Addressing Postmodernity: Kenneth Burke, Rhetoric, and a Theory of Social Change

Studies in Rhetoric and Communication

by Barbara A. Biesecker

Reveals the full range of Kenneth Burke's contribution to the possibility of social change In Addressing Postmodernity , Barbara Biesecker examines the relationship between rhetoric and social change and the ways human beings transform social relations through the purposeful use of symbols. In discerning the conditions of possibility for social transformation and the role of human beings and rhetoric in it, Biesecker turns to the seminal work of Kenneth Burke.
 
Through a close reading of Burke's major works, A Grammar of Motives , A Rhetoric of Motives , and The Rhetoric of Studies in Logology , the author addresses the critical topic of the
fragmentation of the contemporary lifeworld revealing postmodernity will have a major impact on Burkeian scholarship and on the rhetorical critique of social relations in general.
 
Directly confronting the challenges posed by postmodernity to social theorists and critics alike and juxtaposing the work of Burke and Jurgen Habermas, Biesecker argues that a radicalized rereading of Burke's theory of the negative opens the way toward a resolutely rhetorical theory of social change and human agency.
 

Genres: Academic, Theory, Philosophy

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

After spending a good number of years studying literature and literary theory, Professor Barbara Biesecker changed her course of study and went to the University of Pittsburgh to earn a doctoral degree in rhetorical studies. She completed the Ph.D. in 1989 under the tutelage of Professors Trevor Melia and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, accepted a position at the University of Iowa in 1990, and taught undergraduate and graduate courses there until she joined the University of Georgia faculty in the fall of 2008. Courses that Professor Biesecker has taught include:

- Critical Theories of Discourse: Jacques Derrida
- Introduction to Graduate Studies
- Topics in Rhetorical Theory: Rhetoric and the Return of the Political
- Special Topics: Visual Rhetoric (Undergraduate)
- Topics in Rhetorical Theory: Rhetoric and Poststructuralism

She began serving as the University of Georgia's Department Head of the Department of Communication Studies in 2009. She has also enjoyed teaching in Paris, France and serving as a seminar leader at the NCA Hope Institute.

Throughout her career, Professor Biesecker has explored the role of rhetoric in social change by working at the intersections of rhetorical theory and criticism and continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, feminist theory and criticism, and cultural studies. She has long been preoccupied, in other words, with the question of rhetorical agency. What exactly is rhetorical agency? Where is it/might it be located? What are its conditions of (im)possibility?

Provisional theoretical answers to these questions come in the form of a book wherein she reads in Kenneth Burke’s theory of rhetoric a theory of social change, an essay on Derridean deconstruction as a theory of rhetorical invention, another essay that reads Foucault’s work on style as a theory of resistance, another that reads Cixous’s manifesto for a feminist theory of rhetorical agency, and most recently, one edited volume (with John Lucaites) on rhetoric, materiality and politics as well as a theorization of evental rhetoric that finds considerable resources in Lacan.

Recent work that tackles the complexities of rhetorical agency by engaging particular instances in which it appears to be at work are essays addressing the politics of WWII remembrance at the end of the 20th century and the politics of 9/11 and the War on Terror today.

Professor Biesecker is the recipient of the National Communication Association’s 2007 Douglas Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award, the 2011 John I. Sisco Excellence in Teaching Award, and the 2013 Francine Merritt Award. She was inducted into the University of Georgia Teaching Academy in 2013.

Professor Biesecker currently serves as the editor of the Quarterly Journal of Speech, and she continues to serve on the editorial boards of Communication and Critical Cultural Studies Journal, Philosophy and Rhetoric, and the University of Alabama’s Rhetoric, Culture, and Social Critique book series.

Reviews

[William]

So far, a good read, but I do find Ms Biesecker incessant at times. She should trust us (or herself) more. But she knows a thing or two about Burke's works. More than most, I'd say. And she's thought it through. Dramatism is a nice theory, but read (Prof.) Biesecker; cause Burke's a rascal to read. Not that I've read much of his--one chapter, I'd say.

[Graham Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

First use of common rhetorical trope involving the statement that everyone is using rhetoric but no one is giving credit to poor old rhetoric and rhetoricians - pg. 4

This is one of the best rhetorical theory books I've read, largely because the author does not spend eternity on a tedious literature review and actually provides a good deal of her own opinion. Relative to other books of this type, of course.

Very useful reading of Burke.