One of the main questions of my dissertation project is this: Why is there such a wide gap between student and teacher perceptions of what should be taught in FYC writing classrooms?

For the final project, Maria and I are attempting to digitize and subtitle some of the footage with Burke. Initially, we wanted to tackle the University of Iowa interviews, but in recent conversation with Dave he suggested the smaller 15-minute interview with Burke and his grandson that we watched in class (if permission is granted by Michael Burke). Our intention is to create a methodology for the digitizing and subtitling process, and to get as far along in the process as possible before the semester ends.

For my final project I will be constructing a proposal, project plan, and possible prototype for a multimedia program documenting Burke’s life. Using the chronology of Burke’s life from the Dec. 1993 Newsletter of The Kenneth Burke Society by David Curtis Williams, I will be creating an online timeline of Burke’s life. The interactive multimedia project (most likely a hybrid of flash and other mediums) I will be proposing, will highlight some of the major moments in Burke’s life along with some of his thoughts and theories about Dramatism and Rhetoric. I am also looking at various strategies of how to make the program expandable so that members of the KB Journal and The Kenneth Burke Society can submit additional information and help maintain the timeline.

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.