Kenneth Burke's “attitude” at the crossroads of rhetorical and cultural studies: A proposal and case study illustration

This essay explores rhetorical contextualization, or how rhetoric both reveals and conceals subjects in the socio‐cultural terrain. Utilizing Burke's notion of representative anecdotes, equipment for living, and frames of acceptance/rejection/transition, the authors explore how these three concepts intersect within the realm of attitude through a textual analysis of the television show Talk Soup and interviews with young adult fans of the program. As young adults are faced with the prospect of “downward mobility” and uncertain futures, this essay asserts that they find equipment for living in mediated texts that provide a perspective of “looking down” while not necessarily “moving up” to achieve “the American Dream.”