The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter Volume 13 Number 1 June 2000

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter Volume 13 Number 1 June 2000 was cast.Taken in1985andcopyrighted byVirginia Burks,theyareusedwith her Library atthe Pennsylvania StateUniversity. Photosareoftheclaybust fromwhichthebronze The bronzebustofKenneth BurkesculptedbyVirginia MolnarBurks ishousedinthePattee Triennial The 4 1999’s Iowa CityConference th permission. 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890

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12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012Tribute to KB ...... 10 Burke & the Rhetoric of the Seen ...... 123456789 22 0

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12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012Seminar Reports ...... 14-22 Conference Programs ...... 123456789 22 0

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The Fourth Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society was convened in Iowa City, May 20- 23, 1999, on the theme “Culture, Criticism, Dialectic: Engaging Kenneth Burke.” Generously hosted by the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, conference sessions varied between the former Holiday Inn downtown, the Old Capitol of the State of Iowa, and the University of Iowa’s Pappajohn Business Administration Building. Featured speakers included William H. Rueckert, Michael Calvin McGee, and Steven Mailloux. Bill Rueckert was unable to attend the conference personally, but Angelo Bonadonna ably presented his paper, culture, criticism, dialectic:

“A Farewell to Kenneth Burke,” in the historic and issues, to present position papers relative to Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol of the State of those themes and ideas, and to interact purposively Iowa, on Thursday evening, May 20, to kick-off with others with similar interests (although not the conference. necessarily similar positions!). Reports from the The official attendance at the conference was just specific seminars should be included in this over a hundred people (102), of whom roughly a newsletter, so rather than attempt to identify the quarter (26) identified themselves as students undertakings of each seminar, let me instead (including at least two undergraduates). recognize and offer sincere nods of appreciation Approximately one-third of registrants were for their extra efforts to the seminar coordinators: female. Twenty-three U.S. states (and territories) Dennis Ciesielski, Miriam Marty Clark, Wade were represented, as well as several parts of Kenny, Timothy Crusius (who prepared a seminar Canada. The Program Planners for the conference, but at the last moment could not attend the David Blakesley from Southern Illinois University, conference), Bruce Gronbeck, Michael Leff, and Carbondale, and James Klumpp from the Kathleen Farrell. And special thanks go to seminar University of Maryland, collaborated (with pinch-hitters Herbert Simons, Ed Appel, and occasional intrusions from the Chief Conference Barbara Biesecker. Planner) to offer conference participants a diverse range of opportunities “to engage Kenneth Burke.” Most of the conference registrants elected to participate in one of the seven seminars offered. Meeting concurrently for a total of at least five hours each over the course of the conference, these seminars offered participants chances to explore specific themes

“engaging kenneth burke” 4th Triennial Conference Report

Most of the other conference registrants along Dark Valley” by Paul Berry), the Presidential with many of those who also participated in Addresses during the Awards Banquet (at which seminars presented papers in the twelve panel in-coming President Greig Henderson from the programs. Altogether, 37 competitively selected University of Toronto demonstrated to out-going papers were presented during these sessions. Paper President Andrew King of Louisiana State topics and panel themes varied widely, as would University that he too appreciates oratorical high be expected. The Program Planning and Paper style), and the conference-closing Roundtable Selection Committee, headed by Blakesley and Discussion of the theme, “Culture, Criticism, Klumpp and including Miriam Marty Clark, Phyllis Dialectic: Engaging Kenneth Burke” (moderated Japp, Jack Selzer, and Robert Scott, undertook the by James Klumpp and featuring Barbara Biesecker, arduous task of reading, evaluating, and ranking Steven Mailloux, and Robert Wess). all conference submissions. The authors of all The Saturday night Awards Banquet was held in thirty-seven selected papers are to be congratulated the historic Amana Colonies, a short van ride from for their fine work. (See the next page for a list of downtown Iowa City (shorter for some vans than those papers for which the Selection Committee others as it turned out). The meal featured offered special commendation.) traditional cuisine of the Colonies, which evidently One of the new programming alternatives has not traditionally featured vegetarian cuisine. featured at the conference was the series of “Post- Efforts of the conference organizers to provide for Prandial Parlors” following lunch on Saturday. vegetarian alternatives fell short, and apologies are Conceived as a series of five concurrent ‘con- extended. Others tended to enjoy the bountiful versations,’ the Parlors offered participants the family style heapings of fried chicken, pork, chance to engage in lengthy conversations about vegetables cooked with meat fat, and other specific topics or to sample briefly among the assortments. Imbibers seemed pleased with the various conversations, sticking in their oars (ors) quality of the local brew, and many toasts were as they saw fit. Many thanks to those facilitating offered during the course of the evening. Following the conversations: Jack Selzer and Mike Jackson the repast, out-going President Andrew King (“Organizing Oral Histories of Kenneth Burke”), reflected upon his time in office, we think, and in- Steven Mailloux, D. Diane Davis, and Michelle coming President Greig Henderson also waxed his Ballif (“Burke & Rhetoric 2000”), David Blakesley oratorical skills. But the highlight of the Awards and Jerald Ross (“Taking Burke On(line)”), Donn Banquet was, of course, the awards. Parson and Rick Coe (“On Teaching Burke”), and The Awards Committee was chaired by C. Allen J. Clarke Rountree (“Burke on Tape”). “Chris” Carter. Tim Crusius, Donn Parson, and The conference participants all came together for Phyllis Japp rounded-out the committee. They the keynote addresses and other special plenary conferred the following awards on behalf of the sessions. In addition to William H. Rueckert’s Kenneth Burke Society: address, the conference heard Michael Calvin And, continuing a tradition which emerged from McGee on “Burke and Fascism” and Steven New Harmony (at least as I recall), a raffle was Mailloux on “Rhetorical Paths of Thoughts: held: all students (graduate and undergraduate) Burkean (Dis)Connections,” which included a who had registered for the conference were eligible comparison of junvenalia from Burke and Jacques in a book drawing. With complimentary copies of Derrida. Other plenary sessions included a Burke-relevant publications provided by various Burkean Miscellany (featuring readings from university presses, including Southern Illinois Burke’s letters and poems by Michael Burke and University Press and the University of Alabama Julie Whitaker Burke, out-takes from the “Iowa Press, Ceremonial Directors David Blakesley and Interviews” videotapes presented by J. Clarke Jim Klumpp drew the names of winners—and Rountree, and a reflection by Elvera Berry, many winners there were, thanks to the generosity including a stirring rendition of “One Light in a of the presses!

