DOCSLIB.ORG

Language As More Than Symbolic Action: Kenneth Burke on Tonal

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Language As More Than Symbolic Action: Kenneth Burke on Tonal LANGUAGE AS MORE THAN SYMBOLIC ACTION: KENNETH BURKE ON TONAL TRANSFORMATIONS by NICHOLAS STEPHEN CRAWFORD (Under the Direction of Michelle Ballif) ABSTRACT In the last several decades, Kenneth Burke’s philosophy of language, a philosophy that famously flouts disciplinary conventions, has found its disciplinary home in rhetoric studies. Rhetoricians have found myriad points of inspiration in Burke’s capacious philosophy, and several of Burke’s concepts have become touchstones for contemporary rhetorical theory. One concept, however, has received little attention from rhetoricians or anyone else. Burke’s theory of tonal transformations—his term for a kind of unconscious punning that disguises unutterable words and ideas in socially acceptable language, thereby allowing the utterer to say the unsayable—has, along with the attendant theory joycing, been largely ignored. And yet Burke himself, in his brief discussion of tonal transformations and joycing, encourages readers to consult other areas of his oeuvre to develop a more thorough understanding of these concepts. This dissertation takes up Burke’s suggestion and examines works from across Burke’s oeuvre to develop a more complete understanding of tonal transformations and joycing, leading me to explorations of Burke’s theories of nonsymbolic motion, catharsis, and the sublime, among others. This examination reveals productive connections between tonal transformations, joycing, and current interest in the rhetoric of affect. Rhetoricians studying affect aim to theorize the persuasiveness of physiological and emotional phenomena, phenomena that escape meaning. More often than not, this means studying phenomena other than language, which is often characterized as a force that limits affective phenomena because of its link to meaning. Burke does not deny language’s link to meaning. However, tonal transformations and joycing posit language as an affective force. This dissertation illustrates that in tonal transformations and joycing affect and meaning are inextricably intertwined and that often the persuasiveness of language’s meaning depends upon the persuasiveness of language’s affect. Ultimately, I argue that for Burke language is always already an affective phenomenon and that rhetoricians should be more willing to see language from such a perspective. INDEX WORDS: Kenneth Burke, Tonal transformations, Joycing, Rhetoric, Affect, Aesthetics, Symbolic action, Catharsis, Unconscious, Sublime, Equipment for living, Composition, Pedagogy, Invention, Style LANGUAGE AS MORE THAN SYMBOLIC ACTION: KENNETH BURKE ON TONAL TRANSFORMATIONS by NICHOLAS STEPHEN CRAWFORD B.A. The University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2005 M.A. The University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2008 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2015 © 2015 Nicholas Stephen Crawford All Rights Reserved LANGUAGE AS MORE THAN SYMBOLIC ACTION: KENNETH BURKE ON TONAL TRANSFORMATIONS by NICHOLAS STEPHEN CRAWFORD Major Professor: Michelle Ballif Committee: Christy Desmet Jed Rasula Electronic Version Approved: Suzanne Barbour Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2015 iv DEDICATION For Molly v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the patience and encouragement granted me by my gracious committee members. Many of ideas expressed herein can be traced to their excellent graduate seminars. I would like to thank Christy Desmet for my first real encounter with Aristotle and for helping me to see the slipperiness between the rhetorical canons. I still speak highly of your encyclopedic knowledge of Shakespeare’s rhetoric. To Jed Rasula, your wit and enthusiasm never fail to inspire. Thank you especially for your keen response to my seminar paper on Walter Benjamin, which gave me a much-needed confidence boost at a crucial moment in my graduate career. I owe the most gratitude to my major professor Michelle Ballif. Not only have you always been able to direct me to the best resources, your kindness throughout this entire process has been immeasurable. Thanks, too, for putting up with KB for my sake. Of course there are others who deserve acknowledgement: my colleagues at the University of Georgia and the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Brad Holland (who’s still my best man), my parents. But most of all, my wife Molly deserves boundless thanks for putting her life on hold so that I could complete this project. It’s your turn, babe. