Defending Dramatism as ontological and literal

For twenty years, scholars have contested Burke's argument—originally offered at an Eastern Communication Association convention — that dramatism is ontological and literal. These Burkean scholars have instead emphasized dramatism as epistemological and metaphorical. In this essay, I reread this dispute in support of Burke's position. I conclude that this debate contains two separate claims by Burke: (1) dramatism is ontological, and not epistemological, because it begins with language as action, not representation; and (2) this starting‐point can claim a privileged (literal) status because it offers the most complete approach to its topic. Through this interpretation of the debate, I make a case for a rehabilitated (and ontologically‐grounded) notion of literality—and sketch its implications for contemporary rhetorical theory.     

Report on the 1984 conference on gender and communication research

This essay maintains that a major shift has occurred in how Kenneth Burke explains symbol‐using. While previously viewing rhetoric as predominantly epistemic, since 1968 Burke has examined human communication as both ontological and epistemic. It is further posited that Burke's conception of symbol‐using is now dialectical, with both ontological and epistemic perspectives simultaneously cast as governing the symbol‐using process. Implications of this epistemic‐ontological view of symbol‐using are outlined for the functions of rhetoric, understanding of Burke's theory of communication, the long‐term effectiveness of Burke's concepts and methods, the literal functions of symbol‐using, the study of mediated communication, reconceiving the definition of a symbol, and for ideological and postmodern criticism.     

“Burke's perspective on perspectives: Grounding dramatism in the representative anecdote”

Rhetorical scholars have taken Burke's discussions of the “representative anecdote” in A Grammar of Motives, and have devised from them a systematic procedure for use in criticism. However, I believe that we can read the representative anecdote in a different way‐by examining the work the term does for Burke himself. I suggest that Burke is not offering a method as much as justifying dramatism dramatistically. Ultimately, based upon my reading of the Grammar, I argue that the representative anecdote‐taken in conjunction with the pentad‐supports Burke's claim to provide the most adequate vocabulary for the study of motives.     

Claiming access to elite curriculum: identification and division at the Harvard Annex

This article analyses the rhetorical practices deployed by the Society for the Collegiate Instruction for Women (SCIW) that sought to gain and maintain curricular access to Harvard University in the late 19^th century Using Kenneth Burke’s theory of identification as an analytical framework, the article considers how the SCIW composed Burkean rhetorics of identification and division towards achieving this goal. The SCIW’s identificatory practices are worth serious attention because of the full range of rhetorical modes these women leveraged. Their identificatory rhetorics not only took the discursive form of writing, but the SCIW also articulated their claims through the rhetorical use of students’ bodies as well as the built environment in Cambridge. This examination of the robust rhetorical repertoire of the SCIW prompts scholars of curriculum studies to expand their analytical vision by considering how groups such as the SCIW not only gain curricular access to elite sites of education but also how they maintain and make use of such access.     

废名作品《桥》之悲剧美探析

《桥》作为废名的代表作之一,是典型的诗化小说,文风清丽,意境优美,具有很高的文学与美学价值。但细品此文,不难发现在“美”的背后隐含着一些“悲剧色彩”。这种悲剧是主人公含蓄隐忍的情感,是作者无可奈何的心境,是一种乌托邦式的唯美,是一种与世隔绝的沧桑感。本文结合作者生平经历,采用作品中人物与现实中人物对比的方法,从景物悲剧美、人物悲剧美两方面探讨《桥》的悲剧美,挖掘其深层次的精神内涵。     

Toward a Theory of Liking

In the current essay, Kevin Burke and Adam Greteman challenge this thing called love by looking at how we might instead “like” in education. Within education, multiculturalism can be viewed as a way of loving, or learning to love, diversity and, as such, learning to love the self; this tendency is notably apparent in the recent rise of concern expressed about student self‐esteem. According to the authors, however, critical research on multiculturalism demonstrates how, in loving diversity, multicultural discourses limn the possibilities for subjects to come into being and be liked for their differences. Drawing on James Alison's On Being Liked, Burke and Greteman reframe the problem of relating in education instead through the language of liking. How does the shift from loving to liking — either our students, our teachers, or ourselves — create different social dynamics and ethical paradigms? In engaging this question, Burke and Greteman offer an alternative model of liking that is based on the practice of cruising.     