June 2000 4 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Top Paper: 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Edward Berlinski, Kenneth Burke and 1

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 Program Planning & 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890the Psychology of Identification 1

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Paper Selection 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Runner-Up Top Paper: 1

1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 Committee 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Gregory Clark, Kenneth Burke’s 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Rhetorical Aesthetic and the Scope of 1 David Blakesley and 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Public Discourse 1 James Klumpp, Chairs 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901

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Miriam Marty Clark 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Top Student Paper: 1

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Phyllis Japp 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Garth Pauley, Criticism in Context: 1

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Jack Selzer 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Kenneth Burke’s “The Rhetoric of 1

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Robert Scott 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Hitler’s ‘Battle” 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Honorable Mention, 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Top Student Paper: 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Brent Whitmore, Contingency, Irony, 1

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 Awards Committee: 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901

123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Metabiology: Richard Rorty, Kenneth 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Burke, and the Golden Rule 1

1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 C. Allen “Chris” Carter, 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 Chair 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Honorable Mention 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Top Student Paper: 1

Tim Crusius 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Amy Sileven, Motivating the Molten 1

Phyllis Japp 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Mass of Humanity in Defense of 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Cultural Obsolescence: Kenneth Burke 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890on Altering Cultural Paradigms 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Lifetime Achievement Award: 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890James W. Chesebro 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Distinguished Service Award: 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Robert Wess 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Emerging Scholar Award: 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890Mark Meister and Glenn Stillar 1

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890(co-recipients) 1

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901 4th Triennial Conference Report

Although the ultimate success of any conference programming options. It was through the financial resides in the experiences of and benefits gained wizardry of Bruce Gronbeck and Arnie Madsen by the individual participants, and is thus that conference fees for students were discounted something which is really unknowable to a as significantly as they were. David Hingtsman conference planner, from the narrowly logistical, coordinated a cooperative corps of van drivers ‘are the trains running on time?’ perspective of a (volunteer graduate students from the University conference director, the 1999 Triennial Conference of Iowa who frequently doubled as conference could not have been better. I spent much of my participants), and they all deserve our thanks and time at the conference worrying about the fact that praise. Without them, many of us would no doubt I didn’t have anything to worry about: my thanks still be standing in the Cedar Rapids airport are extended for the dedicated efforts and wondering how to get to Iowa City. Barb Biesecker exemplary job performances by all of those both served on central planning committees and involved in the planning and implementation of helped with local arrangements. Kathleen Farrell, the conference. The central planning committee— Bob Newman, and others among the Iowa faculty often a rather fluid group—exchanged ideas and all aided and abetted. Randy Hirokawa, as Chair many e-mails during the years of the Department of Communication between the Pittsburgh conference Studies, contributed significantly and the Iowa conference. There are toward the success of the conference really too many people who made (perhaps even more than he had valuable contributions to single them intended!). Bev Prostine with the all out, but I would like to University of Iowa’s Center for acknowledge the contributions of Conferences and Institutes was Greig Henderson, Barb Biesecker, unflagging in her support and Jack Selzer, Star Muir, Richard assistance throughout the whole Thames, Kathleen Farrell, Chris process, but perhaps especially Carter, and Cate Palczewski. And during the often confusing (to me at special recognition should be least!) process of registration. And extended to the Society Treasurer, not enough thanks and nods of Arnie Madsen, who always extended himself far appreciation can be extended to the networks of beyond the call of duty. Arnie was an indispensable students—all graduate students in the Department part of the process from site selection through of Communication Studies, at least so far as I was check-cashing: the conference could not have aware—who did much of the actual work (as is so occurred without his efforts. often the case), from driving vans to working The sheer amount of work, the meeting room, registration tables, from preparing materials to hotel and transportation arrangements, the support distribute to finding missing keys. and genial generosity provided through Bruce A final word of special thanks needs to be ex- Gronbeck and the Local Arrangements committee tended for the superb work done by the Program was astounding. Financial and technical support Planners, David Blakesley and Jim Klumpp. They afforded by the Obermann Center for Advanced arranged the seminar series, read and ranked all Study and by the Department of Communication paper and panel submissions, constructed thematic Studies at the University of Iowa allowed the Tri- panels, and oversaw all program development for ennial conference to become a far more enriching the 1999 Triennial Conference. Blakesley was also and rewarding experience for all; in addition to their de facto co-chief planner: he advised, assisted, and superb and gracious hosting of us, it was through rescued me at every turn. Muchas gracias, David. their combined support that, for instance, the His reward is to plan the Fifth Triennial Con- conference was able to offer an array of plenary ference: good fortune and much success with the speakers, as well as video and computer-enhanced 2002 Conference!

June 2000 6 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567

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The meeting was called to order at 10:25 a.m. by would be $4.35 per copy @ ca. 600 copies, totaling outgoing President Andy King in the absence of about $2600 per issue. Fifty institutional in-coming president Greig Henderson. subscriptions @ $50.00 would be necessary to begin publication. Suggestions for content Minutes: Minutes of the last meeting (5/11/99) included commissioning essays from top scholars, were approved as submitted. using archival material and/or unpublished materials of Burke’s. Discussion concerning President’s Report: King extended thanks to all funding ensued. A motion to charge officers with involved in planning the conference. continuing to investigate costs and funding was approved. Treasurer’s Report: Arnie Madsen reported that conference expenses had not yet been tallied but Elections: David Blakesley was elected Confer- were expected to be in the “black.” The society is ence Planner. Miriam Marty Clark was elected fiscally sound. Vice President. Richard Thames was re-elected Head of Publications. Lance Haynes was elected Conference Planner’s Report: David Williams Treasurer. Elvira Berry was elected Secretary. All reported that pre-registration was 105 with elections were by acclamation. approximately 100 attendees. Thirty of these were students. Continued on page page 24

Program Planners’ Report: David Blakesley and James Klumpp received over 50 proposals, approximately ½ were completed papers. They will begin planning the proceedings volume. Authors should notify them on the availability of papers for the volume.

Awards Committee Report: Chris Carter reported that there were co-recipients for the “emerging young scholar award.”