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: CHARTING A NEW COURSE IN BURKE STUDIES ...............1 Between Rhetoric and Aesthetics ............................................................................5 Method ...................................................................................................................17 2 CUNNING PUNNING: ON TONAL TRANSFORMATIONS, JOYCING, AND THE “MUSICALITY” OF BURKE’S RHETORIC ...................................................24 On Musicality in Language: Form .........................................................................27 On Musicality in Language: Content .....................................................................35 Ecclesia Super Cloacum ........................................................................................41 Catharsis .................................................................................................................46 Fracking V. Frac’ing: What’s in a Name? .............................................................51 Conclusion .............................................................................................................55 3 ENDLESS MALADY: THE BURKEAN SUBLIME AS EQUIPMENT FOR LIVING ........................................................................................................................60 (I Kant Get No) Representation: A Brief History of the Sublime .........................65 Equipment For Living ............................................................................................74 Encompassing the Abyss, or, Representing the “Unpresentable” .........................80 vii Endless Malady ......................................................................................................88 Conclusion .............................................................................................................97 4 JOYCING TO INVENT: REINVENTING BURKE IN THE COMPOSITION CLASSROOM ...........................................................................................................102 Res and Verba ......................................................................................................109 All Res, No Verba: The Case Of Dramatism in Composition .............................112 Toward a Stylish Burkean Invention ...................................................................120 Linguistic Gargoyles ............................................................................................126 Invention in Distraction, Or Stylish Invention as Affective Invention ................137 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................141 5 CONCLUSION: LANGUAGE AS LANGUAGE AS MORE THAN SYMBOLIC ACTION ....................................................................................................................148 NOTES ........................................................................................................................................158 WORKS CITED ..........................................................................................................................191 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: CHARTING A NEW COURSE IN BURKE STUDIES In a recent interpretation of Kenneth Burke’s seminal A Rhetoric of Motives (hereafter, RM) for the Rhetoric Society Quarterly, Bryan Crable argues that in spite of the RM’s central place in rhetorical studies, scholars have for the most part neglected large swaths of the book. In Crable’s estimation, these scholars have instead taken William Rueckert (an early and influential champion of Burke’s work) at his word and equated Burke’s rhetoric with identification (215-6; cf. Rueckert Kenneth 152). The problem, Crable claims, is not just that other important ideas (for him, the notion of “pure persuasion”) fail to receive the attention they deserve, but that such oversight encourages narrow readings of RM and creates artificial separations between Burke’s rhetoric and other areas of his thinking (216). Crable’s push back against narrow readings of Burke echoes Victor J. Vitanza’s lament more than two decades before. In his introduction to the 1985 double-issue of PRE/Text devoted to Kenneth Burke, Vitanza decries what he sees as the narrow-mindedness of so many interpretations and extensions of Burke’s work. Too many nominally Burkean scholars, Vitanza complains, approach Burke’s extensive and encyclopedic work with blinders on, focusing their efforts on only a handful of key concepts: most notably, dramatism. “What I . have a major quarrel with,” he complains, “is the kind of reductionism that wants, first of all, to focus on only one of KB’s [sic] terminological methods of analysis . and then, secondly, to reduce this one analytical terminological method even further by not actually using the ‘ratios’ formed
Load more

Recommended publications
  • How We Became Legion: Burke's Identification and Anonymous By
