Question of the week #1 (If you want to sing out, sing out...)

Question of the week:

As I tackled this week's assignments, I found myself at a loss to determine where I should begin. After all, because this is a rhetoric of song class, it made sense to listen to the song selections before delving into the readings. On the other hand, as a student of rhetoric, I've been conditioned to privilege the persuasive power of the written word—so much so that I found myself wanting to read the texts first so that they would provide some indication of how I should "read" sound and song.

To prove how tied to the text I am, I started by reading Burke, and I feel that much of the reading and listening I've done this week for class has been shaped by his theories. On a positive note, Burke's definition of rhetoric as "language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols," I feel, opens a space to talk about songs, such as ballads, as rhetorical. I have to confess, though, that I also empathize with Alan and John Lomax's fear that by theorizing about songs, "capturing and imprisoning them in cold type," we may somehow kill them as we try (because we try?) to understand them. Just like them, I'll charge on anyway and try not to worry about the damage . . .

My question is this:

Let's take as a given Burke's idea that rhetoric unites people who identify with each other based on their shared "substance" (shared motives, values, beliefs, ideas, emotions, reasoning, language). Using our readings and listening assignments for this week as examples, what could this shared substance be exactly, and why does it lend itself to taking shape as a ballad?

What do you all—heck, let's be folksy—what do ya'll think?

-Mandy

Hi 740

This is where opening questions will be posted most Thursdays. See syllabus for more info on creating and answering opening questions. Respond to opening questions by commenting on the opening question post. Post your comment by midnight of the day before class. Sing sing a song sing out loud sing out strong make it simple to last your whole life long, don't worry if it's not good enough for anyone else to hear, just sink, sink a sonk. La la la la la...