The discussion of the relationship between language and truth in this week's readings was very interesting. However, the piece that most stood out to me was Burke’s, which introduced the idea of the ‘terministic screen’ as a rhetorical tool and a channel through which to understand reality.
From what I understand, the terministic screen serves as a set of representations or symbols that become a filter through which the world makes sense to us. By ‘terministic’ he refers to the language choices we make when framing an argument. ‘Screen’ is a frame or a process of selection; a way of limiting language to a particular set of related meanings. Overall, then, it is a way of understanding the relationship between language and ideology.
Burke’s discussion of this terministic screen reminded me of the idea of social constructions. When something is socially constructed, it is based on the contingent variables and concepts created by society rather than any inherent qualities that it possesses. This idea relates to Burke because concepts are human made and a part of language.
I thought of the application of Burke’s idea of the terministic screen and social constructionism in terms of culture and different portrayals of beauty. Beauty is something culturally relative that can be influenced by different experiences and influences. The different images and language we use in society to refer to beauty - whether through media, advertisements, talking about beauty, etc. – help us to determine what is considered beautiful. As Burke pointed out, language doesn’t simply reflect reality but also helps us to select and deflect it. Beauty is not inherent. We posses our own frames of reference for the interpretation of beauty as well as what we see in the rest of the world.
Many times the ways in which we refer to beauty establish meanings, ideologies, and prejudices. Terms and imagery can alternately reveal and conceal certain stereotypes or beliefs. The terministic screen influences our varying perception of beauty, creating for us a certain state of mind and habit that affects all of culture and is evident through the actions of individuals. Greatly different circumstances have created very different ideas of what is considered beautiful and what is not in each culture. For example, beauty can be seen as aesthetically pleasing, perfection, a way to differentiate oneself, etc. What beauty means, what it is, what it represents, how it is portrayed or why it is valued is different in every single culture. In describing language as an aspect of “symbolic action,” Burke points out that it has the ability to produce an effect on individuals and motivate them (Burke 44). He also points out that a person’s background and personal experience affect how they view things and determine what knowledge they will perceive in the future. The choice of terms and the cultural experience we associate with those terms determine the knowledge we take from an experience. As it is influenced by the terministic screen, our cultural perception of beauty affects how we live and we define ourselves and others, and the way that we see the world.
Thinking further about this relationship, I was reminded of an excerpt I read in an anthropology class from the book How we Survived Communism and Even Laughed, by Croatian author Slavenka Drakulic, titled “Make- up and other Crucial Questions.” In this, she details the lives of women living under communist rule in the former republic of Yugoslavia and the daily struggles they endured in their quest for beauty. Because communism believed that aesthetics was a superficial, ‘bourgeois’ invention, leaders tried to limit women’s availability to beauty enhancing products. The oppression of the government and the impact of shortages of material goods affected women’s identity with and perception of beauty. She shows how greatly beauty in Eastern Europe can vary compared to other cultures due to circumstances and argues that beauty is a social construction. Drakulic points out “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” (32) and what is considered beauty within one culture isn’t always the same in another.
Here, beauty under Communism was a way being a unique individual and differentiating oneself from the others in a society that tried to make everyone similar and genderless. However, in our western culture, we strive to follow the same trends we see in magazines or hear our favorite stars talking about. We choose to fit in and be more similar than stand out with our beauty. Thus it is evident that beauty serves as a social construction and would fit as being influenced by the terministic screens that Burke introduces. The excerpt illustrates the point that Burke is trying to make that language affects our perception of reality. The way we talk about and show beauty affects what we deem beautiful.
Burke’s idea of terministic screens would do well being applied to any kind of inquiry dealing with the idea of culture and social constructionism; it could also probably be helpful in looking at the ideologies of different cultures in advertisements and the media.
Here is the citation for book I mentioned; I know that Google books has the majority of this section online. Also, I have just the chapter photocopied if anyone wants to read it:
Drakulic, Slavenka. “Make-up and other Crucial Questions.” How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed. New York: Harper Perennial, 1993. Print
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