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A Burkian Pentadic Analysis Of Msu Riot Narratives, Joseph Mohrfeld

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

In the fall of 2003 a riot occurred very near the Minnesota State University, Mankato campus and in its aftermath many different narratives emerged describing the events. Using Kenneth Burke's pentad, this project examines those narratives in order to discover how different groups construct their accounts and which narrative elements different groups emphasize. By understanding how the narrative accounts given by these agents are influenced by their situation, the research allows us to see how riots emerge out of tensions within the conflicting productive contexts.