More on Dramatism, from On Symbols and Society, Ch. 8

8. “Dramatism,” from International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Ed. David L. Sills, Vol. 7, p. 445-447. 1968.

“Dramatism is a method of analysis and a corresponding critique of terminology designed to show that the most direct route to the study of human relations and human motives is via a methodical inquiry into cycles or clusters of terms and their functions. The dramatistic approach is implicit in the key term ‘act.’ ‘Act’ is thus a terministic center from which many related considerations can be shown to ‘radiate,’ as though it were a ‘god-term’ from which a whole universe of terms is derived” (445).

In short, dramatism starts from action. Human beings are beings that act, and from that premise, all else is derived. Acts assume actors, which are agents. Agents act in scenes, and those agents also have purposes and means, or agency. These five, act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose, are called the dramatistic pentad, but the pentad implies a hexad which would add attitude as incipient action. We can talk about Hamlet and his father in one single scene, or we can talk about the drama of Hamlet as a whole. We can talk about Jarron's actions during this hour or this day, or we can talk about Jarron's actions during his life as a whole. Thus, the drama analyzed can have large or small scope. The terms themselves are capable of relations with one another. These ratios are sometimes used to explain an act, other times to justify it. Identifying one of the 5 terms with another of the 5 terms is the ratio between the terms. If they are together in the same drama, then they must have something to do with one another.

These 5 terms come from medieval questioning: quis (agent), quid (act), ubi (scene defined as place), quibus auxiliis (agency), cur (purpose), quo modo (manner, “attitude”), quando (scene defined temporally) (447).

That moves right into the next chapter.