Sept 4: The Elements of Dramatism (93-194)

Weekly Reading Response 2: Respond to one of the questions below. They're reproduced here for easy reference (and citation) from The Elements of Dramatism . Use this tag (and any others that are relevant) in the categories field: Dramatism2.

(pp. 93-94). One of the rhetorical devices that Burke describes is Hitler’s use of the scapegoat mechanism. Burke calls it an error of interpretation because, in Hitler’s case, he offers a non-economic interpretation of economic ills. Hitler attributed the serious economic problems in Europe (and Austria especially) to the influence of a race of people, the Jews, whom he made international scapegoats for widespread poverty. Anti-Semitism had unfortunately been a common form of racism in Europe and even in the United States (to a lesser degree) for a long time, but Hitler channeled it for his even more sinister purposes.

A scapegoat is a person or group of people who bears the blame for others. In tragic drama, such as Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, the hero often acts as a symbolic scapegoat for the audience, who can suffer with the hero and yet not really experience any consequences. (The term tragedy comes from the Greek words for “goat song.”) Psychologically speaking, the scapegoat mechanism can be an effective rhetorical device because it is a form of catharsis, the act of relieving or purging anxiety, unfulfilled desire, fear, pity, or other unsettling emotions. Initially, the scapegoat is identified (named) and identified with, but then we experience a rupture, a division, whereby the scapegoat is left bearing the blame.

Describe a modern-day example of the scapegoat mechanism exemplified as an effective, albeit erroneous, appeal. (Think, for instance, about stereotypical “villains” in popular film.) As Burke notes, the mechanism can also be turned inward as a kind of persecution mania. Would you consider someone like Eminem a scapegoat in this sense? Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight? Former President Bill Clinton? One of his accusers, Linda Tripp or Paula Jones?

2 (p. 130). In an interesting application of dramatism (and terms from dramatic literature), Burke notes in Attitudes Toward History (1937) that people generally take either a tragic or a comic perspective on human motivation. The tragic view holds that people are vicious or evil. The comic view, however, holds that people are mistaken, necessarily mistaken, that “all people are exposed to situations in which they must act as fools, that every insight contains its own special kind of blindness . . . “ (p. 41). Burke preferred to take a comic rather than a tragic perspective on life.

Write an account of a recent situation in which you made an interpretation (of a text, film, event, etc.) that turned out to be totally wrong. What happened? How did you discover that you had been mistaken? What in your training led to the mistake? What role did language play in the situation?

3 (p. ). Popularized by comedian Rich Hall, sniglets are words that should be in the dictionary, but aren't. When a sniglet catches on, it is called a neologism (“new word”). The sniglet bovilexia, for example, refers to the uncontrollable urge to lean out the car window and yell “Moo!” whenever you pass a cow. Sniglets are excellent examples of things as signs of words. The trick is to identify recurrent situations that seem to have no name, then to coin a neologism that would both stand in for it and convey its meaning by using key root terms. Bovilexia, for instance, is the combination of bovine (“cow”) + lexia (“talk”), i.e., “cow talk.” See if you can identify some situations that should be the sign of a word and create some sniglets. Once you have done that, explain in what ways you think writing a poem, a short story, or a novel is like coining a sniglet. Can you explain the relationship?

Film (on your own): Toy Story 2

Sept 6: Counter-Statement (vii – 62)