The Portland Frog & Friends
An emergent hero in this chaotic time is the Portland Frog. Portland has a history of being weird, so when 45/47 announced that National Guard would be deployed...
Author: nwilson
Take 5! Fall of American Democracy Edition
Let’s get down to brass tacks. I started my dissertation (and later this website) to discuss the political efficacy of stand-up comedy, and how a theoreti...
Kenneth Burke’s Representative Anecdote & the Cult of the Kill
The final idea Burke had that was better than his Pentad was the Representative Anecdote. There are a few theories like this one floating around now, but aside ...
Kenneth Burke’s Identification and Consubstantiality
Another in the line of “8 Burkean concepts that are better than the Pentad” are the paired concepts of Identification and Consubstantiality. For our...
Kenneth Burke’s “Definition of Man [sic]”
One of the most discussed parts of Kenneth Burke’s work is his “Definition of Man [sic],” a 21 page section in a single book. Putting aside hi...
Kenneth Burke’s Cluster-Agon Reading Strategy
What’s a “Reading Strategy?” Reading strategies are to qualitative research (looking at qualities or characteristics) what methods are to quan...
Kenneth Burke on Literature
Perhaps the most quoted line from Kenneth Burke is that Literature is “Equipment for Living” (Counter Statement), so I decided I needed to dedicate ...
Kenneth Burke’s Dramatism
Kenneth Burke was a literary theorist and philosopher perhaps best known for his Pentad. However, I–following in the tradition of Elizabeth Mechling, Ph.D...
Pagan Rhetoric
More information on Lyotard's pagans and what they can tell us about comics and audiences.
Jean-François Lyotard and Maurice Charland on the Rhetoric of the Republic, Litige and Pagans
Republican Rhetoric of the Polis, and Litige [Note: A version of this argument appears in my dissertation and on this website where I deal with Ironic Satire, a...