Burke's representative anecdote as a method in media criticism
- 1 June 1984
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Critical Studies in Mass Communication
- Vol. 1 (2) , 161-176
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038409360027
Abstract
This essay argues that Kenneth Burke's concept of “literature as equip‐ment for living” is especially useful for media content criticism. An appropriate dramatistic method, the representative anecdote, is illustrated. Its application to selected fictional and nonfictional discourses of the Nineteen‐Fifties and late Seventies which exhibit public concern regarding automation, cloning, foreign affairs, and social regimentation is discussed. Paradigmatic expressions of the anecdote underlying media content is found in the film and book versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.Keywords
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