Divided We Stand: Beyond Burkean Identification

Abstract

Despite arguments to the contrary, division is as natural to the civic-minded human animal as is identification. Both sides of this natural inclination are explored in the works of Kenneth Burke, although the latter, rather than the former, tends to be championed. In this essay we explore Burkean ideas about the division/identification binary through a particularly personal and frequently ignored national example: Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin. As the first woman ever elected to Congress, Rankin is known best neither for her work toward universal suffrage nor for her fight against corporate excess. Instead, she is simply the woman who voted against US involvement in both World War I and World War II.

Notes

¹ We thank Rhetoric Review peer reviewers Shawn Parry-Giles and Barry Brummett for their patient and thoughtful criticism of this work.

² Unless otherwise noted, all research related to Jeannette Rankin is drawn from primary, archival research conducted by Marcia Kmetz between 2006 and 2009. Her dissertation includes, in part, deeper research into Congresswoman Rankin's civic engagement between and after the two World Wars of the 1900s.