Publications Report: Richard Thames reported on the newsletter, the website, and the journal. Two newsletters rather than three were published due to the cost per newsletter. The website now has 61 pages. Problems will be corrected this summer. He is working on getting a bibliographic data base up and hopes to be able to scan in difficult-to-find essays of Burke’s. Projected costs for a journal Minutes: 23 May 1999 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678

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the least. The Andover sage has been feminized, Greig ecologized, pragmatized, multiculturalized, postmodernized, cheered, jeered, and maybe even Henderson queered. His system has been extended, and he has been ushered into the 21st century. Even though I have been a willing participant in this eminently President, valuable process, and even though I know that in 1999-2002 the scholarly world publication for publication’s sake is the reigning necessity, what impresses me Friends and most about Burke, 25 years after my first Colleagues, encounter with his writings, is not no much his contemporary relevancy as his unique style of ith the last days in view, the trump of thought, a style of thought that, like Emerson’s or Wprophecy about to detonate and rapture surely James’s, is inimitable and irreplaceable. And that poised to seize us all, I am especially honoured to style of thought is what gets lost in every be put into the elect company of my distinguished translation, particularly insofar that style enacts predecessors—Bill Rueckert, Donn Parson, and what Burke call “the sheer exercise of symbolicity Andy King. Given the ubiquity of things for its own sake, purely for the love of the art.” millennial, it might seem indecorous to reject the “Each writer,” he maintains, “has his own idiom eschatological in favour of the scatological, but, as which everyone else must speak with an accent.” all of us know, sometimes to our chagrin, Burke The Burkean idiom is unmistakeable. “The word sings scat with the best of them. In “Mysticism as is more like dance than a concept.” “Language is a Solution to the Poet’s Dilemma” he goes so far as one vast menagerie of implications.” “The veil of to say that even when we are dealing with mystical Maya is woven of the strands of hierarchy—and poetry, “we may watch for alchemy whereby the poet’s topics glow through the mist.” “Death . excrement is made golden, or for ways of defining . . is beyond experience. Yet in a way it is very essence whereby the freeing from an evil spirit is apparent even in the things we find on the beach, like transformation of flatus into fragrance.” And with their dirty Surrealist shapes.” “An answer that, of course, is what afterdinner speeches aspire can seem wholly radiant only with those for whom to—the transformation of flatus into fragrance, or, the question has radiance.” “For the humorless failing that, as Burke says of Freud, the statement may foretell homicide, and the interpretative sculpting of excrement. humorous one may be the very thing that forestalls When Tom Carmichael and I made the long trek homicide.” Attuned to the sonorous paranomasia from the Great White North to New Harmony, of words and the sheer palpability of signs, Indiana, in 1990, I had never met anyone, save for Burke’s style of thought is as much poetical as Bill Rueckert, who had read more than a few philosophjical, and many of his most pivotal articles by Burke. It was a revelation to distinctions—apposite/opposite, a part of/apart discover so many kindred spirits, so many people from—are as such sound-driven as sense-driven. who knew KB, as they called him, better than I. But that is a topic unto itself, a topic on which The burgeoning of publications since that Burke himself has been “suggestive to the point of inaugural conference has been remarkable, to say bewilderment.”

June 2000 8 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 9 June 2000

A style of thought is also characterized by its 1. Ideas, like proverbs, cancel one another out, exempla. Who else but Burke would distinguish without losing their validity. between the primal dog. the jingle dog, the lexical 2. Ideas are like personal Characters—and there dog, the entelechial dog, and the tautological dog? is room for many in the gallery of portraits. To pursue this dogmatic line a little further, we 3. Have yes and no, but keep them on the run; might happily concur with William Empson that and between yes and no, insert all notable degrees. critics, as barking dogs, are of two sorts: those who merely relieve themselves against the flower of Since this conference is dedicated to culture, beauty, and those, less continent, who afterwards criticism, and, above all, dialectic, it might be scratch it up. Like Empson, Burke was of the pious in a roundabout way to end with a few lines second sort. Unexplained beauty aroused an from Burke’s poem—“The Dialectian’s Prayer.” irritation in him, a sense that here was the right place to start scratching. If beauty and truth And may we have neither the mania of the One become body and turd in the process, so be it. Nor the delirium of the Many— Most important, however, to Burke’s style of But both the Union and the Diversity. thought is his humble recognition that “no single terminology can be equal to the full complexity of To salute both the union and the diversity, I human motives.” In “Freedom and Authority,” he think, is the right way to honour the memory of articulates three major points which will, I hope, Kenneth Burke and the society that bears his name. glow through the mist of our collective inebriation and shine as illuminating principles for our society.

Amana Colonies—Scene for the Banquet, Awards, & Addresses 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012 David Cratis Williams’ instructions were, “Try to travel down that road. Nevertheless, while I might keep it light!” That plea or admonition has given not have been hooked on “Alky, my friend,” I was me considerable pause as I have reflected on K.B., hooked on Burke. So I wrote to him anyway, the MAN (the bark, the howl, the dance of eyes knowing I would never hear from him. And I didn’t! and cane and hand). The whole point about Burke Then, almost a year later, in April 1982, I heard is that he’s so steeped in irony that like author he was giving a lecture in Rochester. I forced Thomas Mann, whose work he translated, Burke myself to arrive very early, wondering whether I lives on the brink of the heavy, endeavoring “to would have the courage to talk with him, only to make the heavy light . . . bearable.” He’s always discover that he had been asking his hostess (who on the edge, seducing us into “amused self- did not even know me) where I was. Later, he recognition” (Mann). Knowing that “at the very described his “layers of civilization” from which start one’s terms jump to conclusions,” I invite you my work had recently been unearthed. Somehow, to listen for Burke’s words from text and Flow- he just assumed that because he was coming to erishes as I share just a few of my recollections. Rochester, I would show up! Thus, our co-haggling began! It took me a while to discover that the physician of dissecting everyone else’s assumptions did not necessarily apply the scalpel to his own. But we were on our way, and DEFINIENDUM: like many, I was in danger of succumbing to the

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 HE IS YET TO BE DEFINED! 6 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456

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I first met Kenneth Burke less than a year after Harry “psychosis of the perennial graduate student: . . . Chapin’s death, which was still very much on so thoroughly trained in crossing bridges before K.B.’s mind. Over the past 18 years, my focus has [she] comes to them, [she] can’t cross bridges.” shifted from primarily academic passion to When I extended my study into a Ph.D., Burke appreciation of the man who lived his work— encouraged me to contact Billions Rueckert to sit and the desire to introduce undergraduates to him on my dissertation committee, observing “By now, and his legacy. Wild Bill knows me better than I know myself!” I was introduced to “Dramatism and all that” in What struck me most about K.B. during our first my Master’s program in Communication. I’d al- encounter was the character embodied in that man. ready gone “to college to get things straight” and I had been taken with the genius of his work and was well on my way to “getting them crooked.” had struggled to grasp and test its “Great-Gramma Perhaps because of my family background and Brodie” implications. Now I was caught by the previous Master’s in German, I was drawn eight-foot-four-inch spirit in his five-foot-four- immediately to Burke’s complexity of thought and inch frame. His was a midget frame, a poem, made structure—so deliciously German. My actual ren- huge by wit—and age. Dramatism could be studied dezvous with Burke began on a dare when the in his writings, but here was Drama: a blend of professor observed, after my thesis orals: “Too bad word and body, of image and idea, of –ism and – you’re not a drinker! If you drank, Burke would ize and –ology. He had learned his own after-fifty probably like to talk with you.” Not knowing which lesson: “how ripen without rotting?” His essence of my selves alcohol might reveal, I didn’t dare darted across the room; his irony exploded! “The

