Kenneth Burke Dies At Home In Andover November 19, 1993 KB and Burke: A Remembrance

who is always the perspectivist. In Don M. Burks tribute to KB, I turn to a few of the many All of us had been expecting to hear voices of the Burke he leaves with us, that KB had “cleared out.” Yet when focusing on the dialectical, the drama- the message came it was somewhat tistic, as a generating device. KB will shocking, as the ghost in Hamlet “so never be far away in this brief journey. assiduously prepared for, is yet a Of his friend, William Carlos surprise” (CS, 30). Williams, “poet and physician,” Burke The message came even as I was writes, that he was “An ebullient man” printing a course handout that crowds who “had this exceptional good luck: onto one page several of Burke’s state- that his appeal as a person survives in ments on the dialectical and dramatistic. his work. To read his books is to find Ranging from 1935 through 1984 the him warmly there, everywhere you statements demonstrate that for half a turn” (LSA, 282). Could any words century drama is the representative better describe the author himself: anecdote for Burke’s voluminous works Kenneth Burke, philosopher of language, (GM, 60).1 In different voices, Burke, poet, and yes, physician, dispenser of early and late, expresses consistently potent symbolic medicines as “Equip- his dramatistic and perspectival views. ment for Living.” The Kenneth Burke Looking through the printout right Society has lost its “eponymous after receiving the message of KB’s founder,” KB. As we knew we must lose death, I felt a reassurance that has since him, we can be equally sure that the become a transcendence I hope to share Burke of the texts survives. Those who with fellow Burkeans. Indeed, others were so fortunate as to know KB can may have had similar experiences. continue enjoying the unique privilege The many voices of Burke are as alive of finding his spirit in the “boikwoiks”2 as ever there in the text, as differing at every turn. Future generations of perspectival views, even though KB’s Burkeans will be enriched by those voice has been stilled. The voices are synecdochic, they are representative Burke Chronology ...... p 10 of Burke’s perspectivism. Unlike the Burke Poetry ...... p 12 terms of the pentad where each voice Convention Review ...... p 14 may constitute a complete vocabulary, This Issue & the Next ...... p 15 some of these voices are so playful as Letter from the Editor ...... p 16 to hardly merit the label of a perspec- Seminar Reports ...... p 17 Volume 9 Number 1 December 1993 Volume The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter tive. Nevertheless, the voices all point Convention Survey ...... Insert to a master key in understanding Burke, KB and Burke: A Remembrance works as we are, though it is unlikely that future Listen briefly to but a few of the voices of students can enjoy, so much as we, l’homme Burke. They are selected almost at random, but meme who is so ever-present in the text. see how characteristic and familiar, yet inimitable And yet, some most certainly will do so. Just they are: as we do, some of those future Burkeans will come to know the text, and to feel that they know But have I not painted myself into a corner? the writer, that his spirit is with them. Let’s see. . . . To review briefly. . . . Hope- In those last sentences you see a feeble attempt fully, I give myself one last chance. . . . to imitate one of Burke’s many midstream voice Where are we, then? All told, where are we? switches. Recall just one of them, for example. My point is: . . . . Anyhow, the main point is Consider the last sentence of a paragraph from this. . . . Do not get me wrong. So goes the “Literature as Equipment for Living,” where Burke dialectic! writes that a person “won’t sit on the side of an active volcano and ‘see’ it as a dormant plain.” That last statement, “So goes the dialectic” was as Opening sentence of next paragraph: “Often, likely to come from KB himself as it is from alas, he will” (PLF, 298). Reader’s translation: Burke’s text. A key to the charm of KB and Burke both voices, in their perspectival way, offer a view alike is that one is treated as an intellectual equal, of truth. even when it is painfully clear that one “ain’t.” After all, one sometimes feels as if one knows The egalitarian quality of KB is everywhere in “two-gun Bill” Williams, or Theodore Roethke, the Burke text, even where the going gets tough. Marianne Moore, William James, Whitman, and Consider the first several pages of RM, where nostrae dies

Emerson, or even Coleridge and Kant, when Burke says in the first sentence of the introduc- following Burke’s lead as teacher into their works. tion, “The only difficult portion of this book And sometimes one can feel a bit more at ease in happens, unfortunately, to be at the start.” Don’t the texts of Aristotle, Marx and Freud because of let him kid you; that’s the master rhetorician their influence on Burke, despite his many disagree- speaking. As all Burkeans know, the book is ments with and departures from them. Thus, there usually difficult throughout, and yet Burke is is the certainty that future students who read Burke, talking to you from the first: “Note another result with all his direct address to them, will come to here” (p. 5). “Just what are we getting at here? . . . feel they know him, just as we who knew KB, our See what our problem is. We seem to be going feelings of privileged access notwithstanding. two ways at once” (p. 9). At the end of that most Undergraduate students who read Burke seriously, difficult opening section, on page 19, just before though they never met him, sometimes surprise the beginning of the discussion on “Identifica- teachers of his works with new insights. This is tion,” there is Burke with one of the themes most all the more true of advanced students who under- basic to his works, communication as love. He take serious studies of Burke’s work, whether or presents the theme again a few pages later, “com- not they have met KB. A teacher of “boikwoiks” munication being, as we have said, a generalized is likely to be taught by students no matter how form of love” (37), and yet again, “For love is a familiar that teacher may be with the text. One communion of estranged entities. . . .” (177). must remain a student when teaching Burke since In the realm of nonsymbolic motion we are the only “way in” is through the dialectic. Here is “estranged entities,” isolated by the “principle of one more reason why the works of Burke, with individuation.”3 Yet we can transcend that isola- such rich dialectical qualities, will long remain. tion through symbolic action. As the distinction

December 1993 2 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter KB and Burke: A Remembrance between nonsymbolic motion and symbolic action would equate the “‘dramatic’ with ‘dialectic’” is basic to so much of Burke’s work, early and (PLF, 109). In reporting his analysis and interpre- late, so is the related theme, communication as tation of the ongoing human drama, here is a love. writer who in no aspect of his work would create Readers might all agree that our answers to “an appetite in the mind of the auditor” (i.e. Burke’s question, “Where are we, then? . . ,” have reader/listener) without intending “the adequate sometimes been that we have no idea. Seemingly satisfying of that appetite” (CS, 31). contradictory voices may at times confuse us, yet For KB the dialogue ended when the motion the more one comes to know the “boikwoiks” the stopped on XI/19/93 (using the way of dating he more one sees how remarkably systematic, how sometimes used), but for Burke, “Life is an balanced they are. In a small class in Burkean unending dialogue; when we enter, it’s already critical methods this semester we took the easy going on; we try to get the drift of it; we leave “way in” through the theory of form. Some class before it’s over.”5 Thus, Burke is saying the dia- members are finding this opened a door directly to logue will go on. “Decidedly so,” as KB used to pentadic analysis, and another is finding that such say. Quite literally of course, Burke provides us analysis leads to entelechial patterns of thought. with many millions of words with which readers may continue to enrich the ongoing dialectic. Let us turn from the dramatistic dialectician for a moment to Burke, the poet, though even here, the loving dialectician is present. In a letter of May 5, 1982, his eighty-fifth birthday, KB mortis

writes: “Herewith my thanks for the birthday sentiments—also in behalf of Kierkegaard and Charlie Marcus. And that’s very important, for my realistic dialectic is halfway btw. Kierkegaard’s idealistic brand and Marx’s materialistic ditto. (Ever the compromiser!)” Others are finding, of course, that Burke is ever Acknowledging payment for his recent work at the social and cultural critic, distinguishing some Purdue, and my later birthday greetings, KB was very bad medicines from useful kinds that may help also “rounding out” his visit with kind remarks. us shape our symbolic worlds more constructively. “Twas much of a mellowness among youenz. . . . In a “retrospective prospect” the turns of our I think I had promised to send a copy of the dramatistic philosopher, Burke, may sometimes enclosed.” seem as obvious as the distinction between the The “enclosed” was a copy of two related clean-cut good guy and the dirty crook in a cow- poems he had read to an audience as part of his boy movie. “But hold!” “It’s more complicated visit. He had brought along only a few copies of than that.” A Burkean cowboy, “an agile youth, the following poems which were quickly passed oo wears fool’s cap with devil’s horns, and a harle- among eager hands. On this requested copy he quin costume of two colors, dividing him down had written “the date of Libbie’s demise, for I do the middle” (RR, 276).4 There, indeed, is “perspec- so love the Latin way of doing such: ‘day’ in the tive by incongruity.” However complicated the middle, ‘of our’ and ‘of death’ surrounding. At going may sometimes get when following Burke, least, that’s how I take Latin to be.” The date was it is helpful to remember that in his analysis he “V/25/69”:

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 3 December 1993 KB and Burke: A Remembrance

Poems of Abandonment After the death of his wife KB produced no (to Libbie, who cleared out) more major books. Without her he apparently could not, in his seventies, sustain the great effort I. Genius Loci required for other books. This is certainly not to say he produced no more important work, for he Until you died, my Love made significant additions to the Burke text, some Somehow I had belief in fear of ghosts. of which are cited in this remembrance. Any But now, in this lonely place student of Burke’s work would be seriously in error that is so full of you to disregard or even to “discount” these important whereby I am not in my essence over-lonesome, additions. However, KB seemed to have made a decision to round out his life’s work by becoming what lovelier “his own living text,” to use the extraordinarily apt than if your spirit, phrase of William Rueckert.7 What he then gave was the genius of this house, l’homme meme with which many Burkeans new did materialize right here before me? and old became familiar. The trade-off of “living Dear Love, text” for less addition to the literal text in his last always I tried to earn you, score of years was for many of us a very good deal. but now you are the absolutely given We got to know the man, to carry on a dialectic with him, enabling us then to read Burke in better light. while I each night The “living text” could not have been a more lie conscious helpful addition to the literal text, the text in print. Returning again more directly to the dialectical of my loss process in Burke’s work, those who do not quite Tendebantque manus

II. Postlude

When something goes, some other takes its place. Maybe a thistle where had been a rose: or where lace was, next time a churchman’s missal. Erase, efface (Life says) when something goes.

