A Pentadic Analysis of the John M. Pfau Library
Introduction
One way for humans to express their selves is through buildings because buildings could represent the values of the people who built them as well as the people who use them. For example, the pyramids in Egypt where built by king Kufu to serve as a tombs for the ruling dynasty of Egypt at that time as well as to express the greatness of this dynasty by enormous size of the building and the placement of gold and jewelry inside. Thus, the rhetorical analysis is important to understand the ideas and motives behind the buildings, the values the building hold, and the implications of the buildings.
In this paper, I will study the John M. Pfau library located in California State University, …show more content…
Pentadic criticism was developed for the purpose of understanding the motives that drive human beings to act or speak the way they do by analyzing the dramas that are generated by the rhetor. In order to use pentadic criticism as a methodology of research, the elements of the pentad must be identified. They are agent, act, agency, scene and purpose. Agent refers to the individual, group or institution who are responsible for producing this artifact/rhetoric. The agent element is there to answer the question of who. Act is the main action taken by the agent, and it is there to answer the question of what. Agency is a description of the means used to formulate the act, and it is used to answer the question of how. Scene is used to identify the ground, location and situation in which the act was done, and it an answer to the question where/when. Purpose is there to answer the question why, and it is an investigation of the agent’s intentions for performing the act. Moreover, pentadic criticism was established depending on Burke’s theory of dramatism. Dramatism is importing terms from the study of drama to understand the human motivation. This theory relies on tow assumptions. First assumption is that the use of language formulates action, but not motion. Motion is just the biological involuntary actions that does not include using symbols, thus, it is outside our ability to do anything. The second assumption is that humans develop and present their messages in a play or a
Introduction
One way for humans to express their selves is through buildings because buildings could represent the values of the people who built them as well as the people who use them. For example, the pyramids in Egypt where built by king Kufu to serve as a tombs for the ruling dynasty of Egypt at that time as well as to express the greatness of this dynasty by enormous size of the building and the placement of gold and jewelry inside. Thus, the rhetorical analysis is important to understand the ideas and motives behind the buildings, the values the building hold, and the implications of the buildings.
In this paper, I will study the John M. Pfau library located in California State University, …show more content…
Pentadic criticism was developed for the purpose of understanding the motives that drive human beings to act or speak the way they do by analyzing the dramas that are generated by the rhetor. In order to use pentadic criticism as a methodology of research, the elements of the pentad must be identified. They are agent, act, agency, scene and purpose. Agent refers to the individual, group or institution who are responsible for producing this artifact/rhetoric. The agent element is there to answer the question of who. Act is the main action taken by the agent, and it is there to answer the question of what. Agency is a description of the means used to formulate the act, and it is used to answer the question of how. Scene is used to identify the ground, location and situation in which the act was done, and it an answer to the question where/when. Purpose is there to answer the question why, and it is an investigation of the agent’s intentions for performing the act. Moreover, pentadic criticism was established depending on Burke’s theory of dramatism. Dramatism is importing terms from the study of drama to understand the human motivation. This theory relies on tow assumptions. First assumption is that the use of language formulates action, but not motion. Motion is just the biological involuntary actions that does not include using symbols, thus, it is outside our ability to do anything. The second assumption is that humans develop and present their messages in a play or a