Kenneth Burke’s Agonistic Theory of Knowledge

Abstract

Commentators have questioned whether Kenneth Burke’s dramatism is ontological or epistemological and have provided various answers, at the same time overlooking his actual dramatistic epistemology. This essay demonstrates that dramatism is simultaneously both ontological and epistemological. It also describes and discusses Burke’s own epistemology, his “agonistic” theory of knowledge, which is derived from ritual drama and predicated on suffering (“the suffered is the learned”). This essay also outlines the implications of our analysis for understanding Burkeian dialectic and for doing rhetorical criticism.

Keywords:

• Agonistic
• Dramatism
• Epistemology
• Kenneth Burke
• Ontology