Her death leaves such a tangled aftergrowth, By God I fear I have outlived us both. —Kenneth Burke

Copyright, 1970 by Kenneth Burke. All poetry in this issue is printed with the permission of Michael Burke.

Just above the date of his wife’s death KB had written the Latin words, “nostrae dies mortis,” appreciate Burke’s perspectivism—and there are which may be translated either “day of our death,” some sympathetic readers of Burke among them— or “days of our death.”6 Does not the last line of find no absolute in what they see as his relativism. “Postlude” suggest that KB felt a most important Yet Burke is clear in contending, “that the dialectic self also died that day? There are at least as many process absolutely must be unimpeded, if society is selves, or voices, in Burke the poet as in the to perfect its understanding of reality by the neces- dialectician. sary method of give-and-take (yield-and-advance).”

December 1993 4 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter KB and Burke: A Remembrance

Rejecting “absolutely and undeviatingly” any enough.” There was then approving laughter on dictatorship which would impede the ongoing the part of many in the audience. dialectic, Burke adds strong warning: “Silence the That moment represented in a small way the human opponent, and you are brought flat against ingenuous ingeniousness that might come even the unanswerable opponent, the nature of brute from such a brief exchange between KB and those reality itself” (PLF, 444). Clearly, the Burke that who cared greatly for him. Rountree’s point was will always be there in the text thinks of himself as a needed to make more clear what KB seemed to be realist, not as an idealist, as a perspectivist, albeit asking for. Even when a conversation is seriously one of many voices, not as a relativist. intended to be dialectical, the different voices may A main point in this remembrance is that the be more like ships passing in the night if there are spirit of KB inhabits the Burke text, and that the no reference points. A most important part of text remains easily available. In an important KB’s “operation benchmark” can be understood sense the text is finally closed since KB will not quite simply as textual reference. Clearly, there himself add to it; but, for the past several years, the will be much disagreement regarding the meaning Burke books have been more available than ever of Burke’s text. Nevertheless, the text can always before because of the University of California be used as a reference point. editions. That being so, it seems appropriate to Did KB alone create the works of Burke? Of remember here one aspect of what KB said at the course not. He had the help of a great many friends, final session of the 1990 convention of the Kenneth such as Williams and Malcolm Cowley, who were Burke Society, when he discussed what he called sometimes adversarial and quite stimulating to the “operation benchmark.” More than one tape dialectic from which he generated his writing. recording was made, and people may have differing Above all, he had the immense help of an appre- impressions, but I take one sentence from the brief ciative, understanding and cooperative family. ripae ulterioris amore

"And they stretched forth their hands, through Remember, for instance, that he seriously felt the love of the farther shore."—Virgil, The Aeneid five terms of the pentad are related to his five Whether there is or is not an ultimate shore children. He had a father’s most genuine pride in towards which we, the unburied, would cross, those children. In a conversation in 1984 while transcendence involves dialectical processes seated in his kitchen, enjoying his favorite medicine, whereby something here is interpreted in terms Absolut vodka (one suspects he liked the entelechial of something there, something beyond itself. name almost as much as the product), he explained how each term matched a respective child. Then, transcript of James Chesebro in which KB when with characteristic wit, he added that if there had quoting Burke says, as “eponymous founder” of the been a bastard child, that would have been Attitude. Society, “I just want to suggest that the way we Why? “Because attitude is everywhere but nowhere, do it, is that we call it ‘operation benchmark’ in the a child that has no home.” The wit is characteristic sense that we start with what you say, but we only because it has point, “the double kick” of a KB joke. ask that you say, ‘Burke says it this way, I say this,’ (Perhaps it should also be noted that such expensive with some such reasons.”8 He was here in perfect medicine as Absolut was for communion with com- accord with his faith in the ongoing dialectic, pany. Any generic brand might ordinarily suffice.) hopeful that there be a continuing discussion of his Burke’s work expresses a Zeitgeist, which is work. Soon after KB uttered the quoted words, and doubtless one of the reasons there are remarkable others to that effect, Clarke Rountree, with most parallels with other writers in this country as well as friendly and respectful deference said, “the prob- in Europe, though Burke’s work is a most distinctly lem is difference in opinion about what it is you’re American blend of influences such as Aristotle, saying.” To which KB responded, “That’s fair Marx, Freud, Santayana and many others depending

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 5 December 1993 KB and Burke: A Remembrance

on the perspective needed. Who else but Burke, Burke’s text, as for example, when he writes of however, will teach you, as an aside, that “the “codes of literary or musical notation” as “instruc- Hegelian Zeitgeist (as per ‘climate of opinion’)” tions for performing” (LSA, 417), as well as in his and “Weltanschauung, attitudes toward life” are essays on Shakespeare. Do not these informal synonyms? (See PC, 304. This is from “Afterword: words of KB in reference to the Bard often apply Permanence and Change: In Retrospective to Burke’s dramatistic texts? Surely, KB’s spirit Prospect,” a remarkable accomplishment for one lives in Burke’s texts, one reason being “the guy in his mid-eighties.) wrote for speech.” The text will speak to serious Did KB do his work for money? His answer readers of “boikwoiks” whether new or old if we was that he would not have done it for money will read and remember to listen. though he could never have done it without money. Transforming the jester into a prince, KB was, Few if any writers would have worked so hard for when he chose to be, a consummate comedian. He money alone. No person’s life and work could privileged the comedic even more than does better illustrate the distinction between necessitous Burke. For now we have to say “Good night, and symbolic labor which is discussed in Perma- sweet prince,” to the KB who charmed us with nence and Change (PC, 82 ff.). The home egalitarian good humor. Yet we need never think, where KB did most of his writing is quite modest, “The rest is silence,” where Burke is concerned, as although charming in its modesty. Seldom did KB we will continue to find the “spritely spirit”10 of submit himself to a regular salary to which nearly KB everywhere in the vast text of Kenneth Burke. all of us necessarily become addicted. Many years KB said he lived long because he always wanted ago, he wrote to Cowley, “I know that one pays the last word. So we must give our teacher a last requiescat enormously for a berth, and that, when wrenched word in this remembrance. Since news came in free of check-bringing, papers-to-be-marked bring- November that the motion had finally stopped in ing bureaucracy, there really are very many mo- that tired old body, I’ve continued to think of a brief ments when unemployment does equal the most poem that appears to describe another November respectable kind of leisure. . . .” 9 event at that home-place in New Jersey. Unfortu- nately the poem has too harsh a title for this occasion Despite his conflicting views about the politi- since KB enjoyed the best of care through his last cal candidates, and his growing frailty, KB voted minute in his beloved home. His family saw to that. in the recent Gubernatorial Election in New Jersey His son Michael reports that KB was sitting in his as well as in last year’s Presidential Election. kitchen when he simply “faded away.” (Michael is One of the women who helped look after KB at of the opinion that if KB had been holding a drink, his home in these last years, Ginny Brand, sent a “he would not have dropped it.”) So it should be picture of KB at the polling place, signing in clear that Burke, as poet, speaks metaphorically in before casting his ballot. She also supplied a the following poem, which he wrote years ago. If caption, quoting from KB, “Ah hell, Clinton I there is, nevertheless, a recalcitrant toughness, one guess.” Does that not ring true of the old left is reminded that Burke often finds that quality in liberal who must do his duty and vote, even when symbolic action as well as in nonsymbolic motion. his many voices make him much less than sure? Of Shakespeare, who is so obviously Burke’s Sometimes Burke’s “we” is writer addressing favorite dramatist, KB once said, “the guy wrote reader, which has been said here in epideictic for speech.” The sentence is memorable as a spirit, as though the obvious needed to be pointed typically colloquial statement about the greatest out. Often, and more importantly, this “we” is one dramatist by the then most important living critic. of “the many Kenneth Burkes”11 (to borrow from the The more formal equivalent is at various places in title of one of Bill Rueckert’s articles) telling us