    How We Became Legion: Burke's Identification and Anonymous by Débora Cristina Ramos Antunes da Silva A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in English - Rhetoric and Communication Design Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2013 © Débora Cristina Ramos Antunes da Silva 2013 I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract This thesis presents a study of how identification, according to Kenneth Burke's theory, can be observed in the media-related practices promoted by the cyber-activist collective Anonymous. Identification is the capacity of community-building through the use of shared interests. Burke affirms that, as human beings are essentially social, identification is the very aim of any human interaction. Cyber-activism deeply relies on this capacity to promote and legitimise its campaigns. In the case of Anonymous, the collective became extremely popular and is now a frequent presence even in street protests, usually organised online, around the world. Here, I argue that this power was possible through the use of identification, which helped attract a large number of individuals to the collective. Anonymous was particularly skilled in its capacity to create an ideology for each campaign, which worked well to set up a perfect enemy who should be fought against by any people, despite their demographic or social status. Other forms of identification were also present and important.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ramist Style of John Udall: Audience and Pictorial Logic in Puritan Sermon and Controversy
    Oral Tradition, 2/1 (1987): 188-213 The Ramist Style of John Udall: Audience and Pictorial Logic in Puritan Sermon and Controversy John G. Rechtien With Wilbur Samuel Howell’s Logic and Rhetoric in England, 1500-1700 (1956), Walter J. Ong’s Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue (1958) helped establish the common contemporary view that Ramism impoverished logic and rhetoric as arts of communication.1 For example, scholars agree that Ramism neglected audience accomodation; denied truth as an object of rhetoric by reserving it to logic; rejected persuasion about probabilities; and relegated rhetoric to ornamentation.2 Like Richard Hooker in Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (I.vi.4), these scholars criticize Ramist logic as simplistic. Their objections identify the consequences of Ramus’ visual analogy of logic and rhetoric to “surfaces,” which are “apprehended by sight” and divorced from “voice and hearing” (Ong 1958:280). As a result of his analogy of knowledge and communication to vision rather than to sound, Ramus left rhetoric only two of its fi ve parts, ornamentation (fi gures of speech and tropes) and delivery (voice and gesture). He stripped three parts (inventio, dispositio, and memory) from rhetoric. Traditionally shared by logic and rhetoric, the recovery and derivation of ideas (inventio) and their organization (dispositio) were now reserved to logic. Finally, Ramus’ method of organizing according to dichotomies substituted “mental space” for memory (Ong 1958:280). In the context of this new logic and the rhetoric dependent on it, a statement was not recognized as a part of a conversation, but appeared to stand alone as a speech event fi xed in space.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Kenneth Burke and the Theory of Scapegoating Charles K. Bellinger Words Sometimes Play Important Roles in Human History. I
    Kenneth Burke and the Theory of Scapegoating Charles K. Bellinger Words sometimes play important roles in human history. I think, for example, of Martin Luther’s use of the word grace to shatter Medieval Catholicism, or the use of democracy as a rallying cry for the American colonists in their split with England, or Karl Marx’s vision of the proletariat as a class that would end all classes. More recently, freedom has been used as a mantra by those on the political left and the political right. If a president decides to go war, with the argument that freedom will be spread in the Middle East, then we are reminded once again of the power of words in shaping human actions. This is a notion upon which Kenneth Burke placed great stress as he painted a picture of human beings as word-intoxicated, symbol-using agents whose motives ought to be understood logologically, that is, from the perspective of our use and abuse of words. In the following pages, I will argue that there is a key word that has the potential to make a large impact on human life in the future, the word scapegoat. This word is already in common use, of course, but I suggest that it is something akin to a ticking bomb in that it has untapped potential to change the way human beings think and act. This potential has two main aspects: 1) the ambiguity of the word as it is used in various contexts, and 2) the sense in which the word lies on the boundary between human self-consciousness and unself-consciousness.
