Burke, Kenneth. Rhetoric of Motives.

Purpose of Rhetoric: For Burke, rhetoric is any communication that is addressed, whether it be written, oral, or visual. The purpose of rhetoric is to persuade, but the key feature of his work is identification, or using rhetoric to make oneself (or, I suppose, one’s subject) consubstantial (identified with instead of divided from) with another. There was some debate in class whether identification is in itself persuasive, and therefore rhetoric, or if it is actually a step in the process of persuading, making the audience more likely to be persuaded, but actual rhetoric itself. However, if Rhetoric is simply communication that is addressed, and not necessarily persuasive, then identification by itself would be considered rhetoric.

Keywords: Identification, mystification, consubstantial, division, “the kill,” hierarchy, ultimate

Quick Summary:  Rhetoric of Motives continues Burke’s earlier arguments about dramatism is that he attempts to show how rhetoric exists within literature that is not purposely intending to persuade.  Instead of simply seeing literature as poetic, it should also be seen as rhetoric, particularly in terms of identification.  By identifying real people with characters in the literature, the story can be said to be an argument about how we can/should understand that person.  Or, it can be a form of actual rhetorical action, such as killing off a character that is identified with the author could represent the author changing something about him/herself.  Identification is fueled off of the fact that as human we are essentially divided.  No one is really the same as others, and we see ourselves as distinct individuals.  However, through identification, through rhetoric, we can see ourselves as being the same as someone else or some group.  It doesn’t matter whether we really are the same as that person/group, all that matters is that we believe (are persuaded) that we are.

Rhetoric’s nature as addressed can either be directed outwards, from one person to another, or directed inwards as self persuasion.  To be continued.

Response: