Wikipedia
Dramatism, an interpretive communication studies theory, was developed by Kenneth Burke as a meta-method for analyzing human relationships. This theory compares life to a drama and provides the most direct route to human motives and human relations. It sets up the Five Dramatistic Pentad strategy for viewing life, not as life itself, by comparing each social unit involved in human activities as five elements of drama - act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose, to answer the empirical question of how persons explain their actions, and to find the ultimate motivations of human activities.
It is possible because Burke believes that Drama has recognizable genres. Humans use language in patterned discourses, and texts move us with recurring patterns underlying those texts. And drama has certain audiences, which means rhetoric plays a crucial role when humans deal with experiences. Language strategies are central to Burke's dramatistic approach.
In this theory, Burke discusses two important ideas – that life is drama, and the ultimate motive of rhetoric is the purging of guilt.
Usage examples of "dramatism".
Stale harmonies, lack of any dramatism appropriate to the music,’ Frank said.
Stale harmonies, lack of any dramatism appropriate to the music,” Frank said.