The rhetorical construction of the nation in education: the case of Flanders

This paper examines what can be learnt from ‘new rhetoric’ (focusing on the work of the American rhetorician Kenneth Burke [1897–1993]) about (national) identity and discusses how nationalism can be taught from such a rhetorical perspective. Despite the ‘deconstruction’ of nation(alism) as a grand narrative, there is a new tendency towards emphasizing national identity, caused by trends such as globalization and multiculturalism. In the language and literature teaching curriculum, this paradoxical situation often causes frictions for teachers who very often are expected to teach standard language and national literature. The hypothesis is that rhetoric is a tool to deal with these tensions in the curriculum. This paper focuses on Flanders as a case‐study. Together with pre‐service teachers it analysed the rhetorical construction of Flanders from a dramatistic perspective. It is argued that Burke’s concepts are useful tools to make students ‘symbol‐wise’: to understand the way national symbols work, and to develop critical engagement with, as well as on behalf of, those symbols.     

Book Reviews

Ethics, social research and consulting with children and young people : P. Alderson & V. Morrow Doing qualitative research: a personal guide to the research process : G. Walford Evidence‐based educational methods : D. J. Moran (Ed.) Understanding Early Childhood: Issues and Controversies : H. Penn Gender and physical education : D. Penney (Ed.) The School I'd Like : C. Burke & I. Grovenor     

新写实小说悖论原因探寻

新写实小说给广大读者展示了大量的生存苦难,这种苦难的集中化叙述方式客观上为悲剧精神的高扬创造了一定条件,但实际上却没能让人感受到具有冲击性的悲剧力量。苦难叙述的集中与悲剧精神的消解这一悖论的形成与新写实文本过分关注世俗生活、善用反讽手法,与新写实作家“匿名启蒙者”的写作姿态和牢骚满腹的怨恨意识,与读者的接受都有一定的关系。     

“悲剧”概念的谱系学分析

悲剧艺术起源于古希腊,从即兴表演发展而来。亚里士多德将悲剧作为一种文学形式进行探讨,黑格尔将悲剧演变为作为哲学观念的悲剧,马克思将黑格尔伦理力量的冲突替换为社会和历史的术语,提出了革命的历史悲剧学说。而叔本华则是从人性的角度解释悲剧发生学,悲剧因而与现代性联系起来,并成为人类社会中不可避免的现象。     

The influence of study methods and knowledge processing on academic success and long‐term recall of anatomy learning by first‐year veterinary students

The purpose of this investigation was to quantitatively and qualitatively identify the study methods and learning strategies that veterinary students used to study anatomy during their first year of professional school and to correlate these with their academic achievement and long‐term recall of information. It was surmised that active study methods would be more beneficial than passive method, but this hypothesis was not supported. The activity or passivity of each study method was secondary to the way in which the students processed the learning. No single study method was associated with academic success or long‐term recall; instead, successful students used a multitude of study methods while the struggling students relied on a single method alone, although these methods varied from student to student. Students and their study methods were profiled using the qualitative technique known as phenomenographic analysis to find those who studied in a deep or surface way. The deep‐processing students, who commonly used multiple study methods, not only succeeded in the class but also had better recall. Students who relied on a memorization‐heavy surface approach to learning had limited recall and tended to perform poorly in the class. These results strongly suggest that by encouraging students to integrate their studying by using multiple methods educators can improve both student grades and recall of complex topics. Anat Sci Ed 1:68–74, 2008. © 2008 American Association of Anatomists.     

Bibliography of SAES members∗

In this essay, Kenneth Burke re‐examines his distinction between dramatism and logology which he proposed in 1968, Dramatism is treated as a technique for analyzing language as a mode of action in which specialized nomenclatures are recognized, each with particular ends and insights. Logology is cast as the study of the knowledge acquired by the human being's aptitude for learning communication. Implications for the rhetoric‐as‐epistemic question conclude this discussion.     

Undergraduate plagiarism: a pedagogical perspective

Student plagiarism is a pervasive and increasing problem at all levels of study in tertiary institutions. This study attempted explicitly and implicitly to address issues of plagiarism within the broad context of an academic writing framework in tutorials in a first‐year module at the University of KwaZulu‐Natal in South Africa. Despite these interventions, a quarter of the students were judged to have plagiarised in an essay assignment. The study revealed little deliberate intention to deceive but instead poor understanding of both technical matters such as correct referencing norms that had been addressed in the module and higher‐order issues such as writing as process, knowledge as constructed and the establishment of authorial voice through language and referencing. Lack of real engagement with plagiarism and referencing issues was also a problem, with certain groups of students being more at risk in terms of committing plagiarism than others. It is argued that, particularly in a demographically diverse society, acquiring values, attitudes, norms, beliefs and practices that help prevent plagiarism should be viewed as a long‐term and iterative process.     

