Burke’s motive – from text to society

Abstract

Motive is a key term in Kenneth Burke’s theory of Dramatism. With the concept of motive Burke moves away from the traditional focus of intention and thereby makes it possible to not only analyze an artefact at hand, but also the society that the artefact reflects. However, the question still remains: how does the critic identify motive in the artefact – and what makes the step from artefact to society possible? Using the Dramatism of Kenneth Burke, this article analyzes the members’ magazines of two Danish unions with the purpose of identifying their underlying motives. Both unions create consubstantiality – though by very different motives. One union through the motive of a scene-agent ratio, the other through the motive of an act-agent ratio: two different motives that both show in the society as cultural ideologies. However different the motives are, they are equally strong and unchallenged throughout all issues of the analyzed magazines. The article finally argues that even though the motives represent ideologies in the society, monocentric motives as the ones identified might be problematic in the future.