2010/08/29 by Jeremy Engels · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Rhetoric and Communication Studies #Crime, Deviance, and Social Control #Media Studies and Communication
paper · doi:10.1080/02773941003785652
openalex publication_date 2010/08/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The victimage ritual is a familiar concept to rhetorical scholars. Victimage, as understood by Kenneth Burke and Robert L. Ivie, is a curative rhetoric aimed at easing the guilt associated with symbolic life. By putting Friedrich Nietzsche's theory of the victimage ritual as enumerated in On the Genealogy of Morals in conversation with Burke and Ivie, this essay expands received wisdom by arguing that victimage in presidential rhetoric is often as much about prolonging resentment and guilt as it is at easing these emotions.