December 1993 6 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter KB and Burke: A Remembrance that “a way of seeing is also a way of not seeing” In the morning, (PC, 49). In the following poem one suspects the Still shaded “we” must simply be KB and his wife, Libbie, the While the sun’s line amanuensis to whom all Burkeans owe more than Crawled towards them from the northwest, we can know. Collected Poems 1915-1967, the Under a skin of ice book in which this one appears, is dedicated “To They were at peace. Libbie.” On the title page is a line from Emerson, Don M. Burks teaches courses in rhetorical “Our moods do not believe in each other.” How- theory and the works of Kenneth Burke in the ever all these Burkean moods, views, or voices Department of Communication at Purdue may be, let Burke the poet have the typically University in West Lafayette, Indiana. tough yet loving last lines; but, please let it also be noted, that the last word from this loving, dialecti- NOTES cian and magnificent warrior of symbolic action is 1. See also, Kenneth Burke, “The Tactics of peace: Motivation,” Chimera, I (Spring 1943): 29. 2. I trust fellow Burkeans will indulge my unscholarly use of one of KB’s pet word creations throughout this remembrance. Since this essay had to be written on short notice there is not time to search the text for a formal use of “boikwoiks.” The word certainly appears in KB’s letters. For example, see The Selected Correspondence of Kenneth in pace

Burke and Malcolm Cowley, 1915-1981, ed. Paul Jay (New York: Viking Penguin, 1988), 384. Given the enormity of Burke’s accomplishment in the major books, not to mention the millions of words published outside them, KB’s reduction of it all to “boikwoiks” is characteristic of his delightful ways. He certainly enjoyed discussing his work; yet, he balanced this interest with comedic humility, MERCY KILLING as is suggested in his term “boikwoiks.” Faithfully The distinction between KB and Burke is now We had covered the nasturtiums as clear as Burke’s action-motion distinction, since Keeping them beyond Burke’s symbolic action can no longer meet in KB’s Their season body. Burke writes, “The body of the human indivi- dual is the point at which the realms of physiological Until, farewell-minded, (nonsymbolic) motion and symbolic action meet” Thinking of age and ailments, (PC, 309). In this remembrance I choose to mix KB And noting their lack of luster, and Burke somewhat in the one instance with KB’s I said: word creation, “boikwoiks.” Otherwise, I try to preserve the distinction, keeping KB and Burke “They want to die; apart. To me the distinction between the two has We should let the flowers die.” always been abundantly clear. To talk or correspond That night with Burke would have been so intimidating that I With a biting clear full moon could never have enjoyed any minute of it. With They lay exposed. KB I loved every minute of it.

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 7 December 1993 KB and Burke: A Remembrance

The statement of Marianne Moore’s cited on Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. the dust cover of Burke’s Collected Poems char- See my article “Kenneth Burke: The Agro-Bohemian acterizes KB with the precision of a poet. “His ‘Marxoid’” in Communication Studies 3 (1991): absence of affectation is one of the rarest things 219-233. See especially pp. 224-231 for a longer on earth . . . unstodgy he.” Somewhat surprisingly, excerpt from KB’s letter and another view of the her letters often address him as “Mr. Burke.” man himself in relation to his work. There is some 3. See for example, Kenneth Burke, “The discussion of Burke’s distinction between necessi- Rhetorical Situation,” in Communication: Ethical tous and symbolic labor which is mentioned above. and Moral Issues, ed. Lee Thayer (London: Gordon Also in that article is reference to the motto from A and Breach Science Publishers, 1973), 265. Grammar of Motives, “Ad Bellum Purificandum” 4. Adding to the incongruity, of course, is that or “Toward’s the Purification of War” (p. 232, note the character’s name is SATAN, and he is “obvi- 29). This motto was so important to KB that it was ously on quite friendly terms” with THE LORD, his choice for the words to be placed on the plaque (RR, 276). The following lines from TL have in front of the pedestal supporting the bust of probably occurred to many Burkeans since the news Kenneth Burke, which is on permanent display in the that KB “cleared out” at age 96: “And as one clear foyer of the Rare Books Room at Pennsylvania State proof that, in its way, it’s to be the best possible University. As reported in the Kenneth Burke of worlds, we need but bear in mind what a solace Society News- death can be, when the ravages of time make men letter for ready to leave life. It’s a solace to know that one is October 1991 not condemned to have to live for ever” (RR, 306). (p. 3), KB was 5. Kenneth Burke, “Rhetoric, Poetics, and unhesitant in Philosophy,” in Rhetoric, Philosophy, and his decision Literature: An Exploration, ed. Don M. Burks about what (West Lafayette, IN.: Purdue Univ. Press, 1978), words should 33. Burke’s best known development of this theme be on the ad bellum is in PLF, 110ff, but the statement as quoted above is plaque. See Burke's explanation of the motto a succinct mix of Burke being at once dialectician (GM, 305, 319). and poet. The phrasing seems somewhat more 10. The words “spritely spirit” are used by characteristic of the later Burke than is the discus- Leland Griffin in a brief letter he submitted for the sion of “the unending conversation’” in PLF, 1984 conference in Philadelphia where the Ken- which is a mixture of Burke and G.H. Mead. neth Burke Society was formed. Various people 6. Professors Donald Jennermann of Indiana submitted similar letters concerning their experi- State and Janice Lauer of Purdue University pro- ences with KB, some of which were read at the vided the translations. Both read Latin, both know conference luncheon. The letters were collected Burke and knew KB. Both are K.B.S. members. by Prof. Phillip Tompkins, who was master of 7. William Rueckert, Kenneth Burke and ceremonies at the luncheon, and who presented the Drama of Human Relations, 2d ed. (1963; them to KB. Whether KB liked the phrase—which reprint, Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of now, that he “cleared out,” seems particularly California Press, 1982), 229. appropriate—I do not know, though I feel sure he 8. See Extensions of the Burkeian System, would approve the spelling of “spritely” since the ed. James W. Chesebro (Tuscaloosa & London: O.E.D. records Shakespeare’s use of it. The Univ. of Alabama Press, 1993), p. vii. Prof. Griffin’s letter recalled KB’s telling of the 9. The letter, marked “not sent,” is dated following story: “There was this man lost at sea in a August 1, 1938, and may be found in the Burke File, small boat with only his dog, Rover, for a companion.

December 1993 8 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter KB and Burke: A Remembrance

Finally, when he was about to starve, the man ate essay. First is the obvious difference that KB has Rover. And when he had finished he licked his “cleared out.” The distinction I emphasize in this lips and said regretfully, ‘My, I wish Rover were remembrance is that between KB, the person, and here—he would have enjoyed these bones!” This the Burke text. This distinction happens to be so story is typical of the KB repertory. At Purdue the entirely compatible with Burke’s perspectivism dog’s name was “Bowser,” and KB delighted in and dramatism, apparently two sides of the same the telling of it, particularly in the sounds of the coin, that both sides get into the above act. last line, when he had the former dog owner saying, Before I had the great good fortune to have a “How Bowser would have loved those bones!” friendship with KB I found the Burke text intimi- My own letter for that occasion reported on a dating. KB, however, was such an unassuming, letter from KB concerning the adjectival form of lovable jester-prince that I had to take courage. “Burke.” I had written him about a humorous note Returning to the Burke text I found that KB is there, which Robert Scott had published as QJS editor, “dancing . . . an attitude” (PLF, 9), guiding, laugh- reporting three spellings, Burkean, Burkeian, and ing, and loving. What I’m trying to share in the Burkian. Not to be outdone on such a scholarly present remembrance is the transcending experience issue, KB wrote back, “As for the adjectival form of finding that the “spritely spirit” of KB is still of ‘Burke,’ I solve the problem by using the there, even after KB “cleared out” on XI/19/93. Be- cause of KB’s good work, I trust many Burkeans are The bronze bust of Kenneth Burke sculpted by sharing and will continue to share that experience. Virginia Molnar Burks is housed in the Pattee In the “Agro-Bohemian ‘Marxoid’” essay men- Library at the Pennsylvania State University. The tioned in the previous note (#10) I write that KB’s plaque on the supporting pedestal reads: life coheres with his message, a point that is easily Kenneth Burke/1897- /Ad Bellum Purificandum (Burke's choice of words).9 Photos in this issue supported. Even as a very old man his dedication are of the clay bust from which the bronze was to his work was like religious devotion. So far as I cast. Taken in 1985 and copyrighted by Virginia know, however, KB never acknowledged theistic Burks, they are used with her permission.9 belief. In his article “Theology and Logology,” purificandum Kosenamen I have for myself, ‘Ignatz de Burp,’ Kenyon Review (new series, I, 1979, p. 153), he from which obviously one gets ‘Burpian.’” (Letter writes, “Logology can’t either affirm or deny the to the author, August 7, 1974.) existence of God. Atheism is as far from the realm 11. The essay is in Representing Kenneth of logology as is the most orthodox of Fundamen- Burke, ed. Hayden White and Margaret Brose talist religions” (p. 153). This is the position of (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Burke and was also, I think, that of KB personally. 1982). It is sometimes difficult to say anything Nevertheless, in my article, I suggest that KB’s about Burke’s work not already said by others, devotion to his work “yielded him a paradoxically particularly by Bill Rueckert. When I say Burke selfless kind of self-realization, as with the selfless is a perspectivist, however, I base the statement on devotion and paradoxical fulfillment of genuine reli- a conversation in which KB said precisely these gion” (p. 230). His comedic outlook, particularly as words, “I am a perspectivist.” He was so emphatic manifested in his ironic view of most everything in- and clear about the point that I recall it vividly. cluding himself, saved him from destructive spiritual Even so, in the remembrance above I am saying in pride, which might otherwise have been a problem a brief way certain of the things Rueckert says for anyone of such remarkable accomplishment. better and in more depth in “Some of the Many Surely KB would liked to have believed his spirit Kenneth Burkes.” would finally again be at peace with that of Libbie. There are, of course, differences in what I try to Let us hope this is now true. say above and the objectives of Rueckert’s scholarly "BOIKWOIKS CITED" on page 23

