Dramatistic pentad
The dramatistic pentad forms the core structure of dramatism, a method for examining motivations that the renowned literary critic Kenneth Burke developed.
Dramatism recommends the use of a metalinguistic approach to stories about human action that investigates the roles and uses of five rhetorical elements common to all narratives, each of which is related to a question.
Burke argues that an evaluation of the relative emphasis that is given to each of the five elements by a human drama enables a determination of the motive for the behaviour of its characters.
Burke based his pentad on the scholastic hexameter which defines "questions to be answered in the treatment of a topic: Who, what, where, by what means, why, how, when".
"[2] The dramatistic pentad comprises the five rhetorical elements: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose.
The "world views" listed below reflect the prominent schools of thought during Burke's time, "without dismissing any of them," to read them "at once sympathetically and critically in relation to each other," and "in a wider context than any of them recognizes.
Since an act is likely composed of many separate actions, Burke states that "any verb, no matter how specific or general, that has connotations of consciousness or purpose falls under this category.
"[4]: 1305 Thus any two dramatistic elements can be analyzed in relation to each other, creating a ratio, and can produce individual, yet separate meanings which are equally valid.
"[4]: 1307 For example, "The maxim 'terrain determines tactics' is a strict localization of the scene-act ratio, with 'terrain' as the casuistic equivalent for 'scene' in a military calculus of motives, and 'tactics' as the corresponding 'act.
Likewise, the substitution of a dramatistic element with another can change an interpretation of the motive, allowing the analyst to modify the ratio in order to highlight the importance of a specific factor.
For example, "the resistance of the Russian armies to the Nazi invasion could be explained 'scenically' in terms of the Soviet political and economic structure; or one could use the act-agent ratio, attributing the power and tenacity to 'Russian' traits of character.
The way in which the agent interacts with the scene draws out specific analyses usually related to the atmosphere of the setting.
While Burke states that, "It is a principle of drama that the nature of acts and agents should be consistent with the nature of the scene," some "comic and grotesque works may deliberately set these elements at odds with one another, audiences make allowances for such liberty, which reaffirms the same principle of consistency in its very violation.
Burke states that, "the agent is an author of his acts," which can "make him or remake him in accordance with their nature.
[6] Prior to 1969 the term attitude is placed under agency, act or agent and is not considered a sixth element.
