KENNETH BURKE’STHEORY OF IDENTIFICATION

• Pham Anh Ninh – s3324403

• Le Pham Ha Trang – s3326150

BACKGROUND HISTORY

Kenneth Burke (1897 – 1993): an American theorist and

philosopher

A Rhetoric of Motives (1950)

“…identification ranges from the politician who,

addressing an audience of farmers, says, ‘I was a farm boy

myself’…”

Definition:

identify + with

Þ to connect by considering someone/something to be

something else

Identification occurs when people have a shared meaning

or understanding during communicative process

WHAT is identification?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAmeMF1b_jU

WHY is it a persuasive strategy?

People tend to find the common interests, values, attitudes,…

during communicating.

“You persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture,

tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his.”

Kenneth Burke

Each person is a unique feature

Þ identification can help to bridge the gap between people

Þ blur the division

WHY is it a persuasive strategy?

Identification can be conscious or unconscious, planned

or unplanned

Identification > shared meaning > understanding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3alae5zkLQ&feature=related

Substance

HOW does it work?

Substance

Prop

erty

Consubstantiality / Identification

4 TYPES of identification

1/ Material: goods, possessions, stuffs…

2/ Idealistic: shared ideas, attitudes, feelings, and values

3/ Formal: arrangement, form, or organization that both parties participate

4 TYPES of identification

4/ Mystification:

• People perceive one person as the

charismatic leader due to the

perfection that he/she possess

• Mystery surrounding the

charismatic person tends to hide the

existed division

4 TYPES of identification

Adolf Hitler

CRITICISM

Applicable for face-to-face situation

Cannot verify whether the identification is true or not

REFERENCE Burke, K 1969, ‘A Rhetoric of Motives’, California ed., University of California Press, California

Canceriansoul 2011, ‘Rush Hour – “Don’t Talk About My Father”’, video recording, viewed 7 March 2012, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAmeMF1b_jU>

Day, D.G 1960, ‘Persuasion and the concept of identification’, Quarterly Journal of Speech, vol.46, no.3, pp.270-273

Herrick, J 2005, ‘A History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction’, 3rd ed., Allyn and Bacon, New York

Littlejohn, S.W & Foss, K.A 2008, ‘Theories of human communication’, 9th ed., Belmont, Wadsworth, CA

Moffitt, B.T 1995, ‘A Beginning Synthesis of Leadership and Communication Studies’, Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, vol.2, pp.145 – 153

Novak, B 2006, ‘The Problem with Hitler. The Man Nobody Knows’, HAOL, no. 9, pp.131 – 140

Rosenfeld, L.B 1969, ‘Set theory: Key to the understanding, of Kenneth Burke's use of the term “identification”’, Western Speech, vol.33, no.3, pp.175-183

Whitehouse 2012, ‘President Obama at the University of Miami’, video recording, viewed 7 March 2012, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3alae5zkLQ>