June 2000 10 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 11 June 2000

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 Vietnam; he’s too stupid!” 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234HE WAS A SINCERE, ETC. 5 I can just imagine

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 what he’d be saying about Kosovo, “human

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234He was a sincere but friendly Presbyterian—and so 5 collateral,” and mistaken targets of computer- 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 based instruments of peace. 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234If he was talking to a Presbyterian, 5 K.B. had come to Rochester, New York for 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234He was for Presbyterianism. 5 a public address, a poetry reading and, above 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 all, to visit his ailing friend and Publisher of 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 The Dial 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234If he was talking to a Lutheran, 5 : Dr. James Sibley Watson, Jr. He

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234He was for Protestantism. 5 arrived in Rochester only to discover that Dr. 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 Watson had, to quote Burke’s Poems of 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 Abandonment, “cleared out” while Burke was 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234If he was talking to a Catholic, 5

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234He was for Christianity. 5 enroute. As he told me of his indescribable 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 sense of loss, I felt as though I had met a friend 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 at friend’s expense. He had come to visit: in- 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234If he was talking to a Jew, 5

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 eulogize 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234He was for God. 5 stead, he was called to , and I became

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 (by chance or fate) the welcome distraction

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234If he was talking to a theosophist, 5 from his grief—both then and later, especially 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 after the death of his beloved Happy. 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234He was for religion. 5

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 Over the next decade, K.B. was a regular

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234If he was talking to an agnostic, 5 topic of conversation in the Berry house. I 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 suspect my son, who first played K.B.’s piano 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234He was for scientific caution. 5

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 at age eight, cannot recall a time when Burke

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234If he was talking to an atheist, 5 was not a household word as we attempted to 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234He was for mankind. 5 move from “instinct[ive] all or none” to 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 reason[ed] compromise” without worship- 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234And if he was talking to a socialist, communist, labor 5 ping at the altar of PROGRESS! 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234leader, missiles expert, or business man, 5 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234He was for 5

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234PROGRESS. 5 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345 Out of all the memories of meals and haggles at cultivate his genius. But only as I saw K.B., conferences, several family visits to the Com- together with Malcolm Cowley, paying tribute to pound’s “aftergrowth,” periodic correspondence, the late Dr. Watson, did I begin to comprehend the and numerous discussions of “age and ailments”— depth of devotion and respect. K.B.’s having been kept “beyond [his] season”— Here were Kenneth Burke and Malcolm Cowley I return to my first couple of encounters as defining (lifelong friends whose bodies had learned and moments—as representative anecdotes. used—and misused—language for some nine Two-and-a-half years after I met K.B., Rochester decades) struggling to express gratitude for their Institute of Technology hosted “A Celebration” visionary and benefactor: Cowley in a wheelchair; honoring Burke’s benefactor, Dr. Watson. Only K.B. with cane and hearing aids, trying then did I appreciate the magnitude of his loss. I desperately to coordinate the lightening speed knew Dr. Watson had been a major influence in of his mind with the age-induced thickness of Burke’s life, giving him a start on The Dial when his tongue. I went home and penned an attempt he was a young, would-be writer, musician, to capture his dignity in a couple of ditties: The – critic—giving him money to buy what would ize Have It! and The –ism. become “the compound” in Andover, so he could Cowley’s still powerful bass voice belied his aging body and confirmed his own statement: “There’s a law in every living thing that drives it forward to its own destruction.” He spoke of K.B. as “my oldest friend” and DEFINIENDUM: —continued

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901With mind to crystallize The –ism is man’s lamentation212345678901234567

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901With ears to minimize This lady of spells, 212345678901234567

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901and tongue to penalize, Is what he calls civilization. 212345678901234567

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901No more . . . no less 212345678901234567

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901the eyes that magnetize; 212345678901234567

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901the YES! 212345678901234567

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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567 described his childhood memory of Kenneth at four seem that nothing can more effectively set people following the three-year-old Malcolm around the at odds than the demand that they think alike” Cowley house. “The home was full of breakables,” (Rhetoric of Religion). Even while voicing said Cowley, “so Kenneth took it upon himself to frustration and anger, he chose not to succumb to remind me, ‘Don’t touch! Mustn’t!’” Then long-term rage—however warrantable the outrage. Cowley paused and laughed heartily as he observed He practiced his own attitudinal “medicine” the ultimate reversal: “As a critic,” he said, responsibly: abhorring scene or act, decrying “Kenneth touches everything!” agency or purpose, but ultimately preserving the I began to see not only Malcolm, the individual dignity of the agent—even an agent who would of whom K.B. had so often spoken—with whom steal his ideas about ethics! He knew that even if so often battled, but the endurance of a relationship one “inherited several million dollars,” one begun in another century and extending through inherited the filthy lucre “PLUS original sin.” and beyond the period of The Dial. Cowley ad- In academe, we talk about developing the ability mitted he “was not part of the inner circle of The to step outside ourselves; K.B. stepped outside, Dial, but about Dr. Watson and that inner circle he inside, around, through, and beyond himself in reported: “They were good to me when I was his unending quest to “figure this thing out.” And hungry and needed kindness. I owe each of them a it did not matter where he dug, or who joined the debt that cannot be repaid. . . . They published many idea-seeker in the excavation, because “the cure of the penniless unknown who became known!” for digging in the dirt is an idea; the cure for any Among those published, of course, was K.B., idea is more ideas; . . . and the cure for all ideas is who tried desperately that evening to express his digging in the dirt.” All of us “consubstantially” personal affection for Dr. Watson. “When The Dial were, and are, invited to join him “on a voyage of disappeared,” he said, “you can’t imagine what that discovery together”—“on good terms” and “under did to me. . . . The Dial was magic; it made a whole the sign of good will” (Burke’s 1955 definition of world for me. . . . . After the end of The Dial, I had education). Always open to self-deconstruction, a recurring dream that The Dial was going on but always intent on “keeping the conversation going,” they hadn’t told me.” I watched K.B. in agony he would plead: “Let me try again; a direct hit is trying to choose appropriate symbolic action from not likely here” (Rhetoric). And thus, the music among far too many memories. Later, as we talked, critic of The Dial, the composer of Imitation he voiced his frustration over having been asked Spiritual: One Light in a Dark Valley, orchestrated to pay formal tribute to Dr. Watson. With tears in the unending score of Definiendum—of what is yet his saddened blue eyes, he confessed, “I found to be defined. this an impossible assignment. How can I do I have asked my husband to remind us of “One justice to the Doctor who gave me a backbone?” Light” as he sings: Likewise, I ask this evening, “How can I do justice to the man who gave me an intellectual ONE LIGHT IN A DARK VALLEY passion? A man who gave me equipment for sung by tenor Paul Berry living? A man who is yet to be defined?” Justice! Justice was always an issue with K.B., As we conclude, we take comfort in Burke’s recog- whether attempting to honor one who “gave me a nition that “nothing is more unforeseeable than the start . . . my career,” or wrestling with the “self- fate of a doctrine at the hands of its disciples” (1955). imposed destiny” afforded through technology, or And we acknowledge that technology bemoaning the fact that “logologically, I had to be notwithstanding, “Things aren’t so bad.” Just “know on Bork’s side” (in the Chief Justice hearings ) loveliness when you see it”; then, “Buck up! Put because “they never asked him the right questions; on your pants, put in your teeth, and go out for a they were just out to kill him!” “It would [indeed] walk!” You, too, are yet to be defined!

