Metabiology, Trained Incapacities, and Piety: Kenneth Burke's Contribution to Framing

• In Event: Permanence/Stability and Change: Burkean Perspectives

Abstract

Erving Goffman and Kenneth Burke approach the issue of framing from different and unique perspectives. Although he is somewhat of an outsider to frame analysis, I argue that Burke’s early work provides a useful, and perhaps essential, supplement to Goffman’s work on framing. The aim of this essay is to demonstrate how Burke’s writings compensate for the theoretical limitations in Goffman’s frame analysis and contribute to a more robust theoretical grounding of framing.

Author

• Ethan Stoneman, University of Colorado, Boulder