    [Show full text]
  • Arxiv:2102.03380V2 [Cs.AI] 29 Jun 2021
    Reproducibility in Evolutionary Computation MANUEL LÓPEZ-IBÁÑEZ, University of Málaga, Spain JUERGEN BRANKE, University of Warwick, UK LUÍS PAQUETE, University of Coimbra, CISUC, Department of Informatics Engineering, Portugal Experimental studies are prevalent in Evolutionary Computation (EC), and concerns about the reproducibility and replicability of such studies have increased in recent times, reflecting similar concerns in other scientific fields. In this article, we discuss, within the context of EC, the different types of reproducibility and suggest a classification that refines the badge system of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) adopted by ACM Transactions on Evolutionary Learning and Optimization (https://dlnext.acm.org/journal/telo). We identify cultural and technical obstacles to reproducibility in the EC field. Finally, we provide guidelines and suggest tools that may help to overcome some of these reproducibility obstacles. Additional Key Words and Phrases: Evolutionary Computation, Reproducibility, Empirical study, Benchmarking 1 INTRODUCTION As in many other fields of Computer Science, most of the published research in Evolutionary Computation (EC) relies on experiments to justify their conclusions. The ability of reaching similar conclusions by repeating an experiment performed by other researchers is the only way a research community can reach a consensus on an empirical claim until a mathematical proof is discovered. From an engineering perspective, the assumption that experimental findings hold under similar conditions is essential for making sound decisions and predicting their outcomes when tackling a real-world problem. The “reproducibility crisis” refers to the realisation that many experimental findings described in peer-reviewed scientific publications cannot be reproduced, because e.g. they lack the necessary data, they lack enough details to repeat the experiment or repeating the experiment leads to different conclusions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words Timothy Jay
    PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words Timothy Jay Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts ABSTRACT—Taboo words are defined and sanctioned by This review is organized around eight questions that are used institutions of power (e.g., religion, media), and prohibi- to pique psychologists’ interest in taboo words and to promote a tions are reiterated in child-rearing practices. Native deeper understanding of them through future research: What are speakers acquire folk knowledge of taboo words, but it taboo words and why do they exist? What motivates people to use lacks the complexity that psychological science requires for taboo words? How often do people say taboo words, and who says an understanding of swearing. Misperceptions persist in them? What are the most frequently used taboo words? Does psychological science and in society at large about how psychological science acknowledge the significance of the frequently people swear or what it means when they do. frequency of taboo word use? Is a folk knowledge of taboo words Public recordings of taboo words establish the commonplace sufficient for psychological science? How should psychological occurrence of swearing (ubiquity), although frequency data science define language? Does psychological science even need are not always appreciated in laboratory research. A set of a theory of swearing? 10 words that has remained stable over the past 20 years accounts for 80% of public swearing. Swearing is positively WHATARE TABOO WORDS AND WHY DO THEY EXIST? correlated with extraversion and Type A hostility but neg- atively correlated with agreeableness, conscientiousness, I use the terms taboo words or swear words interchangeably to religiosity, and sexual anxiety.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Sci-Hub Increasing Visibility of Indian Research Papers? an Analytical Evaluation Vivek Kumar Singh1,*, Satya Swarup Srichandan1, Sujit Bhattacharya2
    Journal of Scientometric Res. 2021; 10(1):130-134 http://www.jscires.org Perspective Paper Is Sci-Hub Increasing Visibility of Indian Research Papers? An Analytical Evaluation Vivek Kumar Singh1,*, Satya Swarup Srichandan1, Sujit Bhattacharya2 1Department of Computer Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA. 2CSIR-National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi, INDIA. ABSTRACT Sci-Hub, founded by Alexandra Elbakyan in 2011 in Kazakhstan has, over the years, Correspondence emerged as a very popular source for researchers to download scientific papers. It is Vivek Kumar Singh believed that Sci-Hub contains more than 76 million academic articles. However, recently Department of Computer Science, three foreign academic publishers (Elsevier, Wiley and American Chemical Society) have Banaras Hindu University, filed a lawsuit against Sci-Hub and LibGen before the Delhi High Court and prayed for Varanasi-221005, INDIA. complete blocking these websites in India. It is in this context, that this paper attempts to Email id: [email protected] find out how many Indian research papers are available in Sci-Hub and who downloads them. The citation advantage of Indian research papers available on Sci-Hub is analysed, Received: 16-03-2021 with results confirming that such an advantage do exist. Revised: 29-03-2021 Accepted: 25-04-2021 Keywords: Indian Research, Indian Science, Black Open Access, Open Access, Sci-Hub. DOI: 10.5530/jscires.10.1.16 INTRODUCTION access publishing of their research output, and at the same time encouraging their researchers to publish in openly Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has become one accessible forms.
    [Show full text]
  • Xerox University Microfilms
    INFORMATION TO USERS This malarial was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again - beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • First Language Acquisition Theories and Transition to SLA Mohammad
    The Asian Conference on Language Learning 2013 Official Conference Proceedings Osaka, Japan First Language Acquisition Theories and Transition to SLA Mohammad Torikul Islam Jazan University, Saudi Arabia 0289 The Asian Conference on Language Learning 2013 Official Conference Proceedings 2013 Abstract First language (L1) acquisition studies have been an interesting issue to both linguists and psycholinguists. A lot of research studies have been carried out over past several decades to investigate how L1 or child language acquisition mechanism takes place. The end point of L1 acquisition theories leads to interlanguage theories which eventually lead to second language acquisition (SLA) research studies. In this paper, I will show that there have been at least three theories that have offered new ideas on L1 acquisition. However, two theories of L1 acquisition have been very prominent as they have propounded two revolutionary schools of thought: Behaviorism and Mentalism. Therefore, in the first segment of this paper I will deal with the detailed theoretical assumptions on these two theories along with a brief discussion on Social Interactionist Theory of L1 acquisition. The second segment will deal with interlanguage theories and their seminal contributions to subsequent language researchers. Finally, I will briefly show how L1 acquisition theories and interlanguage theories have paved the way for new ideas into SLA research studies. iafor The International Academic Forum www.iafor.org 499 The Asian Conference on Language Learning 2013 Official Conference Proceedings Osaka, Japan Behaviorist Theory Behaviorism or Behaviorist Theory of first language (L1) plays a crucial role in understanding the early importance attached to the role of the first language acquisition.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comprehensive Framework to Reinforce Evidence Synthesis Features in Cloud-Based Systematic Review Tools
    applied sciences Article A Comprehensive Framework to Reinforce Evidence Synthesis Features in Cloud-Based Systematic Review Tools Tatiana Person 1,* , Iván Ruiz-Rube 1 , José Miguel Mota 1 , Manuel Jesús Cobo 1 , Alexey Tselykh 2 and Juan Manuel Dodero 1 1 Department of Informatics Engineering, University of Cadiz, 11519 Puerto Real, Spain; [email protected] (I.R.-R.); [email protected] (J.M.M.); [email protected] (M.J.C.); [email protected] (J.M.D.) 2 Department of Information and Analytical Security Systems, Institute of Computer Technologies and Information Security, Southern Federal University, 347922 Taganrog, Russia; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Systematic reviews are powerful methods used to determine the state-of-the-art in a given field from existing studies and literature. They are critical but time-consuming in research and decision making for various disciplines. When conducting a review, a large volume of data is usually generated from relevant studies. Computer-based tools are often used to manage such data and to support the systematic review process. This paper describes a comprehensive analysis to gather the required features of a systematic review tool, in order to support the complete evidence synthesis process. We propose a framework, elaborated by consulting experts in different knowledge areas, to evaluate significant features and thus reinforce existing tool capabilities. The framework will be used to enhance the currently available functionality of CloudSERA, a cloud-based systematic review Citation: Person, T.; Ruiz-Rube, I.; Mota, J.M.; Cobo, M.J.; Tselykh, A.; tool focused on Computer Science, to implement evidence-based systematic review processes in Dodero, J.M.
    [Show full text]
  • Theory of Change and Organizational Development Strategy INTRODUCTION Dear Reader
    Theory of Change and Organizational Development Strategy INTRODUCTION Dear Reader: The Fetzer Institute was founded in 1986 by John E. Fetzer with a vision of a transformed world, powered by love, in which all people can flourish. Our current mission, adopted in 2016, is to help build the spiritual foundation for a loving world. Over the past several years, we have been identifying and exploring new ways to make our vision of a loving world a reality. One aspect of this work has been the development of a new conceptual frame resulting in a comprehensive Theory of Change. This document aspires to ground our work for the next 25 years. Further, this in-depth articulation of our vision allows us to invite thought leaders across disciplines to help sharpen our thinking. This document represents a moment when many strands of work and planning by the Institute board and staff came together in a very powerful way that enabled us to articulate our Theory of Change. However, this is a dynamic, living document, and we encourage you to read it as such. For example, we are actively developing detailed goals and action plans, and we continue to examine our conceptual frame, even as we make common cause with all who are working toward a shared and transformative sacred story for humanity in the 21st century. We continue to use our Theory of Change to focus our work, inspire and grow our partnerships, and identify the most pressing needs in our world. I look forward to your feedback and invite you to learn about how our work is coming alive in the world through our program strategies, initiatives, and stories at Fetzer.org.
    [Show full text]
  • Sci-Hub Provides Access to Nearly All Scholarly Literature
    Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature A DOI-citable version of this manuscript is available at https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3100. This manuscript was automatically generated from greenelab/scihub-manuscript@51678a7 on October 12, 2017. Submit feedback on the manuscript at git.io/v7feh or on the analyses at git.io/v7fvJ. Authors • Daniel S. Himmelstein 0000-0002-3012-7446 · dhimmel · dhimmel Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania · Funded by GBMF4552 • Ariel Rodriguez Romero 0000-0003-2290-4927 · arielsvn · arielswn Bidwise, Inc • Stephen Reid McLaughlin 0000-0002-9888-3168 · stevemclaugh · SteveMcLaugh School of Information, University of Texas at Austin • Bastian Greshake Tzovaras 0000-0002-9925-9623 · gedankenstuecke · gedankenstuecke Department of Applied Bioinformatics, Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Goethe University Frankfurt • Casey S. Greene 0000-0001-8713-9213 · cgreene · GreeneScientist Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania · Funded by GBMF4552 PeerJ Preprints | https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3100v2 | CC BY 4.0 Open Access | rec: 12 Oct 2017, publ: 12 Oct 2017 Abstract The website Sci-Hub provides access to scholarly literature via full text PDF downloads. The site enables users to access articles that would otherwise be paywalled. Since its creation in 2011, Sci- Hub has grown rapidly in popularity. However, until now, the extent of Sci-Hub’s coverage was unclear. As of March 2017, we find that Sci-Hub’s database contains 68.9% of all 81.6 million scholarly articles, which rises to 85.2% for those published in toll access journals.
    [Show full text]
  • Anthropoetics V, 1
    Anthropoetics V, 1 Anthropoetics V, no. 1 Spring / Summer 1999 ISSN 1083-7264 Table of Contents 1. Erik Eisel - "In the Beginning was the Word...": The Question of the Origin of Language in Goethe's Faust 2. William Mishler - The Question of the Origin of Language in René Girard, Eric Gans, and Kenneth Burke 3. Herbert Plutschow - An Anthropological Perspective on the Japanese Tea Ceremony 4. Eric Gans - The Little Bang: The Early Origin of Language 5. Benchmarks Eric Gans / [email protected] Last updated 7/23/99 http://steadr/anthropoetics/0501/ [5/10/2000 10:29:48 AM] Eisel Anthropoetics 5, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 1999) "In the Beginning was the Word...": The Question of the Origin of Language in Goethe's Faust Erik M. Eisel Department of Germanic Languages University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles CA 90095-1539 [email protected] Beginning with the Age of Goethe, the history of the question of the origin of language follows from the general questions, "What is man?" "What is culture?" and "What is language?"(1) The Berlin Academy of Sciences conjectured in its Preisfrage of 1769 whether human beings, "abandoned to their natural faculties," are capable of inventing language. In response, the first sentence of Johann Gottfried Herder's winning "Essay on the Origin of Language" gives the starting point for new anthropological thinking in the eighteenth century, changing the history of this question: "Already as an animal the human being has language."(2) As Helmut Mueller-Sievers, the author of Self-Generation: Biology, Philosophy, and Literature Around 1800, points out, Herder's rhetorical procedure is an attempt to deny both empirical and divine origins of language while unifying his philosophical project within the domain of language: The quest for a satisfactory explanation for the origin and status of language at the end of the eighteenth century is, historically and structurally, related to the debate about the origin of living beings.
    [Show full text]