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 13 June 2000 Back to Basics: Applying teaching and education in general, often leaving Burke behind in a vivid pedagogical discussion that Burkeian Thought in the was, nonetheless, very Burkeian. Undergraduate Classroom The pedagogical perspective here brought to the fore teaching and evaluative methods that might not have been seen as Burkeian until we initiated Submitted by Dennis Ciesielski this discussion. Portfolio teaching and evaluation, we discovered, relates well with KB’s dramatistic Coordinator: Dennis Ciesielski (Wisconsin- “poetic metaphor” and links well with James Platteville) Moffett’s own theory of dramatistic development. Participants: Carolyn Dunlap, David M. Community book programs (where the whole Grant, Debra Japp, Gary L. Jones, Christina student body reads the same literary texts which Reynolds, Jerald, L. Ross, Jeff White, Randy are, in turn, addressed across the curriculum), Siniard addresses KB’s rhetoric of identity and his sense of the never-ending conversation. As well, we discovered that the community book program Because much of an undergraduate education proves KB’s call that “literature is equipment for begins with general education or core-curricula, our living” and that through a shared textual discussion turned rather quickly to how Burke’s experience, undergrad students can come together thought can be applied to “teaching” rather than in a sort of text-as-forum situation which will unify “professing.” The difference here is that general and motivate the critical and integrative thinking education courses need to serve as the link or bridge requisite to full and useful education. 1999 Seminar between high school pedagogy and the upper-level Perhaps the most popular topic here was college/university experience by offering a smooth communication pedagogy. From first-year transition from often passive high school learning composition to public speaking and upper-level to active, participatory university learning. Our rhetoric/writing courses, Burke’s theories work basic conclusion regarding a Burkeian application well. For example, language as symbolic action to pedagogy is that we “should teach like Burke and KB’s definition of man ring true in reading/ rather than teach Burke.” With the understanding writing and speaking courses; however, as we all that KB is not generally recognized in Education noted, teaching the definition of man is not the way departments, we worked toward the parallels to get Burke’s points across to our young adult between his own ideas and those who are students. Rather, than teaching a Burkeian attitude, recognized as education specialists. And, as one we must teach with a Burkeian attitude, e.g., instead might expect, we discovered a lot of conceptual of bringing Burke into the classroom, we might do relationships that sometimes predate the experts. better to bring in his ideas, sifted and re-languaged Yet, in order to maintain our discussion, we had to in consideration of our young audience. In this case, remain aware of the fact that, though deeply we might work to teach/show that all signifiers are involved in human behavior and language theories, symbolic through well designed writing and KB did not present himself as a pedagogist. Perhaps reading assignments designed to allow the student this is why the more we worked at discussing to discover these concepts on her own. The guided Burkeian principles regarding education per se, the self-discovery that language makes things happen, more we moved toward a profound discussion of that we live in a world of our own making and

June 2000 14 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter thus ought to look toward our own part in this where people and language make things happen. making moves a young adult into a sense of her Understanding the symbolic properties of own participation in the world. And, much of this language, the identification process within can come from language oriented, integrative collaboration, the profound importance of students’ pedagogy. James Berlin’s culture-as-text and ownership of ideas, and the participation in their Paulo Freire’s banking versus problem-solving own life’s process will change the artificial pedagogies were invoked as Burkeian ideas put to environment of the traditional classroom into real- work in the classroom. Peter Elbow’s and Lakoff world experieince. What happens in the classroom and Johnson’s metaphor analyses were brought up will become a real experience with real results. as well. Seeing and discussing the classroom and learning as metaphor with students brings together the traditionally disparate ends of an authoritarian hierarchy and serves to remake students into participants in their own education. Here we see KB’s poetic metaphor come to life in Freireian pedagogy and Ira Shor’s democratic classroom. Furthering the student-as-participant role, we discovered that participation engenders ownership and, consequently, the care and consideration of an owner regarding her or his property. Again, we find Burkeian ideas at work in his own concept of ownership. Reports The ownership thread was prompted by a member of our seminar who is still in college. His observation that “core courses were boring,” and his further observation that they were this way “because the teachers too often see them as simple, unimportant, and as something both they and the student have to do before they can get down to the real work of upper-level courses” moved the discussion into the Burkeian territory of attitude and terministic screens. How we see a situation is how we will react within it, how we will name it into its own semantic being. Hence, both teacher and student need to work toward a shared metaphor, a common perspective based in dialogue. Our student member continued with his own metaphor: “Students ought to be in the driver’s seat with the professor in the backseat—just in case.” This “driver’s ed.” metaphor works well if we further the dramatistic poetic metaphor to include the classroom as a part of the real world A final discussion worked around the idea of Art, Politics & Social Change: teacher education. Not so much for new teachers, but those already out there. Because the work load Will the Real K.B. Please is so high and because many teachers simply work Stand Up? to perpetuate a status quo, a Burkeian attitude may never fully “happen” in American education. Submitted by Kathleen Farrell Furthering this point was the observation that the people who teach undergraduate courses (13th and Coordinator: Kathleen Farrell (Iowa) 14th grades) are not obligated to attain teacher certification. Methods and evaluation are pretty Participants: Bernie Brock (Wayne State), much based upon previous teachers/professors and, Ann George (Texas Christian), Carol often, with less than progressive results. The Jablonski (South Florida), Kate Palczewski Burkeian attitude discovered in Freire, Berlin, Shor, (Northern Iowa), Jack Selzer (Pennsylvania and other dialogic teachers pretty much stays with State), David Cratis Williams (Puerto Rico) the advocates while remaining vague or invisible to the rest of the professional world. Our seminar concluded with questions relative to faculty The discussion about the relationship between development programs founded on dialogism, Burke’s scholarship and political activities led the Burkeian identity and philosophy, and perhaps seminar to a number of central questions. How is most important, the concept of the terministic art political? How can the intellectual be both screen and metaphor analysis. Through these political participant and critical observer? Did conceptual grids, undergraduate general education Burke avoid political battles? Why? Can his might be offered for what it is: a young adult’s activities in the 1920’s and 1930’s be viewed as first step into the professional and intellectual world explicitly political? Why didn’t he speak out where ideas become our own through honest and against McCarthy in the 1950’s? The participants efficient dialogue grappled with these questions using a number of Afterward: Our seminar was really an archive materials from the Burke papers at exhilarating experience. It was a pleasure to be in Newberry, Penn State, and The Southern Review. the company of so many great teachers and The group decided to continue to meet and plan Burkeian thinkers. Great time with the sound of a number of NCA seminars, publish reports on many oars a-splashin’. archive research, and try to involve graduate students in future seminars. The unaminous consensus was that the seminar was extremely productive. We hoped to gather in the future.

