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In August, 1959, an anxious William Rueckert wrote Kenneth Burke to
ask, "When on earth is that perpetually 'forthcoming' A Symbolic of
Motives forthcoming? Will it be soon enough so that I can wait for
it before I complete my book Kenneth Burke and the Drama of Human
Relations]? If the Symbolic is not forthcoming soon, would it be
too much trouble for you to send me a list of exactly what will be
included in the book, and some idea of the structure of the book?"
Burke replied, "Holla If you're uncomfortable, think how
uncomfortable I am. But I'll do the best I can. . . ." In the
course of their long correspondence, the nature of the
Symbolic-Burke's much-anticipated third volume in his Motivorum
trilogy-vexed both men, and they discussed its contents often.
Ultimately, Burke left the job of pulling it all together to
Rueckert. Forty-eight years after they first discussed the
Symbolic, Rueckert has fulfilled his end of the bargain with this
book, Essays Toward a Symbolic of Motives, 1950-1955. ESSAYS TOWARD
A SYMBOLIC OF MOTIVES, 1950--1955 contains the work Burke planned
to include in the third book in his Motivorum trilogy, which began
with A Grammar of Motives (1945) and A Rhetoric of Motives (1950).
In these essays-some of which appear here in print for the first
time-Burke offers his most precise and elaborated account of his
dramatistic poetics, providing readers with representative analyses
of such writers as Aeschylus, Goethe, Hawthorne, Roethke,
Shakespeare, and Whitman. Following Rueckert's Introduction, Burke
lays out his approach in essays that theorize and illustrate the
method, which he considered essential for understanding language as
symbolic action and human relations generally. Burke concludes with
a focused account of humans as symbol-using and misusing animals
and then offers his tour de force reading of Goethe's Faust. About
the Author KENNETH BURKE (1897-1993) is the author of many books,
including the landmark predecessors in the Motivorum trilogy: A
Grammar of Motives (1945) and A Rhetoric of Motives (1950). He has
been hailed as one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth
century and possibly the greatest rhetorician since Cicero. Paul
Jay refers to him as "the most theoretically challenging,
unorthodox, and sophisticated of twentieth-century speculators on
literature and culture." Geoffrey Hartman praises him as "the wild
man of American criticism." According to Scott McLemee, Burke may
have "accidentally create d] cultural studies." About the Editor
William H. Rueckert, the "Dean of Burke Studies," has authored or
edited numerous groundbreaking books and articles on Kenneth Burke,
including the landmark study, Kenneth Burke and the Drama of Human
Relations (1963, 1982). His correspondence with Burke was collected
in Letters from Kenneth Burke to William H. Rueckert, 1959-1987
(Parlor, 2003). His most recent book is Faulkner From
Within-Destructive and Generative Being in the Novels of William
Faulkner (Parlor, 2004).
In August, 1959, an anxious William Rueckert wrote Kenneth Burke to
ask, "When on earth is that perpetually 'forthcoming' A Symbolic of
Motives forthcoming? Will it be soon enough so that I can wait for
it before I complete my book Kenneth Burke and the Drama of Human
Relations]? If the Symbolic is not forthcoming soon, would it be
too much trouble for you to send me a list of exactly what will be
included in the book, and some idea of the structure of the book?"
Burke replied, "Holla If you're uncomfortable, think how
uncomfortable I am. But I'll do the best I can. . . ." In the
course of their long correspondence, the nature of the
Symbolic-Burke's much-anticipated third volume in his Motivorum
trilogy-vexed both men, and they discussed its contents often.
Ultimately, Burke left the job of pulling it all together to
Rueckert. Forty-eight years after they first discussed the
Symbolic, Rueckert has fulfilled his end of the bargain with this
book, Essays Toward a Symbolic of Motives, 1950-1955. ESSAYS TOWARD
A SYMBOLIC OF MOTIVES, 1950--1955 contains the work Burke planned
to include in the third book in his Motivorum trilogy, which began
with A Grammar of Motives (1945) and A Rhetoric of Motives (1950).
