Topic for Final Project (Laurie)
When I was reading "Kenneth Burke's Pragmatism--Old and New," the allusion to Burke's 1923 article, "Chicago and Our National Gesture" caught my eye. Burke's article takes to task those who seek to fit American literature into a certain slot and separate it from Europe. I'm currently enrolled in the Late 19th Century American Literature class, and before I came across this reference, I had read Whitman and Howells on the formation of an American literature.
In his article, which appeared in _The Bookman_ in July of 1923, Burke mentions Whitman specifically. Whitman advocated for an American tradition in some of his essays. His poetry was an attempt to begin this.
I have a series of articles from Howells ranging from 1889-1912 concerning the development of an American literature. It at times seems to be defensive, but at other times I see Howells in agreement with some of Burke's claims.
I would also like to look at a contemporary of Burke's who wrote on the subject--some possible names I've found are Van Wyck Brooks, V.L. Parrington, W.G. Pattee, and H.H. Clark. (I've found that they tend toward the development of a definite American literature, and my first thought is that a movement toward an American literature is related to the American tendency toward isolationism before both of the world wars.) These authors would be used to establish context, really, just as Whitman would be.
I'd like to compare the different opinions, specifically honing in on Burke and Howells because these are strong voices. Howells in particular was a strong voice on the literary scene in the late 19th century, and I'm intrigued to see how the opinions play off of each other--and perhaps explore how different historical situations have colored their perspectives.
As I read _Grammar of Motives_, I also made marks in the margins where Burke was talking about nationalism or national literature. I'd like to incorporate this in to see where his view points held steady or evolved over the years. I think that this can mainly be used to expand on his points in the earlier essay--I after all also have essays ranging over a decade from Howells, so it only seems fair to examine Burke with a little bit of historical breadth. The more I read of Burke, the more I see the themes of essentialism and nationalism developing, and I see this particular essay as a specific example of how these two concepts can affect things.
Burke and American Literature
LKC:
I'm drawn to your topic for a lot of reasons. It's an important one, especially as we wrestle with Burke as a uniquely American critic and philosopher (as he has been called by people like Geoffrey Hartman).
I've written myself a lot about this subject, but not really that much since my dissertation. There's a lot in that that you might find useful, so if you can round up a copy, it might be helpful. I have a printed copy but the dissertation itself is on those big floppy disks and so I don't know if I could get you a copy. Maybe it's available electronically from UMI (?)
I also have some books (e.g., America Now) in my office that might be useful.
Here's the title, information, and abstract for the diss:
Blakesley, David Edward. "Kenneth Burke and Rhetorical Inquiry in American Criticism, 1920-1950." DAI 51.01A (1990): 01.
Though a significant number of works have applied and explained Burke's critical theory, few have situated this theory scenically or viewed it as a strategic response to both critical and cultural crises. But Burke's criticism--pragmatic, rhetorical, and democratic--is both intensely personal and historically framed. When placed within its immediate textual and cultural landscape, Burke's rhetorical inquiry becomes a means of identifying and negotiating the philosophical, political, and critical differences prevalent in American criticism between the two World Wars. Burke elaborates the relations among rhetoric, pragmatism, and democracy, then applies his conceptions of them to the issue of Americanism, culminating in his endorsement of bohemianism. He identifies rhetoric as the primary agency of critical inquiry. And in the context of American pragmatism, rhetorical inquiry promotes critical freedom, which Burke associates with democracy. American criticism during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s consisted of many factions--Impressionist, Aesthetic, Humanist, Marxist, and New Critical. Burke's theoretical discussions of rhetoric are responsive to these factions, as well as to contemporary social, political, and historical forces. In arguing for the criticism of criticism, he formalizes and validates a method of maintaining multiple viewpoints. During the 1920s Burke examines--in his articles, letters, and fiction, the possibilities of practicing and stabilizing an American aesthetic. During the 1930s, he ameliorates as pragmatist in the debate among Marxists and New Critics, opting for a union of opposites both democratic, pluralistic, and comic. During the 1940s, Burke directs much of his writing to the world crisis, arguing for the institutionalization of dialectical inquiry, or democracy. To build a critical framework that would enfranchise multiple viewpoints, he reclaims rhetoric as the necessary means for examining human attempts to identify with one another. (Copies available exclusively from Micrographics Department, Doheny Library, USC, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0182.)
Dave