Identification in rhetoric

Contemporary Rhetoric focuses on cultural contexts and general structures of rhetoric structures. Kenneth Burke is one of the most notable contemporary U.S. rhetoricians who made major contributions to the rhetoric of identification. One of his most foundational ideas is as follows, “rhetoric makes human unity possible, that language use is symbolic action, and that rhetoric is symbolic inducement.” Branching from this, Herrick states that identification in rhetoric is crucial to persuasion, and thus to cooperation, consensus, compromise, and action. Burke believed that the most serious human problem was to be alienated or separated, and rhetoric was to be that problem’s only solution. Much of his work was based on bringing people back together. “Identification is affirmed with earnestness precisely because there is division. Identification is compensatory to division.” Rhetoric’s goal, in regards to identification, is to bring people together of whom have been separated by estrangement or opposition.

Kenneth Burke plays an important part in learning and understanding the core values of rhetorical theory in identification. He introduces the notion by taking the Aristotelian approach into a ‘world of particulars.’ Burke states that Aristotle treated rhetoric as purely verbal. But there are also areas of overlap. The flexibility of identification that Burke has created expands into elements beyond language. Burke wrote that “identification ranges from the politician who, addressing an audience of farmers, says, ‘I was a farm boy myself,’ through the mysteries of social status, to the mystic’s devout identification with the source of all being.” This symbolic interaction is possible because it recognizes the hidden sources of identification among human beings as symbol users. From this, Burke understands symbols as something that is around constantly, and that choosing to accept and learning to read them accurately is what needs to be understood.

Burke’s theory of identification has been applied and expanded upon in Krista Ratcliffe’s Rhetorical Listening Framework. Ratcliffe proposes the “blurring of Burke’s and Fuss’s theories of identification, what becomes visible is multiple places for rhetorical listening. When applying Burke and Fuss’s theories, Ratcliffe proposes non-identification in cross-cultural communication and feminist pedagogy. Her critique of Western logic is that it is difficult to simultaneously pay attention to both commonalities and differences, but that is where non-identification exists and thus provides a place for rhetorical listening. Burke’s theory is critiqued by Ratcliffe for only focusing on identification; she argues that rhetorical listeners need to be accountable and take into consideration different points of view, which can be done through simultaneous listening to commonalities and differences.

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