In these essays-some of which appear here in print for the first
time-Burke offers his most precise and elaborated account of his
dramatistic poetics, providing readers with representative analyses
of such writers as Aeschylus, Goethe, Hawthorne, Roethke,
Shakespeare, and Whitman. Following Rueckert's Introduction, Burke
lays out his approach in essays that theorize and illustrate the
method, which he considered essential for understanding language as
symbolic action and human relations generally. Burke concludes with
a focused account of humans as symbol-using and misusing animals
and then offers his tour de force reading of Goethe's Faust. About
the Author KENNETH BURKE (1897-1993) is the author of many books,
including the landmark predecessors in the Motivorum trilogy: A
Grammar of Motives (1945) and A Rhetoric of Motives (1950). He has
been hailed as one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth
century and possibly the greatest rhetorician since Cicero. Paul
Jay refers to him as "the most theoretically challenging,
unorthodox, and sophisticated of twentieth-century speculators on
literature and culture." Geoffrey Hartman praises him as "the wild
man of American criticism." According to Scott McLemee, Burke may
have "accidentally create d] cultural studies." About the Editor
William H. Rueckert, the "Dean of Burke Studies," has authored or
edited numerous groundbreaking books and articles on Kenneth Burke,
including the landmark study, Kenneth Burke and the Drama of Human
Relations (1963, 1982). His correspondence with Burke was collected
in Letters from Kenneth Burke to William H. Rueckert, 1959-1987
(Parlor, 2003). His most recent book is Faulkner From
Within-Destructive and Generative Being in the Novels of William
Faulkner (Parlor, 2004).
Faulkner from Within: Destructive and Generative Being in the
Novels of William Faulkner is the culmination of William H.
Rueckert's lifetime of study of this great American novelist.
Rueckert tracks Faulkner's development as a novelist through
eighteen novels-ranging from Flags in the Dust to The Reivers-to
show the turn in Faulkner from destructive to generative being,
from tragedy to comedy, from pollution to purification and
redemption. At the heart of Faulkner from Within is Rueckert's
sustained treatment of Go Down, Moses, a turning point in
Faulkner's career away from the destructive selves of the earlier
novels and-as first manifest in Ike McCaslin-toward the generative
selves of his later work. Faulkner from Within is a wide-ranging,
beautifully written appreciation and analysis of the imaginative
life of a great American author and his complex work. William H.
Rueckert has authored or edited numerous groundbreaking books and
articles. They include the landmark study, Kenneth Burke and the
Drama of Human Relations (1963, 1982), Critical Responses to
Kenneth Burke, 1924-1966 (1969), and Encounters with Kenneth Burke
(1994). He is the editor of Letters from Kenneth Burke to William
H. Rueckert, 1959-1987 (2003, Parlor Press) and Burke's Essays
Toward a Symbolic of Motives, 1950-1955 (2004, Parlor Press). With
Angelo Bonadonna, he is the editor of Burke's On Human Nature, A
Gathering While Everything Flows, 1967-1984. He is also the author
of Glenway Wescott (1965). His essays include the often-cited
"Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism."
Burke is back. This publication in print and digital formats of
previously unpublished writings of Kenneth Burke is an event not
just for Burke studies but for the wider community of readers
interested in understanding the "progress" of literature, literary
theory, culture, rhetoric, and philosophy in the late
twentieth-century.
"On Human Nature: A Gathering While Everything Flows "brings
together the late essays, autobiographical reflections, an
interview, and a poem by the eminent literary theorist and cultural
critic Kenneth Burke (1897-1993). Burke, author of "Language as
Symbolic Action, A Grammar of Motives, "and "Rhetoric of Motives,
"among other works, was an innovative and original thinker who
worked at the intersection of sociology, psychology, literary
theory, and semiotics. This book, a selection of fourteen
representative pieces of his productive later years, addresses many
important themes Burke tackled throughout his career such as
logology (his attempt to find a universal language theory and
methodology), technology, and ecology. The essays also elaborate
Burke's notions about creativity and its relation to stress,
language and its literary uses, the relation of mind and body, and
more. Provocative, idiosyncratic, and erudite, "On Human Nature
"makes a significant statement about cultural linguistics and is an
important rounding-out of the Burkean corpus.
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