Cluster Criticism

Kenneth Burke

Great impact on rhetorical criticism; defines rhetoric as "the use of words by human agents to form attitudes or induce actions in other human agents"

Process of identification

Individuals form selves or identities through various properties or substances; share substances with whatever or whomever they associate and separate from others with whom they choose not to identify

"consubstantial" = "identification" = "persuasion" = "alienation / dissociation"

"persuasion"

Talk his language; identify your way with his

In division lies a basic motive for rhetoric

People communicate in order to eliminate division; try to resolve differences; identification is rooted in division

Rhetor creates identification

Naming or defining situations for audiences; doesn't just provide a name, but also represents a creative strategy for dealing with that situation (offers instructions)

Provides assistance

-provide a vocab of thought

-encourage the acceptance of a situation

-serve as a guide for correcting a situation

Terministic screens

The terms we select to describe the world constitute a kind of screen that directs attention to particular aspects of reality rather than others

Cues to rhetor's worldviews and meanings

Are available by charting important ingredients of terministic screens and noting what follows them

In cluster criticism

The meanings that key symbols have for a rhetor are discovered by charting the symbols that cluster around those key symbols in an artifact; generally not conscious to a rhetor; provides a survey of hills and valleys of a rhetor's mind

Procedures

Select an artifact (discursive and nondiscursive- long and complex enough)

Analyze the object

-Identify key terms (either repeated or if removed would change the impact of the paper; god and devil terms)

-Charting the cluster

-Discovering an explanation of the artifact

Formulate a research question