12 Equity,adequacy and educational need: the courts and urban school finance

Nearly two decades following the landmark Rodriguez decision in 1973, plaintiffs arguing on behalf of poor urban school districts have found an opening for financial redress. The supreme courts in several states, including New Jersey, Texas and Kentucky, have ruled in the last couple of years that all students are entitled to a ‘minimally adequate’ education. In Abbott v. Burke, in particular, the New Jersey court made reference to the special needs of inner‐city students. In this chapter the authors trace the history of court cases related to urban school finance and analyse both the legal and conceptual basis for recent decisions that may benefit large‐city districts.     

Ideology,Materiality, and Counterpublicity: William E. Simon and the Rise of a Conservative Counterintelligentsia

As a conceptual term, “counterpublic” serves scholarship best when contributing to a critical-theory project, which means that particular constellations of materiality and ideology may bolster some calls for counterpublicity while gainsaying others. This may be investigated by examining how a text upholds or betrays an advocate's values, seeking out textual markers of access and influence that belie claims of marginalization, and assessing whether an advocate's discourse implicitly or explicitly widens or narrows discursive space for others. From this perspective, although William Simon claimed that pro-business advocates had been excluded from public debates in his 1978 book A Time for Truth, he nevertheless asserted a commitment to negative liberty that discounted potentially conflicting values in a pluralistic society, evidenced strong financial and political connections as well as a patrician background and bearing, and restricted discursive space for others.     

Circle Time: A Much-neglected Resource in Secondary Schools?

Throughout this article, unless otherwise stated, the use of the term ‘circle time’ refers to a whole‐class meeting where everyone sits in a circle. It is a forum that is bound by strict groundrules to ensure emotional ‘safety’ and respectful listening. Different approaches to circle‐time are used at all levels of education. In this article ‘Circle Time’ (with initial capitals) refers to the Quality Circle Time Model and the strategies used within the circle as devised by Jenny Mosley (1989, 1993, 1996) as opposed to the many other circle‐time methods to be found in educational practice.     

Public speaking in New England colleges

Parliamentary debate played a significant part in bringing about the famous split between Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke over the issue of the French Revolution and English domestic reform. Two important rhetorical phenomena are investigated: the gradual drawing out of Fox's position on France and domestic reform; and the polarization of opinion in Commons by Burke's rhetorical destruction of traditional middle‐of‐the‐road Whig principles.     

尼采早期悲剧理论浅析

尼采认为悲剧理论是在人借助艺术肯定自身力量反抗苦难的基础上建立；古希腊悲剧是因酒神精神和日神精神两个最重要的范畴的不断的斗争和和解而诞生；歌队、音乐、神话是悲剧的构成性要素；悲剧的价值不在于道德感化，而在于超越生存的苦难，实现对人的生命意志的提升。     

Kenneth Burke at the MoMA: A viewer’s theory*

When Kenneth Burke visited the Museum of Modern Art exhibition “Road to Victory: A Procession of Photographs of the Nation at War” in the summer of 1942, he most likely did not expect to leave with such intense and intensely contradictory impressions. His visit there offers rhetoric scholars an opportunity to examine the exhibition – important for museum rhetoric because of its propagandistic political message and its innovative visual and material design. Considering the exhibition on its own terms, and the way designers managed problems of circulation and implemented new methods of “extended vision” helps us to present Burke’s then-developing theories (placement, the pentad) as themselves decidedly visual – photographic, even – and concomitantly, for that moment at least, as decidedly war-directed.     

生存,还是毁灭?——《土生子》的悲剧精神探究

悲剧理论在西方文学史上源远流长,已经历了几百年的发展,成为了西方文学史上的一门登峰造极的艺术。美国小说家理查.赖特笔下的小说《土生子》无疑是黑人文学史上的一部悲剧小说。本文试用悲剧理论从《土生子》的悲剧特点、产生悲剧的原因以及悲剧留给社会的启示等方面探讨小说的悲剧精神。