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Richard Lanham's useful (teachable and deconstructable) binary opposition
between homo seriosus and homo rhetoricus relies heavily on the dramatic,
performative aspect of rhetorical play (fulness) in the public sphere; as
he says in The Motives of Eloquence-- or, as one of my grad students once
called it, The Joy of Lex -- rhetorical agents are actors and
their reality is "public,dramatic" and their sense of identity depends on
the reassurance of daily histrionic reenactment."  Lanham's view links
the rhetorical sensibility with the ludic, the agonistic, and the social
construction of reality.  Other pathways could include Kenneth Burke's
meta-framing of all motives through dramatistic analysis, Erving
Goffman's use of dramatic concepts to unpack social relations, and the
section in Brock, Scott,and Chesebro's Methods of Rhetorical Criticism
(3rd ed. rev, Wayne State UP, 1990) on "The Dramaturgical Perspective".
      Rereading this I am struck by my examinee's tone: funny, I can't
get out of my mind some image of Anthony saying in Lear's voice,"Give me
the map there."  Is there a "darker purpose" to this Anthony?
  Cheers!
Glenn Deer:  DEPT. OF ENGLISH, The University of British Columbia
             #397 - 1873 East Mall, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z1
             Tel: (604) 822-5122  Fax: (604) 822-6906
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