Becker Communication Studies Building The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 17 June 2000

Burke and the sues in “Traditional Principles of Rhetoric” as he investigates the relationship between scientific and Rhetorical Tradition rhetorical perspectives on language. The goal of this development, Wess maintained, is to show Submitted by Michael Leff tharhetorical language “englobes” the neutral language of social science. Coordinator: Michael Leff (Norwestern) The group’s discussion generally supported Wess’s position. We concluded that the pivotal Participants: Paul B. Berry (Yale), Angelo moment in the text comes with the chapters on Bonadonna (St Xavier), Bryan Brito (Detroit, Bentham and Marx. Here Burke shows, in a kind MI), Michael Chambers (Maryland), of deconstructive reading, that the supposedly neu- Nathaniel I Cordova (Maryland), W. Lance tral language of Bentham’s utilitarian calculus or Haynes (Missouri, Rolla), Ellen Quandahl Marx’s dialectic disguise partial commitments and (San Diego State), Sarah E. Stokely (Mount St partisan motives. There seems no escape from the Mary’s College), Robert Wess (Oregon State) rhetorical “barnyard,” no strategy that allows us to step out of partisan language of political conflict. The The seminar was advertised as a venue for assess- neutral language of science cannot purify our mo- ing Burke’s relationship to the rhetorical tradition, tives, and so it is itself “englobed” by the rhetorical and the section from A Rhetoric of Motives entitled motive and the linguistic mysteries attached to it. “Traditional Principles of Rhetoric” was to serve Two dissenting views were expressed about this as a starting point for a general discussion. When interpretation. First, some members of the group the group met, however, we agreed that the scope argued that Burke recognizes multiple functions arid complexity of the general theme was daunt- of language and does not seem to grant any one of ing, and so we retreated to the assigned text. The them priority over the others, and hence Burke seminar consisted of a close reading and discus- would resist the subordination of the scientific to sion of “Traditional Principles of Rhetoric.” At Bob the rhetorical. But, others rejoined, this position, Wess’s suggestion, we divided the text into three though it might have relevance in later Burkean parts, the first extending through the chapter on writings, does not explain the argument spun out “Image and Idea,” the second from “Rhetorical in A Rhetoric of Motives. The subordination of sci- Analysis in Bentham” to “A Metaphorical View entific to rhetorical language seems quite clear as of Hierarchy,” and the third from “Diderot on Pan- we read through the text. Secondly, some mem- tomime’’ to the end. Each section became the fo- bers of the group were uncomfortable with the verb cus for one of our three meetings. “englobe,” since they thought that it suggested a Wess also offered an hypothesis for interpreting rather un-Burkean discarding of the scientific per- the text. Applying the Burkean principle of “from spective (the “englobee” in the rhetoric/science what to what’’ to Burke’s own work, Wess main- pair). Hence, the verb “transcend” was offered as tained that, the first main part of A Rhetoric of a replacement. Defenders of “englobe” responded Motives (“The Range of Rhetoric”) ends with an that the word did not imply discarding scientific argument about how symbolic inducement is real- language, since an englobing term encompasses istic but also entails idealistic and hence magical another term in much the same way as a transcen- and mysterious elements. And from this point dental term absorbs another term. The group came, Burke opens consideration of social/political is- to no consensus on this issue. Seminar Reports There was some concern expressed about how Burke and American Poetry one might differentiate rhetoric from poetic in this text. In the section on Bentham, there are hints Submitted by Miriam Marty Clark about rhetoric as “applied poetic” and about differences between rhetorical and poetic functions Coordinator: Miriam Marty Clark (Auburn) of language. But we could not formulate a clear distinction anywhere in the stretch of text we were Participants: Thomas Carmichael, James considering. It appears that, in A Rhetoric of Mo- East, Greig Henderson, Donald Jennerman, tives, Burke regards rhetoric and poetic as using Andrew King, Robert Mielke, Stacy Seibert almost precisely the same linguistic instruments, and he is uninterested in sorting differences be- Our group considered Burke’s writings on poetry tween the two in other respects. and poetics. Our aim was to understand more fully Our interpretation of “Traditional Principles of Burke’s contributions to twentieth-century literary Rhetoric” differs considerably from the one ordi- criticism and theory and his influence on the narily advanced by rhetoricians. The text is con- American poets who were among his most deeply ventionally read as a theoretical justification for engaged readers and interlocutors. Perhaps more expanding traditional limitations on the scope of important within the context of this conference, rhetoric, and it is regarded as opening a “latent” we wanted to consider a vital aspect of Burke’s history of rhetoric. Our position stresses Burke’s thought that has sometimes been neglected as own rhetorical position as he engages in argument Burke studies prospers in the fields of speech about a hierarchy of linguistic functions. In this communications, rhetoric, composition, reading, the rhetorical function, whether conceived philosophy, and the social sciences. as persuasion or as identification, englobes or tran- Burke’s discussions of poetry are expansive at scends the scientific function because persuasion, some points, minutely focused at others. We began identification, and poetic appeal always take pri- by considering poetry as one of his keywords, ority in the social arena over the scientific bias in noting its indispensability in emerging Burkean favor of univocal clarity. Burke does not expand systems as partner to drama at the root of the domain of rhetoric so much as he discovers in dramatism. We also considered the importance the rhetorical function something that always throughout Burke’s work of poems as instances of trumps mere information. This reading, moreover, symbolic action, enacting as they do in highly attempts to apply Burke’s own priorities to his text. compressed, complex ways—and retaining traces That is, it views Burke as a situated actor arguing of mysticism—an array of symbolic operations, a for rhetoric by using rhetoric, and it discounts a range of mountings, mergers, divisions, more static view of Burke as “theorist” who is con- transformations. That both A Rhetoric of Motives cerned about settling boundary disputes for abstract and A Grammar of Motives end in readings of purposes. poems marks the centrality of poetry to Burke’s thought in those volumes. The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 19 June 2000