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 9 December 1993 A Burke Chronology

This chrononlogy extends and 1923 Temporary managing editor updates Armin Paul Frank's in the of The Dial (Jan-Oct); on Chronology Compiled by Twayne series volume Kenneth again, off again in various David Cratis Williams Burke. Most of Burke's publica- editorial roles at The Dial tions have been omitted to save for rest of decade. space and avoid unnecessary "Third editor" for Succession duplicating already available mediating between Matthew bibliographies of Burke's writing. Josephson & Gorham Munson 1897 Born to James Leslie Burke (Mar-Sept) & Lillyan May Duva 1924 Publishes "Prince Llan" in 1911-15 Attends Peabody High Broom; issue suppressed by School in Pittsburgh; class- postal authorities as obscene . . . beyond these tiny mates include Malcom because of short story; Broom concentration points of Cowley & James Light folds (Jan) rhetoric and traffic, there lies 1915 Moves with family to 1925 Publishes first essay of the eternally unsolvable Weehaken, NJ; works critical theory, "Psychology Enigma, the preposterous fact briefly as a bank runner of Form," in The Dial that both existence and 1916 Enrolls at Ohio State; 1926-27 Researcher, Laura nothingness are equally publishes poetry and short Spelman Rockefeller Memorial unthinkable. stories in Sansculotte, 1927-29 Music critic for The Dial edited by James Light (Feb). 1928-29 Staff member, Returns to Weehaken (Jun). Bureau of Social Hygiene Enrolls at Columbia; meets 1929 Dial Award ($2000) for BORN V 5 1897 - DIED XI 19 1993

Matthew Josephson & distinquished service to Richard McKeon (Fall) American letters 1918 Withdraws from Columbia, 1933 Following divorce, marries Our speculations may run never taking mid-year exams Elizabeth Batterham on Dec the whole gamut, from play, 1918-19 Lives in Greenwich Village, 18 (two children: James through reverence, even to reading and studying; shares Anthony & Kenneth Michael) an occasional shiver of cold quarters with, variously and 1934-36 Music critc for The Nation metaphysical dread—for among others, James & Susan 1935 Guggenheim Fellowship always the Eternal Enigma is Light, Malcom Cowley, Participates in the American there, right on the edges of Djuna Barnes, Stuart Davis, Writers Congress (Apr) our metropolitan bickerings, & Berenice Abbott 1937 Lecturer in Practice & Theory stretching outward to 1919 Marries Lily Mary Batterham of Literary Criticism, New interstellar infinity and inward on May 19 (three children: School of Social Research to the depths of the mind. Jeanne Elspeth, Eleanor Duva, 1938 Lecturer, University of Chicago And in this staggering & Francis Batterham) 1943-61 Teaches at Bennington disproportion between man 1920-25 Publishes short stories, College and no-man, there is no place reviews, and translations in a 1946 Member, National Institute of for purely human boasts of variety of "little magazines," Arts & Sciences grandeur, or for forgetting that most notably The Dial, an 1949 Lecturer, Princeton University. men build their cultures by association that lasts until the Fellow, Princeton Institute for huddling together, nervously magazine ceases publication Advanced Studies loquacious, at the edge of an in 1929 1949-50 Lecturer, University of abyss. 1921 Purchases farm in Andover Chicago

December 1993 10 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter Burke's Last Day

1950 Lecturer, Kenyon College 1969 wife "Libbie" dies on May 25 1981 Gold Medal for Eminence 1952/58 Lecturer, Indiana U. 1970 Horace Gregory Award, New in Belles Lettres, National 1957-58 Fellow, Center for Advanced School for Social Research. Medal for Literature Study in Behavioral Sciences Ingram Merrill Foundation 1982 Honorary Degree, Emory U. 1962/64 Lecturer, Drew U. Award in Literature. George Herbert Mead Award 1963 Lecturer, Pennsylvania State U. Honorary Degrees: Dartmouth from the Society for the 1964-65 Regents Professor, College & Fairfield University Study of Interaction University of California at 1970-71 Lecturer, Washington U. 1984 Temple Discourse Conference/ Santa Barbara 1972 Lecturer, Wesleyan U. "Kenneth Burke Conference"; 1966 Visiting Professor, Central Honorary Degrees, Burke Society formed Washington State College. Northwestern University & 1985 Fellow, Institute for the Honorary Degree, the University of Rochester Arts & Humanities. Bennington 1974 Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Doctorate Humane Letters, 1966-67 Rockefeller Foundation Professor of English, Queens College Grant ($10,000) University of Pittsburgh 1986 "Kenneth Burke in 1986" 1967 Member, American 1976 Walker-Ames Visiting Professor Conference at Seton Hall U. Academy of Arts & Sciences. of English, Washington U. 1987 New Jersey Senate Brandeis U. Special Award for Honorary Degree, Indiana State Resolution honoring his Notable Achievement in the Arts University 90th birthday 1967-68 Lecturer, Harvard U. 1977 Award for Contribution to 1990 1st Kenneth Burke Society 1968 Poet of the Year Award, Humanities (American Conference, New Harmony, New Jersey Association of Academy of Arts & Sciences) Indiana Teachers of English 1979 Honorary Degree, Kenyon 1993 Dies at farm in Andover A BURKE CHRONOLOGY

Ginny Brand is one of the women who helped care for KB these last KB's years. She wrote a report on KB’s LAST last day for his oldest son Anthony (“Butch”), a Physics Professor at the DAY University of Victoria in BC, Canada. Through the courtesy of Ms. Brand, and Anthony & Michael Burke her report is excerpted below. She indicates writing at “11/20/93 1am” when she must have been quite tired. I arrived at 7:30am. . . . KB was already awake. . . . He requested his new red shirt. He stepped strongly . . . and seemed alert. How are you? . . . “Not bad today,” he replied. He wanted oatmeal, had juice and vitamins. . . . Later he went in [to his bedroom] for a nap. He was hungry on awakening, ate a big lunch and then napped again. We had discussed going for a ride even though it was a gray and misty day. At 3pm he was ready to go. He wore his red outside shirt, hat, gloves and scarf. Who sewed the K.B. on your scarf, I asked, “I don’t know.” Do you want to ride [in a wheelchair] over to the To Affect the Quality of the Day car or walk? “I can walk,” and he did. Is No Small Achievement (continued on page 24)

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 11 December 1993 Five Moments from Collected Poems 1915-1967 by Kenneth Burke

LINES FROM OUT MY SCATTERHOOD

It was all there in First-Land sweetly sleeping peacefully infolded the Primal Now all set to linger on through Any-When the moveless meaning beyond the verbal flux the essence within existence the Word within the words.

Oh, lead me to the First-Land of Primal Any-When.

Word-logged, I praise the Principle of Perfect Laudability the Absolute Magistrate (the Sanskrit HUTA, the Petitioned).

Drop the a (hence HUT) change gutteral aitch to gutteral g (hence GUT) make unvoiced t into its voiced cognate d (hence GUD) allow for the minor ablaut transforming of u into o —and Hail! from the miracle potencies of speech there stands forth GOD (revealed by logo-logic)

Oh, lead me to the First-Land where all is sweet as dawn

birds singing in the mist in springtime their avid taking-in and giving-forth and me petitioning HUTA, praising the Principle of Perfect Laudability.

Oh, lead me to the dew at dawn in First- Land

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter December 1993 12 BURKE “ . . . to begin with, a poet”—Marianne Moore

