com 310 quiz 2
How can terministic screens affect how we handle situations?
"terrorist" v. "freedom fighter"
Finding an explanation for the artifact - cluster criticism
- charting identified clusters - "Agon" ("struggle") analysis
What methods does Kenneth Burke's writing give us?
- cluster criticism - pentadic criticism
Burkean Concepts
- cluster criticism is based on how rhetors' terministic screens come out in rhetoric constructions - we examine key terms to understand better their worldviews
Other qualities of narrative
- coherence - fidelity
What's a narrative?
- events - temporal organization - relationship between pieces - unified subject
"You Don't Play, You Volunteer" (Hess)
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun
Finding an explanation for the artifact
frequency or intensity may be useful for explanation
What are the strengths for narrative criticism?
relatively simple and focused
Metaphor interpretation often depends on certain salient factors and not others; what do I mean by...
- "my wife's a saint" - "my dog is a princess"
Formulating a research question - cluster criticism
- Foss "it depends" (paraphrased) - thanks for the help
What artifacts are suitable for this cluster criticism?
- both discursive and non-discursive - needs some core concept or term attached
How did Kenneth Burke view the purpose and use his rhetoric?
- creates shared experiences - names a situation - provides suggestions for dealing with circumstances
How do metaphors operate?
- depends on the vocabulary we want to use - tenor and vehicle - target domain and source domain - "system of associated commonplaces" or entailments
How does Hess view rhetorical memory?
- digital texts blur lines between private and public - digital memory draws on traditional public memories - games are participatory and constructive - games blur the distinctions between real and imagery
Identifying key terms - how do we know what is important in an artifact - cluster criticism)
- frequency - intensity - value ("God" or "devil" terms)
What artifacts are suitable for metaphor criticism?
- generally discursive - use of explicit metaphors quite valuable
What artifacts are suitable for narrative criticism?
- generally discursive, though non-discursive can work (for example, "Peter and the Wolf" - needs story components
What important concepts did Burke develop?
- identification or consubstantiality - division, alienations, or dissociation - terministic screens
How did gameplay interact with this message (ludology)?
- immersion - interactivity
What are the weaknesses for narrative criticism?
- lots of potential details - sometimes too simple
What are some areas in which we use narrative?
- sports - politics
How does our employment of different metaphors structure our experiences of certain issues?
- sports - the internet - education
"When metaphor is seen as a way of knowing the world [...] Metaphor does not simply provide support for an argument; instead, the structure of the metaphor itself argues"
Foss, 2008
How do we use metaphors?
describe a thing to make it more relatable using terms from another field
How does metaphor criticism differ from other theoretical approaches?
in rhetorical analysis, our preliminary explorations often shape the direction of research and questioning - inductive approach
Cluster criticism
use of key terms and concepts to understand reality
Metaphor criticism
use of metaphors to understand and make arguments about reality
Terministic screens are how our vocabulary is influenced by and in turn shapes our perspectives
- "God terms" - "Devil terms"
What was the story of the game (narrative)?
- meta-narrative v. personal narrative - digital "museum" for constructing memory - American self (personal, militaristic, national) v. "the Other" - Ludic concerns
Metaphors and reality
- metaphor criticism goes a bit deeper: modern rhetoric assumes that we cannot perceive reality outside of symbolic interpretation - rhetorical metaphors structure our perceptions there our "rules" for reality - essential a rhetorical equivalent of "framing"
How do narratives operate?
- particular - shareable - personal
Charting the clusters - what terms or ideas go along with the key terms identified?
- proximity - casual relationships - subject-verb - modifiers
Identifying narrative features - what is being used to tell the story?
- setting - characters (flat v. round) - narrator (omniscient or limited, reliable or unreliable) - events (kemels v. satellites) - temporal relationships - casual relationships - audience - theme - genre (comedy, romance, tragedy, or irony)
What is ludology?
- study of games/gameplay practices - games are not linear narratives
Isolating the metaphors - what comparisons are being made within the artifact?
- what are both the tenor and vehicle being used? - tenor is often implied and may require some interpretation
Identifying the objective or "moral"
- what was the author trying to do? - are there authorial factors that might influence the objective? - can we trust the author's intent? ("Death of the Author")
Four main steps (methods paragraph - metaphor criticism)
1. examining the artifact as a whole 2. isolating the metaphor(s) 3. sorting the metaphor(s) 4. finding an explanation for the artifact
Three main steps (methods paragraph - cluster criticism)
1. identifying key terms 2. charting terms that cluster around key terms 3. finding an explanation for the artifact
Three main steps (methods paragraph - narrative criticism)
1. identifying the objective (moral) 2. identifying narrative features 3. evaluating the narrative
Assessing the narrative
1. was the objective an appropriate one? 2. were the narrative devices suitable to accomplishing the objective?
Fidelity
a story's EXTERNAL "consistency"
Coherence
a story's INTERNAL consistency
Metaphors and reality
like metaphors, narratives provide a structure through which we can interpret the world
Grab-bag methods
these methods depend on different units of analysis (cluster, metaphor, and narrative criticism)
Narrative criticism
use of stories to understand and make arguments about reality
