The Rhetorical Imagination Of Kenneth Burke

Blending the genres of biography, intellectual history, and rhetorical theory, this study presents an analysis of Burke's (1897-1993) early essays and his eight theoretical works, placing them in the context of their social and political history. Wolin (humanities and rhetoric, Boston University) casts each work as a re-articulation and extension of the ideas imbedded in Burke's previous efforts. The tactics of conflict, cooperation, and motivation are emphasized. c. Book News Inc.

"The system is a coherent and total vision, a self-contained and internally consistent way of viewing man, the various scenes in which he lives, and the drama of human relations enacted upon those scenes."—W. H. Rueckert, Kenneth Burke and the Drama of Human Relations

Kenneth Burke was an influential thinker, literary critic, and rhetorician in the transition between the 20th and 21st centuries. This volume, edited by an influential Burkean scholar, addresses the question: Who was Burke and how can his work be helpful to those who must face new problems and challenges?

Kenneth Burke's Logology And Literary Criticism by Robert Garlitz Publisher: Xlibris Corporation (December 21, 2004) ISBN: 1413464084 DESCRIPTION One of America's greatest writers, critics and theorists, Kenneth Burke (1897-1993) engaged questions in nearly every field of knowledge and studied the ways language and literature relate to symbolic action in all aspects of life. His works have influenced the fields of aesthetics, ethics, rhetoric, communication, semiotics, and sociology, as well as literary studies. Kenneth Burke's Logology and Literary Criticism emphasizes the importance of religious ideas and religious rhetoric in the development of his work. "My Outlaw Book" is how Burke himself often referred to his book The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology. Robert Garlitz closely studies the four essays on Logology and argues that they show us more clearly than many of his other books the analogical forms of thought that shape Burke's brilliant contributions to twentieth century American letters. Garlitz concludes his book with a logological meditation on Joseph Conrad's epic novel, Nostromo. An Appendix publishes for the first time seven letters Kenneth Burke wrote to Garlitz in 1980-81. "One of the best studies of The Rhetoric of Religion . . . . Quite good for its detail, accuracy, and clarity. Garlitz is especially adept at putting complex material in perspective. More than other commentators . . .he fully recognizes the centrality of the analogy at the heart of the book, embracing the logic-narrative problem that Burke contemplates." --Ross Wolin author of The Rhetorical Imagination of Kenneth Burke. University of South Carolina Press, 2001. Robert Garlitz received his PhD from the University of Chicago and is Professor of English at Plymouth State University. He is the author of Robert Lax: Speaking Into Silence and with Rupert Loydell, Snowshoes Across the Clouds.

Kenneth Burke and Contemporary European Thought reflects the present transitory nature of rhetoric and society. Its purpose is to relate the rhetorical theory and critical approaches of American critic Kenneth Burke to four major European philosophers - Jurgen Habermas, Ernesto Grassi, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida - as they discuss the nature of language and its central role in society. Supporting transitory forces in society, all these thinkers reject traditional, scientific, objective, reductionist thought and point to language or symbols as the basis for understanding experience and knowledge. Burke, Habermas, and Grassi approach language by establishing global theories. In contrast to these global approaches, Foucault and Derrida attack language and the human situation microscopically. Michel Foucault examines "discursive practices" to discover relationships among the concepts of rhetoric, knowledge, and power. Derrida focuses on the methods of difference and deconstruction because he believes human beings are trapped by their own language, which inherently carries multiple meanings that need to be unpacked or deconstructed.

Kenneth Burke, arguably the most important American literary theorist of the twentieth century, helped define the theoretical terrain for contemporary literary and cultural studies. His perspectives were literary and linguistic, but his influences ranged across history, philosophy, and the social sciences. In this important study, first published in 1996, Robert Wess traces the trajectory of Burke's long career and situates his work in relation to postmodernity. His study is both an examination of contemporary theories of rhetoric, ideology, and the subject, and an explanation of why Burke failed to complete his Motives trilogy. Burke's own critique of the 'isolated unique individual' led him to question the possibility of unique individuation, a strategy which anticipated important elements of postmodern concepts of subjectivity. Robert Wess' study is a judicious exposition of Burke's massive oeuvre, and a crucial intervention in debates on rhetoric and human agency.

Kenneth Burke and His Circles consists of original papers focusing on the intellectual circles in which Burke participated during his long career. Instead of concentrating on Burke himself, as most recent scholarship has done, this book considers Burke as one participant in a host of important overlapping intellectual movements that took place over the course of the twentieth century.

Kenneth Duva Burke (1897-1993) was an American literary theorist, poet, essayist, and novelist, who wrote on 20th-century philosophy, aesthetics, criticism, and rhetorical theory. As a literary theorist, Burke was best known for his analyses based on the nature of knowledge. One of the first individuals to stray away from more traditional rhetoric and view literature as “symbolic action,” Burke was unorthodox, concerning himself not only with literary texts, but with the elements of the text that interacted with the audience: social, historical, political background, author biography. “It is not our purpose to discover Burke’s indebtedness, conscious or unconscious, to Aristotle. The problem of influence is a difficult one and it is not at issue here. Rather, we merely hope to discover in what respects Burke’s rhetorical theory and Aristotle’s appear to be like or unlike. “We shall attempt, first of all, to set forth Kenneth Burke’s basic assumptions regarding the nature of man, society, and the function of the speaker in that society. With these assumptions serving as the matrix of his theory, we shall next attempt to make Burke’s theory of rhetoric explicit. We shall consider Burke’s conception of (1) the function of rhetoric, (2) its definitions, (3) its scope, and (4) the methodological devices of which it makes use. Finally, using this same fourfold perspective, we shall compare Burke’s conception of rhetorical theory with Aristotle’s.”—L. Virginia Holland