THE HABIT OF IMPERFECT RHYMING AN ASSERTION TO END ON Lips now rhyme with slops Relaxing to the fall Hips with blobs hoarding accurate acute remembrances Passion with nuclear fission pronouncing them beautiful And beauty with shoddy. even as the body leans toward subsidence The word for lovely leisure, "school," Is now in line with urban sprawl. saying thanks in principle Are we blunted or haunted? from amidst much bepuzzlement Is last year's auto a dodo? a smile here, a caressing there Let widow be bedded the click of an expression With shadow and meadow.* (for we are sentenced to the sentence) All this is necessary and now, with the coming of spring Says the secretary— coming and coming and coming— Else moan, groan, bone must go with alone, and the body (pause) . . . As breath must go with death. This winter, having stayed north, we earned the *As far back as high school, I decided that widow-shadow- rights of spring—against snow meadow are the most perfect possible imperfect rhymes. the chickadees learned to fly down Ever since then I have been trying to fit them just right into fly up and eat out of our hands a poem--and maybe some day I'll succeed. greedy wild frail bodies their cold clutch on our fingers they alighted and were proved right in trusting us Yes, by far (I guess) the chance to have lived outdoes KB the need to die AN AUTHOR'S VISION OF THE AFTERLIFE ONE LIGHT IN A DARK VALLEY An Intra-Mural Poem Imitation Spiritual In those Great Days of Perfect Timelessness One light in a dark valley When all will be like one long happy fart and the mist is falling like rain Some swillin supernatural Scotch One light in a dark valley Some boltin beautified bourbon and I'm alone again. Some guzzlin rye Some layin the ladies all over the lot One light in a dark valley Some just catchin up on their heavenly homework and I am all alone. Some smitin their enemy's other cheek One light in a dark valley Some comin is all I can call my own. Some goin One light in a dark valley Some just sittin there praisin and the darkness movin' about. Some sellin dear One light in a dark valley Some buyin dead cheap and now that light has gone out. At the ultimate auction Eternally No light in a dark valley nothin' but darkness and me. And no one in hell at all No light in a dark valley But Myron Boardman* of Prentice-Hall. for all eternity. *Myron L. Boardman, who retired in 1963 as president of the Prentice-Hall trade book division (PW, October 7, 1963) has been Oh . . . elected to the board of directors of Hawthorn Books. Since his Light it up Lord, make it shine, good retirement from Prentice-Hall, Mr. Boardman has been executive God'll make his heaven bright(i)ly mine director of the Foundation for Christian Living, which publishes I'll look through every window and I'll walk and distributes the printed sermons and specialized writings of through every door. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale."—Publishers' Weekly, vol. 192, no. 6 And there'll be such gladness 'round me I won't (October 16, 1967), 42. want for any more. Burke Society Gathers in Airlie The Kenneth Burke Society's second triennial conference gathered in Airlie, Virginia on May 6-9, 1993. Kenneth Burke, who celebrated his 96th birthday on May 5, was not in attendance as he had been at the first conference in New Harmony, Indiana in 1990 and the founding conference in Philadelphia in 1984. Though his absence was certainly felt by the international assembly of students and scholars, it did not dampen a Burkeian spirit for joining in the fray during debates, discussions, seminars, and papers nor for enjoying conversation, entertainment, walks, food, and drink during off hours in the somewhat agro- but hardly bohemian surroundings of Airlie House conference center. Thursday night featured President Days were dedicated to seminars Donn Parson's keynote speech on (see reports following, pages 17-23), “Whole Burkeians & Part Burkeians” paper presentations (on civil rights; and Friday night Celeste Condit's Latino rhetoric; political rhetoric; keynote on “ACT II: The Burkeian politics & art; hierarchy, image & Legacy for the 21st Century.” Friday form; technology, culture & ideology; night the Society presented awards philosophy; religion), panel discus- for Lifetime Achievement to William sions (on feminism, the rhetoric of Rueckert, Distinguished Service to science, the interdisciplinary nature James Chesebro, Emerging Scholar of Burke's thought, the future of the to Dale Bertelsen, and Outstanding Society), and a debate (“should Burke Graduate Essay to Dina Stevenson. be understood as a Postmodern?”) Friday night also began a shift At Saturday's business meeting from the academic to the artistic with new officers were elected: Donn the screening of the film on KB that Parson, President; Andy King, Harry Chapin had been producing Vice-President; Star Muir, Treasurer before his death. Just completed and Chief Convention Planner for under the supervision of Chapin's 1996; Richard Thames, Editor of wife, the film was brought to Airlie Publications. Bertelsen was com- and presented by Burke's youngest mended for his work as past editor. son, Michael. Many expressed The 1993 convention marked interest in obtaining a video copy, the Society's ninth anniversary. the possibility of which is being According to Chesebro since the investigated. (More news will appear 1990 convention membership has in the Newsletter's May issue.) doubled, regional and disciplinary Saturday night saw Sheron Dailey branches have increased, and finan- and Mary Mino's presentation of cial resources grown and stabilized. “Towards a Better Life: Burke's In April, the University of Alabama Fiction, Poetry, and Music as published papers from New Harmony REVIEW OF THE 1993 TRIENNIAL CONVENTION ‘Equipment for Living’: A Non- in Extensions of the Burkeian Proforma Performance.” System, edited by Chesebro.

December 1993 14 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter Awards Committee Formed receiving a doctoral degree. (4) Arnie Madsen The Outstanding Graduate Essay Communication Award honors the superior graduate 1996 University of Pittsburgh essay submitted for the triennial At the Airlie convention the Burke convention. (For 1993's recipients, Convention Society Awards Committee was please see the story on page 15.) formed and charged with selecting The committee will issue a individuals to be honored at the formal call for nominations one year Steps preliminary to next triennial. The chair is Arnie before the triennial convention. organizing the 1996 Madsen; members are Chris Allen Members of the Society are encour- convention are under- Carter (Oklahoma City Univer- aged to nominate any individual way according to newly sity), Mark McManus (Mary who meets the requirements for an elected Chief Convention Washington College),and Jean C. award. Recipients must be Society Planner Star Muir of Miller (University of Maryland, members. A formal letter of George Mason Univer- College Park). nomination is required for each sity. "Burke's centenary" The Society currently presents award. Supporting documentation is being considered as a four awards, the last two of which should include a detailed vita of the theme; sites and rates were new in 1993: (1) The Life- nominee and letters from colleagues. are being investigated. time Achievement Award honors a Other supporting material will also Plans involve expanding career of outstanding research, be considered. Material is to be pubilicity efforts into new scholarship, and teaching about forwarded to the chair who will areas and fostering inter- Burke. Nominees must have distribute it to committee members. disciplinary perspectives academic careers spanning at least The deadline for receiving nomina- at the convention. 25 years. 1990’s recipient: Leland tion material is December 1 of the Members are asked to Griffin. (2) The Distinguished year immediately preceding the please fill out and mail Service Award honors individuals triennial convention. in the enclosed survey with notable professional service To receive more information, to provide input into at the regional or national level. nominate an individual, or suggest the decision making 1990’s recipient: Sheron Dailey. additional awards, please contact process. Muir may be (3) The Emerging Scholar Award the committee chair: Arnie Madsen, contacted with specific honors scholars beginning their Department of Communication, 1117 reactions or sugges- professional careers. Recipients Cathedral of Learning, University of tions by phone at 703- must have been actively engaged Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Phone: 412-624- 993-1093 or E-mail at in full-time teaching and research 8531. Fax: 412-624-1878. E-Mail: [email protected]. for no more than five years after [email protected].

THIS ISSUE AND THE NEXT continued from page 22 In this insistence as in the Delays involving the Newsletter's November issue made possible others, the consideration of this edition on KB's death, devotion to which caused still further Burke and postmodernism delay. Sincere thanks to Don Burks who at the editor's November 22 generated a field of productive invitation wrote "KB and Burke" during holidays and finals. Thanks differences, and it was in to Don Burks also for Ginny Brand's report, received after he com- tracing those differences that pleted his own essay. At the suggestion of William Rueckert this the members of the “Burke and May's issue will be devoted to "representative anecdotes" about KB Postmodernism” seminar and reactions to his life and death. Fellow Burkeians are urged to continued to confront most send material, including photos, to the editor by late March. Extra clearly the connections between copies of both this issue and the next will be available for $1.50 Burke and the discursive space each; notice of interest before the May issue would be appreciated. of contemporary culture, or where we live now.

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 15 December 1993 1993 Convention Review

The theme for the Kenneth Burke Society’s Airlie gathering was “Extensions of the Burkeian System.” Letter from According to Chief Convention Planner Jim Chesebro, the theme was suggested by Burke himself in his call the Editor for “Operation Benchmark” at the end of the New Harmony gathering. Asked by Chesebro what he Producing the Newsletter has meant, Burke explained he wanted to develop a increased my admiration for scheme whereby one could meet the test of being a former editor Dale Bertelsen's Society member. He objected to “guru stuff,” seeing accomplishment. My hope is no reason for being authoritative. Arguing the need to maintain his standard. Tran- sition to a new editorship has for “some leeway in this business,” he recommended not been without difficulty or that Burkeian studies be governed by a perspective expense (mailing lists, com- maintaining “Burke said it’s this way, I say it’s this.” puters, software, viruses, etc.) Thanks to my predecessor, my colleague Clark Edwards, my chair Ron Arnett, and my Extensions of the dean John McDonald for their assistance and support. By tradition the issue after the triennial is a convention Burkeian System report. With prior commit- ments for other issues, a new In adopting the “Extensions” theme The best will find their way into editor's mark may not be the Airlie convention committee journals or a volume representing apparent for a year. Editorial sought to answer Burke's call, to the conference just as The Legacy differences then may be only matters of degree—more encourage Society members to of Kenneth Burke and Extensions conflicting points of view, more advance beyond close readings of of the Burkean System represent interdisciplinary representation. his text and investigate instead the past conferences. The essential One significant difference potential of his ideas. The bases spontaneity of live debate and cannot be seen but has caused for judging the 1993 convention’s lively discussion cannot be recap- much delay—the Newsletter's success, said Chesebro, should be tured in the Newsletter, though being completely computer- the degree to which it “promotes points raised may be addressed in ized, a process that will make the development and evolution of future forums. Seminars are publication faster and easier Burkeian studies” by fostering new another matter. They involve sig- and more graphics possible. applications and further extensions, nificant issues being studied over Another difference will not be seen until next year—the and the degree to which it “gener- months by individuals preparing Newsletter's serving as a ates a self-reflexive re-examination for the conference and scrutinized clearing house for biblio- regarding the limits” of Burkeian over four days in meetings total- graphic data. Much has been thought. “We need to go beyond ling five hours formally and many published since bibliographies what Kenneth Burke has offered,” more informally. They are most appeared in Simons & Melia's Chesebro continued. “We each representative of the ongoing Legacy of Kenneth Burke and need to assume responsibility for conversation central for a Society Foss, Foss, & Trapp's Con- the limitations, extensions, and dedicated to the study, understand- temporary Perspectives on potentials” of Burke's system. ing, dissemination, research, Rhetoric (2d ed.) Accord- The diversity of papers critical analysis, and preservation ingly members are urged to send the editor information presented in programs, arguments of Burke’s works. Reports on on primary and secondary articulated during debates, and seminar deliberations were publications in order to issues examined during panel delivered at the convention’s close. correct bibliographies prior discussions and seminar sessions Their wider dissemination depends to or update bibliographies reflects the conference theme. upon the Newsletter. They follow, after 1986. The more than 30 papers cannot indicative of the rich interaction be included in the Newsletter. at Airlie.