In our second and third sessions we looked at isn’t simply a matter of doing justice to Burke’s Burke as reader and theorist of poetry, mapping wide ranging contributions to American literary his critical methodologies as they develop from and intellectual life or of acknowledging the texts, Counter-Statement to the late essays and literary as well as philosophical, that influence his considering in particular his vigorous dialogue with thought. The centrality of poetry—as the subject the New Critics in the essays and reviews of the of study and the object of fascination; as symptom thirties and forties and his later engagements of and cure; as metaphor and illuminating instance; continental (DeMan, Derrida) and American early and late—makes it unavoidable in any theorists (Bloom, Miller, and others) whose work sustained encounter with Kenneth Burke. addresses lyric poetry. During the third session we discussed several of Burke’s essays on poems and poets, focusing most closely—and with considerable admiration—on his readings of Theodore Roethke (“The Vegetal Radicalism of Burke and Ethics Theodore Roethke”) and William Carlos Williams (“William Carlos Williams”). We also talked some Submitted by Ed Appel during this session about Burke’s long friendship with Williams, formative on both sides. Moderator: Herbert W. Simons (Temple) Our final meeting was devoted to Burke the poet. Coordinator: Timothy W. Crusius (Southern We began by considering the relationship between Methodist)—Unable to Attend Burke’s poems and his other writings, then turned to reading and discussion of a selection of poems. Participants: Ed Appel (Leola, PA), Don While these are uneven in quality, they provided Burks, (Purdue), C. Allen Carter (Oklahoma good occasion to think about how Burke’s ideas— City), David Schuermer (Southern Illinois, about the musicality of verse, about literature as Carbondale), Amy Sileven (Southern Illinois, equipment for living, about transcendence—make Carbondale), Karen Whedbee (Purdue) their way into verse. It also gave us a chance to think broadly about Burke’s uses, both practical This seminar was structured by a problem seem- and theoretical, of poetry. ingly inherent in Burkean ethics, and a potential Our seminar was one of explorations rather than solution to or way of dealing with that problem, conclusions. Goaded by inquiries from a posed by the seminar’s moderator, Herb Simons: rhetorician and longtime Burkean who was not a “Melodrama energizes but its method is dema- participant in our seminar and who is not (by his gogic. It evokes righteous outrage, but not neces- own admission) a reader either of poetry or of sarily warrantable outrage. Comedy, as Burke Burke on poetry, we did address a question I take characterizes it in ‘Poetic Categories,’ is the anti- to be of fundamental importance for Burke studies, thesis of melodrama. It offers up the ‘maximum of especially as it is presently constituted with an forensic complexity.’ But, in so doing, it converts emphasis on communications, rhetoric, and the villains into fools. And Burke’s method of humble, social sciences. That is, whether a reader can come comic irony renders all of us fools, thus greatly to an adequate understanding of Burke without weakening the capacity of good people to do more engaging his discussions of poetry and poetics. than demystify (as Burke did his analysis of the Much in our discussions over three days would doc’s con artistry). With Frank Capra, I am prepared suggest that the answer to this question is no. It to say there are times when debunking is neces- ‘99 Seminars sary, not just demystification; and when people course, Burke. The assumption is that, in response need to be mobilized around values worth defend- to what seems at first sight to be morally outra- ing. But I am opposed to righteous indignation that geous behavior, human beings so naturally respond is not also warrantable indignation. Hence my op- with heated, uncritical indignation. Such a reac- position to melodrama. How, then, to extract our- tion is not warranted outrage, no matter how crimi- selves from this tangle? ( From the working paper nal the offense may seem. It is “melodrama,” akin submitted to seminar participants, ‘From Melo- to the sensationalized and exaggerated theatre of drama, Through Comedy, To Warrantable Outrage.’) the nineteenth-century English stage, where char- The problem is one that has been around since acters were types, most likely heroes or villains; the 1984 Burke Conference in Philadelphia: the struggle, between the altogether good and the Doesn’t Burke’s comic-frame approach to human altogether bad; the motivations and the causes of relations, so strongly implied in his “bottom line” the action, subordinated to form and “machinery.” codicil in “Definition of Man [and Woman]” about (A genuine search for causations, for multiple the “rotten[ness] of [melodramatic, or tragic] per- “punctuations” of the events being considered, is fection,” preclude “warranted outrage”? Can au- essential for deepening the “picture” of what is diences, in fact, be mobilized to pursue “good” ends happening that so exercises us.) in the face of moral enormities if anger is going to “Persuasion dialogue” or the “ideal conversation” be prescinded from the very start? Are persons, encourages and seeks to implement the “comic values, programs, and goals, in any case, all equally detachment” Burke recommends for dealing with 1999 Seminar

“foolish,” to use Burke’s comic descriptive, or near moral issues. It plays especially upon Burke’s fa- enough to equally foolish that “righteous indigna- vorite “master trope,” irony. It requires a dialecti- tion” seems a kind of naive hubris? Are, say, the cal interplay among all voices and views to the noted atrocities of the twentieth century fit sub- end that a matured “practical wisdom” may emerge jects for only comic interpretation and evaluation? to guide moral action. It will result in a “situated” A way of moving from outrage as a primal emo- ethic rather than a universal one. Certain dramatic tion to warranted, justified, perhaps even “tem- universals in the process of arriving at that ethic, pered,” outrage was proposed and then imple- however, will manifest themselves (e.g., the hor- mented in a practical, informal debate carried out tatory negative, temptations to the scapegoat pro- in the seminar. This discussion of a contemporary cess, the guilt-redemption cycle of concepts). Par- moral problem sought a transformation, perhaps, ticipants should be aware of motivations inherent in our thinking, from melodrama, through com- in the structure of language itself, as well as the edy, to justified “outrage,” if, and only if, that out- possible time-and-place-bound limitations of the rage were, at the end, deemed warrantable. principles, or some of the principles, of right and The theory undergirding this discussion came wrong one takes for granted. mainly from Douglas Walton’s notion of “persua- Characteristics of “persuasion dialogue” or the sion dialogue” and Juergen Habermas’s principles “ideal conversation” that constitute the “comic” of the “ideal conversation,” as supported at vari- route from “primal outrage” to, perhaps, “war- ous points by Gadamer, Heidegger, Rorty, and, of ranted outrage” are as follows:

