with agents (actors), acts (plots), scenes (settings), agencies (tools, instruments, or means) and purposes. These five elements form the dramatistic "pentad." Dramatism comprises identification, dramatistic pentad, and the guilt-redemption cycle.

Contents

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History

Dramatism was Kenneth Burke’s favorite word to describe what he observed when people open their mouths to communicate (Miller 2005). Burke's theory might best be summarized as an elaboration of Shakespeare's Renaissance commonplace "All the world's a stage", and Burke's career-long engagement with Shakespeare's plays. These connections might offer some insight into his theoretical approach. Kenneth Burke has been highly influential in the field of communication and his work is widely embraced. Many scholars have argued over the past fifty years how dramatism should be viewed: The two world views are argued 1) An ontological system which offers literal statements regarding the nature of the human beings as a symbol user and the nature of language as an act, or 2) an epistemological system which assumes but one way of viewing human beings and human activities, such as the usage of language. Burke’s dramatism has been continuously compared to Aristotle’s Rhetoric (Overington 1977). Scholars have studied dramatism as a method and how it addresses the empirical questions of how people explain their actions to themselves and others, what the cultural and social structural influence on these explanations might be, and what effect connotational links among the motivational terms might have on these explanations and on the action itself (Overington 1977). Dramatism has covered complex studies, but it offers simplicity; the basic dramatic form allows consideration of the full range of activities it intends to study (Crable 2000).

Perspectives of Dramatism

Identification

Identification is the common ground that exists between the speaker and audience. Without identification there is no persuasion (Griffin 2006).

Features of Identification

Dramatistic Pentad

Using the pentad to analyze our social situations can communicate to us which aspects of the situation were more important than others. The pentad is made up of the five elements of human drama.

Burke also developed ten ratios of the pentad. An example of the scene-act ratio is the Supreme Court deciding that emergency measures are admissible because they have determined that there is a state of emergency. The scene, the state of emergency, determines the act, emergency measures (Benoit 1983). This is a causal statement.

Guilt-Redemption Cycle

Guilt-Redemption Cycle is considered the plot of the whole play and human drama or the root of all rhetoric (Griffin 2006). In this perspective, Burke concluded that the ultimate motivation of an agent is to purge ourselves of our sense of guilt. The term guilt covers tension, anxiety, shame, disgust, embarrassment, and other similar feelings. Guilt is created through symbolic interaction. Guilt comes when we are estranged from the natural world or estranged from others in our world. Guilt serves as a motivating factor that drives the human drama (Miller 2005).

Choice of the Speaker

Victimage: Relieving guilt

Utilization of theory

References