Mythic evolution of “The new frontier” in mass mediated rhetoric
- 1 September 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Critical Studies in Mass Communication
- Vol. 3 (3) , 265-296
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038609366655
Abstract
This essay combines the concept of “rhetorical narration” with Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad to argue that definitional cultural myths are rhetorically meaningful in relation to social consciousness when both are viewed as evolving teleologically. It delineates two phases of change in America's frontier myth associated with the transformation of the pentadic term “scene” from land to space, as represented in recent space fiction films: a mythic disjunction resulting from pentadic inconsistency with the new scene, followed by mythic coherence resulting from pentadic change to establish consistency.Keywords
This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit:
- E.T.As rhetorical transcendenceQuarterly Journal of Speech, 1985
- Science and the sacred cosmos: The ideological rhetoric of Carl SaganQuarterly Journal of Speech, 1985
- 2001: A space odyssey:A warning before its timeCritical Studies in Mass Communication, 1984
- Narration as a human communication paradigm: The case of public moral argumentCommunication Monographs, 1984
- Inferential model criticism of “the empire strikes back”Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1983
- America's opinion leader historians on behalf of successQuarterly Journal of Speech, 1983
- The rhetoric of the American western mythCommunication Monographs, 1983
- Archetypal alloy: Reagan's rhetorical imageCentral States Speech Journal, 1983
- Romantic democracy, Ronald Reagan, and presidential heroesWestern Journal of Speech Communication, 1982
- The rhetoric of “rocky”;: A social value model of criticismWestern Journal of Speech Communication, 1978