Viewing Disability Through Terministic Screens

While reading Kenneth Burke’s “Terministic Screens,” I could not help but think back to Ellen L. Barton’s reading, “Textual Practices of Erasure: Representations of Disability and the Founding of the United Way.” Barton’s reading includes images of posters that advertise charities for children and adults with disabilities. In Burke’s reading, he discusses a concept called terministic screens which acknowledges a language system that determines how a person perceives things such as symbols, meanings, and reality as whole. Burke states that there are two different kinds of terministic screens. First we have the scientistic approach which “Begins with questions of naming, or definition (language as definition)” (44). The dramatistic approach “Stresses language as an aspect of ‘action’ that is, as ‘symbolic action’ (language as act)” (44).  The posters that Barton shows us in her essay essentially lead us to Burke’s concept of terministic screens. When we as viewers look at these posters, we are all prone to different terministic screens that direct our attention to these images and ultimately determine how we perceive these campaign advertisements.

Kenneth Burke’s epistemology is what is called social constructionism. This term basically gives us a better understanding of how Burke viewed the function of language and how the symbols and terms involved with language effect a human’s view of life and reality as a whole. In Barton’s essay she says, “I would argue that disability also must be defined as a more complex social construct, one which reflects not a benign evolution of acceptance, but a dynamic set of representations that are deeply embedded in historical and cultural contexts” (169). That being said, disability is essentially a social construct in itself. Society has put people with disabilities in to their own group and many other groups in society view them differently because of their disabilities. Many groups in society are also privileged over people with disabilities. Burke discusses the origins of language and states, “The ultimate origins of language seem to me as mysterious as the origins of the universe itself. One must view it, I feel, simply as the “given” (44). This statement refers to how people interpret words or symbols in the world. Burke is right, language can be referred to as the “given.” There are words and symbols that we as humans encounter everyday that have already been given specific definitions by society. Burke states that “Definition itself is a symbolic act” (44). When we give these words definitions, or meanings, we are acting on them. 

When Burke talks about how language is “given” origin and meaning, it brings me to Barton when she “Explores the ways that the uses of language and discourse socially construct the experience and understandings of disability in America” (169). The posters and ad campaigns Barton shows us in her essay play a crucial role in how people view disability in America. Many of the terms and phrases used on these posters can be perceived and seen through different screens by different people; “Interrelations of language and disability have been seen in negative connotations of such terms as cripple, retard, and spastic. These terms would be viewed as a scientistic approach because these terms are used to name or define people with disabilities. Scientistic approaches can also be put in relation with “Expressions of complaint, fear, gratitude, and such” (44). Terministic screens can construct people to feel or think a certain way. For example, on many of the posters Barton shows us, we notice that “Pity was a dominant theme of the United-Way; occasionally the theme shifted from pity to fear, directly constructing the reader as vulnerable to disability” (178).  Language like this scares viewers in to feeling as though one day they could potentially become disabled and therefore constructs them to donate; “Terminology, medical, legal, educational, and charitable discourses contribute to the social construction of disability” (170).

When we get in to the dramatistic type of terministic screen, many terms or phrases portrayed in these posters make humans feel guilty and want to act on them. While the scientistic approach involves attitudinal function, dramatistic approach involves what is called hortatory which is involved with “Commands and requests” (44). On many of these posters we see commands or requests to help people with disabilities, but the terminology determines how each ad is perceived by different viewers and their experiences. For example, in Barton’s essay we see posters that have phrases such as, “We can all give the retarded adult a chance to live with dignity, “don’t wait to be asked!” And “You can help too!” (175-178). these phrases are meant to stress the fact that people should help the disabled by acting on the situation and donating. These posters all change how people perceive and read in to these intended messages. Terministic screens essentially direct our attention to what a viewer chooses to take in from these advertisements; they can also change how ads that are the same or of the same nature are perceived from different viewers and different experiences. “When discussing the ways in which ‘terministic screens’ direct the attention, here the kind of deflection I have in mind concerns simply the fact that any nomenclature necessarily directs the attention in to some channels rather than others” (45). 

-Dina Kratzer