December 1993 16 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 1993 Convention Review

the dialectical structure of language emerge characteristic features of linguistic pro- As Dialectician cesses, e.g. merger and division (identifi- KB cation and difference), transformation, polar- ization, hierarchy, transcendence, etc. Being grounded in language, Burke’s dialectic Submitted by Coordinator differs from those of Plato, Hegel, and Marx. David Cratis Williams (2) Burke’s dialectic allows humans to Communication draw distinctions—but not to reify catego- NE Missouri State University ries. For Burke, the process of definition is Participants: David Blakesley, Angelo not the location or stipulation of what some- Bonadonna, Dennis Ciesielski, Bob thing is, but rather what it is not; however, Fulford, Karl Kageff, Jim Klumpp, Arnie perfectionist or entelechial pressures tend to Madsen, Mark McManus, Jean Miller, obscure this ironic condition of language J. Tim Pierce, David Cratis Williams. and can create an illusion, or hypostatization, of what is (echoing Coleridge’s notation that In a dialectical spirit, the report of this linguistic distinctions tend to create catego- seminar on “Kenneth Burke as Dialectician” ries which do not facilitate thought but is really two reports: first, and ironically, a rather come to think for us). Dialectic is report on our discussions about what Kenneth empowering in that it provides for an aware- Burke’s theory of dialectics is “in itself”; ness of the processes of transformation, and second, a report on our discussions about thereby allowing us to use language and not what Kenneth Burke’s theory of dialectics is be used by language. Yet dialectic is also in relation to other prominent theories of constraining in that it promotes a modera- dialectics, notably those associated with tion of action: dialectic is not debunking. Plato, Hegel, and Marx. Two caveats also (3) Dialectic can be converted to drama need to be posited at the outset: first, via psychological identification with linguistic although the language of this report will talk distinctions. Drama is literally the enact-ment about Burke’s “theory” of dialectics, his by human agents of the agon of differ-ence, thought about dialectics may not be so sin- and the agon of difference is constituted in gular and contained—there may be multiple, and by the processes of dialectic. Psycho- overlapping theoretical perspectives; and logical identifications with dialectically second, although the language of this report created, transformed, and re-formed distinc- will talk about “our” findings or conclusions, tions convert those distinctions into, person- Burke & Dialectic and although there seemed ally, the drama of self and, socially, what to be a considerable degree Rueckert has called the “drama of human of consensus, univocality relations.” That is, internally these processes should not be assumed. Not are creative of individual “identity” and the all participants may wish to sense of “self”; externally they are creative of be implicated in all of the society and sociality itself. following assertions. We (4) Burke’s dialectic is not one of oppo- organize our report around sition but rather of betweenness. Burke’s nine overlapping assertions dialectic does not operate in the realm of the concerning Kenneth Burke either/or but rather the both/and; the dialectic is as dialectician. in the “margin of overlap” between two (1) Burke’s dialectic is terms. The betweenness of the dialectic among other things linguis- facilitates transformations of one term into tic in character. The negative another; it does not promote opposition or inaugurates an ineradicable polarization. Dialectic “dances” in the be- dialectic in language, and the consequent para- tweenness of two terms or concepts. In this dox of substance is an example par excellence sense, the “attitude” or “spirit” of Burke’s of the Burkean conception of dialectics. From dialectic is ironic, not contradictory or

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 17 December 1993 1993 Convention Review antagonistic: Burke’s dialectic is the “essence” concepts (e.g., “proportionalizing” or of the comic perspective. Through the ironies “equipment for living”). The slash is the of the dialectic, comic perspective is enabled as tertium quid always lurking between two a corrective to the tragic frame (the trajectory of terms or concepts the tragic is toward the elimination of the subjected to dialecti- dialectic in an hypostatization of what is). cal analysis; it is this (5) Burke’s dialectic neither contains nor third part which is aspires toward a determined telos; rather, the the locus of choice, telos of Burke’s dialectic is undetermined and and—to invoke again open-ended. In contrast to the dialectics of the metaphor of a Plato, Hegel, or Marx, Burke’s dialectic is not rubber band—the method toward a determined telos (e.g., truth, wider the space spirit, or classless society); in fact, Burke’s between the two dialectic may be conceived of as method to sides, the greater the keep from reaching a determined end. In its locus of choice betweenness, Burke’s dialectic is always within the space. “middle of the road,” always compensated by (7) Burke’s division. As enacted in drama by human agents, dialectic inaugurates/ Burke’s dialectic is conversational, not resolu- preserves symbolic tional: it may be compared with a “dialogic con- action. The dialectic is the locus of versation.” Burke’s dialectic keeps choice alive; it choice; without the dialectic, choice- is the undetermined locus of choice, and such facilitated action would turn to motion. an undetermined locus of choice preserves The process is exemplified by the what may be termed “dialectical freedom.” paradox of purity (in which the nega- (6) Burke’s dialectic resides “in the slash” tive—the dialectical “other”—is effaced in between the terms under consideration, and an illusion of the pure presence of what dialectical freedom is enhanced as the slash is is): pure communication (unity) culmi- “widened.” The metaphor “in the slash” de- nates in Silence, for there is no need to rives from Burke’s discussion of motives as speak; conversely, pure division (indi- ratios between terms of the pentad (hexad). viduation) culminates in meaningless Thus, in a “scene/act” ratio, the motive is in babble, for there is no common language the “betweenness” of scene and act, which is in which to speak. In each instance, the to say “in the slash.” Dialectical freedom dialectically inaugurated/preserved does not arise out of over-turning or revers- realm of symbolic action is transformed ing dialectically constructed hierarchies (e.g., into the dialectically bereft realm of cultural/natural), even if such over-turning is non-symbolic motion. simply a transitory “revolutionary step” in (8) Burke’s dialectic, while keeping the hierarchically paired terms con- “grounded” in language, is multidimen- stantly revolving; rather, dialectical freedom sional. Although “grounded” in or derived arises out of a widening of the slash, but the from the linguistic theories of symbolic widening is always constrained: the slash action, including the paradox of sub- never obliterates the terms or concepts under stance, Burke’s dialectic attains multidi- consideration. The metaphor of a rubber band mensionality when enacted by human suggests the concept: you may stretch it agents, when converted into drama. The (widening what is between the sides being conversion of linguistic dialectic to drama stretched), but when released it snaps back to transforms abstract, disembodied ideas its earlier form, albeit slightly transformed and into the inhabited, material, and ideo- “relaxed” from the very experience of having logical world; these transformations been stretched. To achieve “maximum, self encompass dialectics both with others consciousness,” or dialectical freedom, one and with material elements. Similarly, the must “live in” the slash. “Living in the conversion of linguistic dialectic to drama Ecology, Technology Ecology,

