[KB] The Trumpster's Burlesque, etc.

[wessr at oregonstate.edu]

Ed, I don't know anything about the next KBS conference.

You're right, I'm sure there is good stuff out there but coming from  
English I always had to give speech scholarship lower priority and now  
in retirement I read mainly philosophy. But I do usually try to catch  
up on some things I missed in the weeks before a KBS conference.

Another thought occurred to me about Trump and burlesque. One of the  
things Burke stresses about burlesque is that it helps to put painful  
things at a distance. Burlesque protects by not imagining people "with  
too great intimacy. For to picture them intimately, he must be one  
with them" (ATH 53). Possibly there is a Trump variant derived from  
his personality disorder: because of his lack of empathy he can't "be  
one" with anyone. He instinctively burlesques everyone by carrying  
himself in a way that puts them at a lower level, distant from his  
heights, doing it easily because he is never in the shoes of the  
other, imaging how it feels. Such things as derogatory nicknames for  
his rivals come naturally.

Just a thought--

Bob

Quoting Edward C Appel <edwardcappel at frontier.com>:

> Bob,
> Yes, I'm willing to participate in a panel at KB on Trump's  
> rhetoric, or on the rhetoric, in general, of this painful political  
> season.  I imagine every convention or conference in the  
> communication field, at least, will feature such panels over the  
> next year or two.
> As for whether my scheme fits into Burke's "poetic categories": Note  
> my citations in the attachment. There've been even more studies on  
> the burlesque frame in communication since 2003.
> And outside of academic journals, lots of articles on Trump's  
> rhetoric have appeared, from David Denby's eloquent put-down in The  
> New Yorker,"The Plot Against America: Donald Trump's Rhetoric," to  
> eulogistic studies, like, "Donald Trump May Sound Like a Clown, But  
> He Is a Rhetorical Pro Like Cicero," by Gene J. Puskar on  
> ThinkProgress.org, and "The Rhetorical Brilliance of Trump the  
> Demagogue," by Jennifer Mercieca on a website named  
> Conversation.com. Mercieca is a communication scholar at Texas A&M,  
> but the website is not a journal. Another positive take on Trump's  
> rhetorical skills is, "What Hillary Clinton Can Learn from Bernie  
> Sanders and Donald Trump," by Marshall Ganz and Hahrie (sp?} Han in  
> The Nation. I already mentioned Fershtman's article. There are, of  
> course, others.
> By the way, do we know yet where the next Burke Conference will be  
> held? Last I heard, it might be in PA.
> Thanks again, Bob, for reading and responding.
>
>
> Ed
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>  On Thursday, October 27, 2016 3:10 PM, Edward C Appel  
> <edwardcappel at frontier.com> wrote:
>
>
>  Bob,
> I'll think about the "paper" business. I have two other studies  
> ready to go for the next KB. Can't present three.
> Then, again, on my likely appearance at the coming conference, I  
> have to intone, at my stage in life :Lord willing---if I am  
> permitted such an obscurantist reference on an academic listserve!
>
>
> Ed
>
>     On Thursday, October 27, 2016 2:03 PM, "wessr at oregonstate.edu"  
> <wessr at oregonstate.edu> wrote:
>
>
>  Ed, thanks for your attachment.
>
> You might consider turning it into a paper for the next KBS conference 
> to see if Trump provides material to flesh out your "in-between genre" 
> enough to give it a place in Burke's "poetic categories." In this 
> attachment, Trump seems simultaneously to be object and agent of 
> Burkean burlesque--a target of your burlesque and himself an agent who 
> burlesques the world.
>
> Bob
>
> Quoting Edward C Appel <edwardcappel at frontier.com>:
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