Brock's (1985) recent suggestion that rhetorical critics who work out of the philosophy of dramatism could enrich their analyses by utilizing Burke's pentad and terms for order in combination is taken up in this essay. Enhancing these grammatical and formal features of drama through application of Burke's “principle of perfection,” nine “indexes of dramatic intensity” are proposed and were employed in a study of the tragic‐symbol preaching of Rev. Jerry Falwell. Falwell's televised discourses are found to be strongly dramatic and appropriately so, given the audience of true believers bent on changing society he addresses.
Communication Quarterly
Volume 35, 1987 - Issue 1
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Related Research Data
“Pure persuasion” and verbal irony
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