Slash” is associated with other Burkean transforms abstract, disembodied ideas

December 1993 18 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 1993 Convention Review

the coin as represented by eco-terrorism and by the wise-use movement, and he frames his comic corrective as a possibility of action KB Ecology, balanced within an appropriately ironic and reflexive mode. Finally, as individuals, Burke Technology & Critical Practice enjoins us to act as a community, but never to forget the body, the animality that precedes symbolicity. Submitted by Coordinator It may also be true, however, that in posing Star Muir his distinction between Nature and Counter- Communication Nature, Burke has set up oppositions that might George Mason University be read as polarizing good and evil in human affairs. His own emphasis on the speciality of Participants: Jane Blankenship (coordinator), man, the uniquely symbol-using animal, entails Dan Bloomingdale, Dan Buehler, Star Muir, a particular placement and an awareness of William Rueckert. place within the natural order. Perhaps it is more useful to think of this distinction as really Kenneth Burke’s critical system can be cast a continuum between Nature and Counter- largely as a response to scientism and Nature, and to recognize that there are instances technologism in the 20th Century. His notions were Counter-Nature can help Nature. Using of piety, satire, discrimination, the organic ultralight planes to reinsert cygnets into the metaphor, and entelechy, among others that wild and develop migratory patterns, as one circle around his view of a “little fellow among example, illustrates the possibility in this the sciences” named Ecology, ground his regard. Even as he posits this antipathy, how- conception of the symbol-using and misusing ever, Burke is drawn to the reversal of his animal in Nature and Counter-Nature. This original definition: "Symbol-using Animals" seminar addressed central questions about becomes "Bodies that Learn Language." Avoid- Burke’s thoughts on ecology and about critical ing absolute polarity is a strength of Burke’s practice in an age of environmental degradation ability to dance between positions. and evolving ecological consciousness. Our Extending Burke’s system in such a way is musings and conclusions focused on three an essential task as the 21st century approaches. areas: the place of the individual, the relation- Burke’s analytical, essentializing move in his ship between Nature and Counter-Nature, and Dramatism and his Logology lacks reinsertion the possibility of extending Burke's system. into a historical and temporal narrative that Following Burke, a focus on the individual characterizes human existence. Burke stops at in a technological society places great emphasis the text; his critics must take readers past the on attitude and instills a caution about action. point where the text ends. The seminar as a whole The desire for instant gratification and immedi- agreed that such extension represents one area ate solutions to environmental problems, can where Burke needs more attention. With the itself be a form of technologism (a solution for exception of some passing references, two book action’s sake). Burke also provides debunking chapters, and one early article, there has not been tools which, while characterized by organic, much work on Burke, ecology, and technology ironic and poetic perspectives, treat romantic at all. This is an important arena, one critical and sentimental claims (i.e., many environmen- for understanding Burke as well as for shaping tal appeals) with due care and caution. Burke is critical practice and engaging the common ever wary of extremes, including both sides of concerns of an evolving technological society. & Critical Practice

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 19 December 1993 1993 Convention Review into inhabited, corporeal, psychological Being; the dialectic changes in non-determined ways. these transformations encompass dialectics of “self” (9) Burke is a dialectician who uses dialectic (as with Mead’s “I-me” dialectic), of the conscious/ in a “strong” sense. A distinction was drawn (a unconscious, and of the mind/body. Burke’s dialectic was established) between a “strong” dialectic is thus seen as a complex and multidimen- dialectician and a “weak” dialectician. A weak sional structure of language/drama/world/being. dialectician, or a weak sense of dialectic, uses the (Dialectical critique of this multidimensional struc- term “dialectic” in a general and often metaphorical ture is the work of logology—or words about sense; a strong dialectician, or a strong sense of [symbolic, dialectical, inhabited] words.) The multi- dialectic, uses the term “dialectic” as a generating dimensionality of Burke’s dialectic, notably the principle. In the strong sense, dialectic is seen conceptualization of dialectic as working on several as generating or accounting for key aspects of the different levels at the same time, may also distin- human condition. Burke uses dialectic in the strong guish Burke’s dialectic from other theorists'; Marx’s sense; dialectic is a generating principle for maxi- dialectic, for instance, seems to operate on only one mum self-consciousness of the human condition. level at a time. Moreover, the multidimensionality Burke sees dialectic as a counter-statement to the of Burke’s dialectic negates any sense of telos for the trope of language which allows humans to use dialectic: as the dialectic is worked through, as it plays rather than be used by language, which inaugurates/ itself out through various dimensions, it is transformed preserves symbolic action, and which thereby —and an altered or different dialectic emerges. establishes the space for human freedom. Kenneth There thus can be no telos for the dialectic because Burke is indeed a dialectician, a strong dialectician.

with various aspects of feminism. Burke’s vision comes close to being a feminist one, some suggested, And Feminism in that it is holistic, connective, open-ended, coop- KB erative, and ecological. But Burke loses sight of his feminist vision as he seeks to implement it, given that implementation requires his adapting that vision Submitted by Coordinator to the Western philosophical tradition. The sugges- Sonja K. Foss tion also was made that feminists might try to read Communication Burke without identifying him with all the theoretical Ohio State University interpretation and critical application that has been Participants: Sonja K. Foss, Karen A. Foss, produced in rhetorical studies in the last three decades. Julie Fraley, Cindy L. Griffin, Phyllis M. Japp, His ideas then might be freed from some of the anti- Harriet McNeal, Deborah Robson, Martha feminist assumptions often argued to undergrid his Solomon, Tilly Warnock, Susanne Williams. work. Others suggested that other analyses of basic symbolic processes might reveal different motives The seminar examined a variety of relationships and structures from those Burke identifies; when possible between feminist theory and the works of combined with these analyses, Burke’s ideas might Kenneth Burke, emphasizing the question of be more compatible with feminist theory. Other whether feminist communication scholars should participants noted that Burke is sympathetic to make use of Burke’s ideas. Participants suggested women’s experiences because of his own experience a wide range of answers to the question. as the “underdog” in almost every situation. Those who believed Burke’s notions could be Yet another perspective offered in the seminar was of use suggested, for example, that Burke, better that, although Burke’s contributions to rhetorical than any other theorist, explains the socio-political theory have been significant, he has little to offer milieu in which women live. He describes very well feminist understandings of rhetoric. Some suggest- the systems of domination, the rhetoric that occurs ed that Burke’s system does not allow for a type of within them, and the ways that individuals use rhetoric, currently being identified and explicated symbols to maneuver within them. An understand- by feminist scholars, in which persuasion is not the ing of this milieu is important for feminist scholars. central focus. For an explication of such feminist Others in the seminar saw Burke as aligned rhetorics, Burke’s notions are largely irrelevant.

December 1993 20 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 1993 Convention Review

vicariously through journalists or political experts. They are concerned less with politicians’ providing solutions for problems KB Political Burkeology and more with their conveying a personal understanding of or concern for the people they represent. To reach this politic, Submitted by politicians have exploited new channels of Terry Croy communication and modified their messages. Communication (graduate student) They have shifted from providing the elec- University of Maryland torate with “knowledge” to providing it with therapy or “feeling.” Participants: Bernie Brock, James Combs How applicable is Burke to these (coordinator), Terry Croy, Cynthia King, challenges? First, his emphasis on the Paul Stewart, Paula Wilson. importance of the symbolic points to ways of dealing with these problems. “Attitude” The seminar examined three questions: What has become more important than “fact.” suggests political communication is chang- Townhall meetings and events like “Take ing? Why are these changes occurring? Back the Night” marches or the recent Gay How applicable is Burke to these changes? Rights March in Washington, D.C., offer The appearance of presidential candi- people a way of expressing their feelings dates Ross Perot on the Larry King show and seeing what is possible as opposed to and Bill Clinton on MTV and the Arsenio providing concrete solutions to problems. Hall show suggests that the channels Secondly the motion/action relationship politicians use as well as the messages they remains central to understanding rhetors. communicate are changing. As Celeste Condit postulated in her keynote How individuals identify with politicians address at the Airlie convention, identity may and each other has been transformed. In the be based on physicality in the 21st century. 19th century Americans identified with their Identity may come back to biology as our immediate and extended families, in the 20th ability to regulate motion increases. The century with the work they did or the com- physical may be made rhetorical. pany for which they worked, and now at the Finally, poetic humanism suggests hope century’s end with the skills they possess. for diverse groups achieving unity. Burke With an increasingly mobile lifestyle, Ameri- states, “our thesis is a belief that the ultimate cans carry their skills with them; hence, they metaphor for discussing the universe and view themselves in terms of the expertise man’s relation to it must be the poetic or

Burke & Feminism provided society. At the same time the multi- dramatic metaphor.” The advantage of his cultural movement appears to approach lies in treating humans as be splintering us, increasing “participants in action,” stressing their the difficulty of our achieving cooperation rather than competition. As identification with a Bernard Brock proposes, “Burke’s poetic collective whole. humanism stresses language, values, and Americans are seeking action. So scholars of rhetoric should not more ways to participate in only play a central role in implementing the political process, more this shift [from the modern orientation], but ways to express their the poetic humanistic orientation should have concerns. They are no longer a significant impact upon the nature of future content to participate theory and methods within the field.” Burke & Politics &

