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Chapter 18—Dramatism

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Title:
"Mean," Taylor Swift, Speak Now
Claim:
Victimage is naming an external enemy as the source of our ills.
Application:
Taylor wrote this song in response to a music critic who criticized her, and Taylor's response is Burkean victimage. If you apply the pentad to this song, which elements does Taylor emphasize?
Link:
https://open.spotify.com/track/5yEPktRqvIhko5QFF3aBhQ?si=b1fc0ae3c9eb4bf4
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
The Office, S6, E12, "Scott's Tots"
Claim:
Mortification is a confession of guilt and request for forgiveness.
Application:
Ten years ago, Michael Scott promised a group of third graders that he would pay for their college education. Now, as they approach high school graduation, he is unable to fulfill that promise. His speech is an example of mortification. Do you think it's effective? Why or why not? Could he have said anything that would have produced a different response from the students?
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0N2ZxQJYTw&t=469s
Discovered  By:
Carter (Andrew's student)

Title:
Selma
Claim:
Victimage names an external enemy as the source of our ills.
Application:
Selma is a historical film about the civil rights movement, focusing on the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here, Dr. King delivers a eulogy for Jimmy, a slain Black man. In his fictionalized speech, Dr. King names several parties he believes are responsible for Jimmy's murder.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAwYHfKs-aE&list=PLZbXA4lyCtqq7BbhLm9GS-MF_NbExQYBn&index=2
Cue Point:
Eulogy for Jimmy
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
Parks and Recreation, S6, E21, "Moving Up, Part 1"
Claim:
Identification, or the common ground between speaker and audience, is key to persuasion.
Application:
How will Ben convince Gryzzl to give Pawnee free wi-fi? Is it through a message that lands in the latitude of noncommitment? A well-crafted argument processed via the central route? Minimal justification to induce compliance? No--it's through a nerdy game of Cones of Dunshire, the game Ben invented that's a hit with the Gryzzl staff. Burke's dramatism explains this process of dramatism in a way that other theories might not.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etPLaJWVPY4
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
Erin Brokovich
Claim:
Identification is the common ground between speaker and audience. Victimage names an external enemy as the source of our ills.
Application:
When PG&E's lawyers argue that their company's settlement offer is reasonable, Erin Brokovich shuts them down hard by appealing not to money, but to the common human concern for health--in other words, she invokes identification. Then, she drives her victimage home when she says that the water one of the lawyers is about to drink came from the contaminated well at the heart of the lawsuit.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGX4nMrnxg0
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
"Donald Trump Apologize for Sexist Comments About Groping Women", PBS NewsHour
Claim:
Mortification is confession of guilt and request for forgiveness. Victimage is naming an external enemy as the source of our ills.
Application:
Late in the 2016 presidential campaign. old tapes from the TV show Access Hollywood revealed that Donald Trump had made extremely offensive comments about women. In this video released by the Trump campaign soon afterward, Trump engages in mortification in the first half of the video... then rhetorically spins the focus around, engaging in victimage against Hillary Clinton in the second half.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycfARBsz6_Y
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
"Will Smith Slaps Chris Rock After Joke", The View
Claim:
The dramatistic pentad is a tool critics can use to discern the motives of a speaker by labeling five key elements of the drama: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose.
Application:
This discussion focuses on Will Smith's assault on comedian Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. Although the people on camera never mention Burke, his pentad helps us understand how they evaluated the event. First is Will Smith's own defense (starting at 1:01), where he frames his act (the slap) against his purpose for it (his care for his wife). Joy Behar (1:29) and Ana Navarro (2:15) both focus on the act (a slap, which is also a crime) and also contextualize it within the broader scene (for Behar, the profession of comedy; for Navarro, the event of the Oscars ceremony, among other things). Sunny Hostin (3:23) brings agency (the words Smith used and the manner of his behavior) and agent (the Smiths as longtime public figures) into the discussion. Whoopi Goldberg (5:21) returns to scene, considering the history between Smith and Rock as a motivator for the act. If you want to go farther, you might consider the dominant ratio in each person's comments and what that ratio reveals about their opinion on the slap.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA3jebh-M98
Discovered  By:
Andrew

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