Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Essay Example for Free

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon EssayIt is an unquestionable fact that the cosmea of communication has immeasurable changed since Kenneth complete first developed his theories and philosophies on this topic in the first half(prenominal) of the 20th century. Nevertheless, dispatchs views and thoughts base still be integrated with the theory of cinema as well as face-to-face communication and other(a) forms of literature and art. Thus, as unmatched critic at a time said, perhaps Burke will non be remembered so much for what he said only if how others took his ideas and brought them forward into other realms of communication. In the 1920s, Burke began writing for the literary magazine The Dial, which included renderings of modernist art and his debates with individuals much(prenominal) as Malcolm Cowley on Dadaism and the Surrealists. His work the Symbolic marks an important time in his sentiment when he advocated art for arts sake or the doctrine that aesthetic values ar e wholly separate from political, religious, or economic champions. Burkes earliest essays dealt with the formal aspects of imagery and the rhythms of language. He believed that human beings was a construction of our interpretation of the symbols around us.Much of what we mean by reality has been built up for us done nothing but our symbol systems . . . Take away our books and what little do we contend about history, biography, even something so down to earth as the relative position of the seas and continents. What is our reality for today but all this clutter of symbols about the past combined with whatever things we know mainly finished maps, magazine, newspapers and the like about the presentAnd however important to us is the tiny sliver of reality all(prenominal) of us has experienced firsthand, the whole overall picture is but a construct of our symbol systems. (1966, p. 5)Thus, row are symbols, or utterances, produced by humans, alone, to signify those things that t hey represent. Despite the fact if they are written or verbal, delivery are a deliberate act for the expressed purpose of expression. A ho workout can be described al-Quran-by-word without showing what the house actually looks like. However, because words are symbols, they can never be what they represent. The word house will not be a house. Words are heuristic and can be identified and understood by the persons own mind and meaning.When a word is specifiable it becomes a representation of what it depicts. Dictionaries can help, but they alter meaning with those who read them. According to Burke, words pay off an unusual power. As for the relation between identification and persuasion we might well keep it in mind that a speaker persuades an audience by the use of stylistic identifications his act of persuasion whitethorn be for the purpose of causing the audience to identify itself with the speakers interests and the draws on identification of interests to pull in a rapport be tween himself and his audience. (1966, p. 301-302)Burke was thus instrumental in advancing the whole intellectual of rhetoric, with such aspects of his analysis as the pentad of drama, the role of identification, and the ratios or relationships among critical components. His pentad was comprised of the act (what occurs by the delivery of the rhetorical piece), the scene (the situational setup or the context of the discourse), the agent (the person being asked to realized the action), the agency (the tools used to complete the action), and the purpose (the goal of the action).If one analyzes the components of the pentad and their relationships to each other, Burke believed, one would be able to discern the motives underpinning that rhetorical act But we must acknowledge that photographs and, even to a greater extent so, film are much more complex. When someone sees a visual representation, it can mean multitudinous of ideas, emotions at once. This visual representation mimics, in fact the viewers own perception of livelihood and allows them a greater depth of understanding, or at the very least a sense of understanding, into the subject.In the 1940s, Burke expanded his interest in the visual culture and the function of art, film and television. He frequently used visual metaphors to explain key concepts, such as identification, representative anecdotes, the pentad, and terministic screens. In his introduction to A Grammar of Motives, Burke covered his theory of the pentad in relationship to a Museum of Modern Art in New York photographic exhibit with photos of war ships and an aerial photograph of two launches, proceeding side by side on a tranquil sea. Their wakes crossed and recrossed each other in an almost blank space variety of lines.Yet despite the intricateness of the tracery, the picture gave an impression of great simplicity, because one could quickly perceive the generating normal of its design. Such, ideally, is the case with our pentad of ter ms, used as generating principle. It should provide us with a kind of simplicity that can be developed into considerable complexity, and yet can be discovered beneath its elaborations. (1945, xvi) As observe in War and Cultural Life (1942), he was emotionally impacted by the photos and affirmed that one gets a very strong feeling that the war, vast as it is, is part of a still vaster configuration. (p. 409). Burke felt that the photos call(ed) forth a certain philosophic or meditative attitude toward the war kinda as it also gives nourishment to a strong sense of our national power (p. 408). He was so taken, in fact, by the photos that he noted it would be a very good service two to the strength of our patriotism and to its quality if this exhibit could be shown throughout the United States. (p. 408) In the Therministic Screen rhetorical Perspectives on Film (2001), David Blakesely relied on Burkes communication theory to look at cinema and the concept of the theory of film.Give n all the theories that exist about film, Blakesely notes that there need not be one theory to be elevated to disciplinary reverence, but rather the question is how best to use the terministic resources theory make available (pg. 2). The title of the book comes from Burkes phrase terministic screen in Language and Symbolic Action (1966), where his main assertion is that not only does the nature of our terms venture the nature of our observations, in the sense that the terms direct the attention to one field rather than to another.Also, many a(prenominal) of the observations are but implications of the particular terminology in terms of which the observations are made (pg. 46). In other words, as extrapolated from Burke, film rhetoric, or the visual and verbal symbols that weave film experience, directs the viewers attention in unlimited ways, but always towards the goal of fostering identification and the complexity that involves.Similarly, film theory, says Blakesley, which is th e lens through which and with which one generates perspective on film as art and rhetoric, acts as a terministic screen that filters what does and does not constitute and legitimize interpretation and, thus, meaning (pg. 3). In his essay about Burke (2001), Andrew King emphasizes that Burkes theories and assertions were not about ideology or political systems but about the over-rhetoricized world. He insists that gibe to Burke, even with the invention of writing, humans entered the world of virtual reality and building symbol systems.And, ever since, mankind has been piling symbol upon symbol and setting system over and against system. Simultaneously, with this ever-advanced technology, humans are cutting themselves off further and further from nature and the consequences of their actions. Technology delays the consequences of our assaults on our nature and symbolic systems mask our failures until it is too late. temperament is recalcitrant and it will have its revenge, but not un til it is too late for us to repair the results. (para. 17)