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 21 December 1993 1993 Convention Review

members found Burke’s sustained efforts to read the dynamics of symbol to be at odds KB & Postmodernism with Foucault’s insistence upon recognizing every discursive formulation as a disciplinary strategy designed to constrain the subject or to Submitted by Coordinator construct the subject as a well-disciplined Thomas Carmichael network. Much the same argument applies to English Burke’s relationship to Lyotard and the politics University of Western Ontario of postmodernism. Burke much less problema- tically than Lyotard considers the contest of Participants: Bill Balthrop, Lisa L. Barley, discourses to be open to transformation that Paul Berry, Dale A. Bertelsen, Tim could bring about communities of identifica- Borchers, Thomas Carmichael, James tion and accountability, whereas Lyotard defines W. Chesebro, Kathy Garvin Doxas, Greig rigorous skepticism (“incredulity toward meta- Henderson, Dina A. Stevensen. narratives”) as the ground of postmodern poli- The postmodernism seminar at Airlie was not tics and the petit recit (the micro-political) as the first time that participants in the Kenneth the only means of legitimating knowledge Burke Convention considered the question of without a concomitant claim to mastery. Burke and postmodernism. But in contrast to The seminar then addressed the status of the initial discussions at New Harmony, this the subject in Burke and in the discourse of seminar was devoted to relationships that Lacanian psycho-analysis. There is much in might be drawn between Burke and specific Burke, particularly in his discussion of the role figures in the quickly canonized tradition of of Freudian substitution in “Definition of Man,” postmodern thought, or to the ways in which that might be said to anticipate the post- Burke might be aligned with particular post- structural understanding of the subject, modern questions. Conclusions to a series of arguing for a strong link between Burke and discussions such as this are always prema- the specifically linguistic ground of Lacanian ture, but at the end of four days of meetings, psycho-analysis. Of course, one would have members of the seminar had effectively to consider this affinity in the light of Lacan’s mapped the network of interconnecting and insistence upon a fundamental alienation of the often competing impulses that link Burke subject in the realm of & Postmodernism with the discourse of postmodernism. the symbolic. While recognizing that postmodernism The discussions and post-structuralism are by no means concluded by returning synonymous, seminar members adopted the to the question of linguistic turn in post-structural thought as language through the the point of departure for examining Burke’s relationship that might relationship to postmodernism. Specifically, be drawn between the seminar began by addressing the relation- Burke and Paul de ship between Burkeian notions of debunking Man. Again seminar and terministic screens and Derridean members agreed that differance. Discussion quickly focused on Burke would dissent the extent to which Burke hedges on debunk- from the post- ing, in contrast to the Derridean effort of structural/postmodern employing differance to unveil the inevitable position. For de Man, problematics of the sign and all its attendant the grammatical traditional metaphysical baggage. In a similar function of language is fashion, the seminar then considered Burke’s always ultimately understanding of hierarchies and the negative subverted by its rhetorical dimension, while in connection with Michel Foucault’s concep- Burke would insist that this subversion is by no tion of power as both an institutional and means fatal to the project of meaning. discursive formulation. Here again, seminar continued forward to page 15

December 1993 22 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 1993 Convention Review

continued from page 9 KB And the Sacred BOIKWOIKS CITED Burke, K. Counter-Statement (1931; reprint, Berkeley & Los Angeles: Submitted by Coordinator University of California Press, 1968.) Andrew King Burke, K. Permanence and Change: Speech Communication An Anatomy of Purpose (1935; Louisiana State University reprint, Berkeley & Los Angeles: Participants: Edward C. Appel, Kathleen Edelmayer, University of California Press, 1984.) Camilla J. Kari, Jim Kimble, Andrew King, Peggy Burke, K. The Philosophy of Literary McGee, and J. Clarke Roundtree. (Membership was Form: Studies in Symbolic Action "fluid," the core growing and being joined by (1941; reprint, Berkeley & Los Angeles: visitors.) University of California Press, 1973.) Burke, K. A Grammar of Motives The seminar raised the following questions: (1945; reprint, Berkeley & Los Angeles: If Burke’s logology is an epistemology and a grammar, University of California Press, 1969.) is it also a theology? Answer: Burke qualifies as a process Burke K. A Rhetoric of Motives (1950; theologian in a technical and rather arid sense. reprint, Berkeley & Los Angeles: If Burke is a theologian, what kind of a theologian is University of California Press, 1969.) he? Answer: An admirer of Paul Tillich, Burke is hardly Burke, K. The Rhetoric of Religion: the God-haunted Augustinian of Blauwald. Studies in Logology (1961; reprint, How adequate is Burke’s logology for non-Christian, Berkeley & Los Angeles: University non-patriarchal, non-Western religious conceptions? of California Press, 1970.) Answer: Considerable explication, translation, and Burke, K. Collected Poems, 1915— editing was not a very satisfying process. Only in the 1967 (Berkeley & Los Angeles: western literary tradition can Burke be wholly Burke. University of California Press, 1968.) What about Burke’s sacred praxis? Does he propose Burke, K. Language as Symbolic a model of moral conduct apart from his logology? Action: Essays on Life, Literature Answer: Burke’s reluctance to abandon dialectic (the and Method (Berkeley & Los Angeles: “free play” of ideas in suspension and the delight in a University of California Press, 1966.) rich array of views) weakens the moral power of his views. Burke, K. “The Rhetorical Situation,” Can the inadequacies of Burke’s logology be remedied in Communication: Ethical and by linguistic extension (new expansion of vocabulary or Moral Issues, ed. Lee Thayer (London: “sheer words”) to accommodate a greater variety of Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, religious experience? Answer: This is a daunting task. 1973) 263-275. What is Burke’s heuristic value for sermonizing? Does Burke, K. “Rhetoric, Poetics, and he have a way of conflating dramatism and logology to Philosophy,” in Rhetoric, Philosophy, produce a sacred discourse? Answer: The seminar noted and Literature: An Exploration, ed. Burke’s compositional or inventional uses. Don M. Burks (West Lafayette, IN: Does Burke believe in a wholly secular moment? Purdue University Press, 1978) 15-33. This would be an epiphany in reverse. Answer: No. Burke, K. “Theology and Logology,” Is guilt a missing religious ingredient in a culture that Kenyon Review (new series, I, 1979) features shame? Answer: The question was unresolved. 151-185. Burke & the Sacred

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 23 December 1993 Burke's Last Day

hat and tossed it on the bench. I helped him with the DUQUESNE rest of his gear. . . . Once in his room he decided on a nap. He lay down and checked the clock, 5:30. “Is UNIVERSITY this Friday?” Yes, Nov. 19. Founded in 1878 by the priests and brothers of the Holy Awoke hungry. [In the kitchen] I gave him a Ghost, Duquesne University carries a more than cen- bowl with rice and the Chinese food. Is it good? tury-old tradition of providing a unique liberal and pro- “It’s good.” I made tea for KB and myself and put fessional education with an emphasis on moral values, on his ear phones [to aid hearing]. We watched a dedication to quality teaching and a commitment to McNeil-Lehrer, Washington Week in Review and service. Today Duquesne University serves more than finally Bill Moyers, with the gay debate in Colorado 8500 undergraduate and graduate students, offering Springs. more than 150 programs on the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels in its nine schools: the College and While seated in his kitchen, watching televi- Graduate School of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the sion, his earphones still in place, KB suffered schools of Business Administration, Education, Health respiratory problems. Despite the immediate care Sciences, Law, Music, Nursing, and Pharmacy. of Ginny Brand and later of an emergency The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter is published medical squad, she writes, “KB was pronounced semi-annually under the Society's auspices and pro- dead at 10:10[pm].” In Manhattan, Michael duced in the Communication Department at Duquesne Burke, in telephone contact with the scene, University, Pittsburgh, PA 15282 (phone 412-396-6446; concluded that KB simply “faded away,” having fax 412-396-4792). Readers are encouraged to "join lived more than six months into his 96th year. the fray" by submitting letters, abstracts, or manuscripts that promote the study, understanding, dissemination, Near the conclusion of her report, Ginny research, critical analysis, and preservation of works Brand notes that Steve Chapin arrived about the by and about Kenneth Burke. The Society is a non- time of KB’s death. Observing the scene in the profit organization incorporated in the State of New kitchen where his grandfather had died, he “then York since 1988. Annual dues of $20 for faculty and went in [to the living room] and played the piano.” $10 for students entitle members to a year's subscrip- What he played, of course, as later confirmed by tion of the Newsletter. Michael, was “One Light in a Dark Valley.” Editor–Richard H. Thames, Duquesne University To her handwritten report, Ginny Brand Assistants—Kim McKelvey, Mai Neo, Tracy Irani carefully attached a small printed statement, then closed with a final comment to Anthony: continued from page 11 From KB’s future cookie: To affect the quality of the day To Affect the Quality of the Day . . . is no small achievement. He got into the car and pointed right, toward Sparta. Butch: Thought you might like to know some “That way!” Do you want fish for supper? “Yes.” of the details of Nov. 19. —Ginny Do you want me to cook fresh fish or do you want your shrimp dinner? He prefers the latter. He was KB was in luck to the end, spending his last years demanding all the signs be read to him as usual as in his own home, much of the time with family we drove along: “What does that say? stop, stop!” present, and frequently accompanied by a lady We went past the Chinese restaurant in Newton. with unusual insight and sensitivity, even to his “Stop, stop, what’s that?” It’s a Chinese restaurant, last moment. To name the situation at the scene of K.B., you don’t care for Chinese food, do you? “Oh, the death of a great person in itself “is no small yes, I like it.” Me, kind of exasperated, well do you achievement.” In recognizing the significance of want to have shrimp for dinner or Chinese food. the complete statement from KB’s fortune cookie Pause: “Well, I’ll have Chinese shrimp.” He laughed (she writes “future cookie”) and carefully citing at his joke. . . . We went to Fu’s restaurant and it, that is precisely what Ginny Brand did. A ordered vegetable and shrimp stir fry. KB drank an certain spritely spirit, freed from the tiresome orange juice while we waited for the take out. limits of “nonsymbolic motion,” yet loving the We arrived back at Amity Road about 5, and it ironic much as ever, might be pleased with her was growing dark. Again he chose to walk from the citation as an epitaph, a way of “rounding car to the back door. Once inside, he removed his things out.” —Don Burks

December 1993 24 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter