Grand Valley State University ScholarWorks@GVSU Peer Reviewed Articles School of Communications 10-2014 Mythic Rhetoric: Love, Power, and Companionate Marriage in Puccini's Turandot Valerie V. Peterson Grand Valley State University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/com_articles Part of the Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons ScholarWorks Citation Peterson, Valerie V., "Mythic Rhetoric: Love, Power, and Companionate Marriage in Puccini's Turandot" (2014). Peer Reviewed Articles. 13. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/com_articles/13 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Communications at ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Peer Reviewed Articles by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Ohio Communication Journal Volume 52 – October 2014, pp. 20-35 Mythic Rhetoric: Love, Power, and Companionate Marriage in Puccini's Turandot Valerie V. Peterson Using a rhetorical perspective, specifically Kenneth Burke's understanding of myths as "forward looking partisanships," this essay explores the mythic story of Turandot and its relationship to love, power, and companionate marriage.1 First, Burke’s understanding of myth is outlined and connected to the history and travels of Turandot. Then, a detailed rhetorical analysis of the 1998 PBS video of Puccini's opera performed at the Forbidden City, Beijing, suggests why the Turandot myth seems to appear in certain places and moments, and what it might have offered to audiences, in this instance, on a spiritual level. In the 1995 young teen "Junior Books" rendition of an ancient story, Marianna Mayer provides rare insights into the psyche of Turandot, enigmatic ice princess.