Dramatism
Kenneth Burke
Group and Public Communication—Public Rhetoric
Narrative Paradigm
Theory Overview (7th Edition)
Abstracts appear in Appendix A of the text
Life is drama. The dramatistic pentad of act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose is the critic's tool to discover a speaker's motive. The ultimate motive of rhetoric is the purging of guilt. Without audience identification with the speaker, there is no persuasion. (Rhetorical and semiotic traditions)