Resumen de Scene, act, and the tragic frame in the Duke rape case
Drawing from the rhetoric emanating from those involved with the Duke Lacrosse rape case, this essay argues that the case was dominated by a scene-act ratio. The analysis demonstrates how the rhetorical framing of social hierarchical issues, left unchecked, led to tensions between members of a community and its institutions. Finally, the paper demonstrates how both sides in the case employed a tragic frame to purify themselves of guilt in the resulting social drama and suggests how Burke's notion of the comic frame can explain how conflicts such as this can be transcended to make for better relations in the future.