June 2000 20 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 1. No one should dominate the conversation. or she may disagree with it. “Perfecting” the other’s All voices must be heard. position, putting the very best face on it one can 2. Participants will not be objective, but they think of, may reveal some flaws in one’s own. still should cultivate a mindset of not trying to The moral dilemma chosen for discussion and “win” the debate for the sake of winning. debate was that of Kosovo. Many of the principles 3. Consensus will not be a required outcome. enumerated above were put into play. Easy, one- One should get that burden off his or her mind at sided condemnation of Milosevic and the Serbs was the outset. In fact, there may be even more uncer- challenged on several fronts. The United States and tainty at the end. That result in itself could be salu- NATO were cited as sources of controlled, melo- tary. One would at least be shorn of the certainties dramatic information, as well as Serbia. Evidence he or she began the colloquy with. of violence committed against the Serbs within the 4. “Edification” (Rorty) is the aim, not pursuit last decade, as well as in previous centuries, was of “objective truth.” offered, evidence not readily found in United States 5. Moderator and participants will take care not publications. No consensus on the issue was forth- to lose the original thread in inevitable digressions coming, in part because of limited time. that the give and take of heated debate produce. 6. Positions are to be presented skillfully, but not manipulatively. 7. A “double hermaneutic” should obtain: ap- Reports

preciation and depreciation of what one hears. One should cultivate the art of identifying with other conversational- ists, putting oneself in their shoes, resulting in empathetic listening. At the same time, one should cultivate the art of mistrusting what one hears, resulting in critical Some conclusions on the seminar offered by par- listening. ticipants are these: 8. One should, in other words, give in to the • It may be impossible for human beings to shed subject matter, see each position as partial, listen their prejudices in such a discussion. to the other voices, cooperate in giving everyone a • Melodrama in the theatrical sense looks very chance to speak, while guarding against being easily much like tragedy in the rhetorical sense. “taken in.” • The seminar may not have produced a consen- 9. One should listen and watch for sus on the nature or validity of Burkean ethics. metacommunication, as well as for direct commu- • The proposed system of approach to ethical ques- nication. So much of what is said is not found in tions credits and uses insights drawn from Burke’s the stark words themselves. cult of comedy, while at the same time expanding 10. One may try, or be asked to try, perfecting its horizons in dealing with a complex, often bru- or improving upon the other’s position, though he tal, and always recalcitrant world.

The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 21 June 2000 Burke and the 8:30 AM FRIDAY I. Terministic Screenings Rhetoric of the Seen ♦ Perspective by Incongruity in the Exploration Coordinator: Bruce E. Gronbeck (Iowa) and Synthesis of Key Burkean & Ciceronian Terms: Piety and Decorum, Perspective by Participants: Barbara Biesecker, David Incongruity, Burlesque, Frame, and Wit Blakesley, Tim Borchers, Tony Brussat, Greg H. Scott Placke Clark, Danny DeLong, Diane Hemmings, ♦ A Critique of Burke’s Substance? Amy Heyse, Phyllis Japp, John Lucaites, Steve Long and Bryan Salmons Mark Meister, Clarke Rountree, and Leah ♦ Contingency, Irony, Metabiology: Richard White. Rorty, Kenneth Burke, and the Golden Rule Brent Whitmore Burke’s fondness for words about words is legendary, yet it must be remembered that II. In Search of Kenneth Burke: he likewise appreciated visualization and Mining the Archives face-to-face performance as dimensions of ♦ Engaging Kenneth Burke: A Report from symbolic action. Yet Burke left no systematic the Archives, Jack Selzer legacy on the analysis of visual, especially ♦ The Southern Review Files: Burke and mass-mediated, discourse. In this seminar, par- Attitudes Toward History, Ann George ticipants discussed ways in which Burkean ♦ “Dear Fren and Infloonce Person”: Burke thought, criticism, and/or vocabulary could be & Nemerov in the l950s, Miriam Marty Clark useful in studying especially electronic—ra- III. “That Guy Makes Me Tired”: dio, television, film, the digitized world of the Burke, Aristotle, and Beyond Internet—but also other forms (e.g., theatre, ♦ Aristotle’s Enthymeme and Burke’s Theory of demonstration, spectacle) of publicly shared, Form Revisited: Part I, Karen Whedbee seen, and performed discourse. In addition to ♦ Aristotle’s Enthymeme and Burke’s Theory of some online discussion, we reviewed a short- Form Revisited: Past II, Don Burks ened version of “Triumph of the Will” prior ♦ The Comic Root of Postmodern Kairos to the conference. At the conference, much Jeff White of our attention focused on ways that Burke’s terminology could help us understand the interanimation of visual and verbal rhetoric, 4:00 PM FRIDAY with particular emphasis on the products and I. Rhetoric and Poetics ♦ role of mass media in popular culture. Temporizing Election: Burke, Donne, and Courtship of the Eternal, Brent Nelson ♦ A. R. Ammons’ Dialogue with Burke: Burke, Phenomenolgoy, and Language, Nature, and the Resources of Lyric Existenitalism: Can They Dance? Miriam Marty Clark ♦ Report in the next issue Gnosis and Nihilism in Under the Volcano: A Meta-Rhetoric of Pure Persuasion Greig Henderson The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter 23 June 2000

II. Thirtysomething Writings ♦ Respondent: Ekaterina Haskins ♦ “The engine after long development”: From III. Interfacing Towards a Better Life to The Philosophy of ♦ The Kenneth Burke-Malcom Cowley Corre- Literary Form, Jerald L Ross spondence, L. W. Rosenfield ♦ Criticism in Context: Kenneth Burke’s “The ♦ Burke to Basics: Dialogue and Cultural Rhetoric of Hitler’s Battle”, Garth E. Pauley Studies in the First-Year Writing Program ♦ Bims and Bams: Style and Argument in Dennis Ciesielski Kenneth Burke’s “Semantic & Poetic Meaning” ♦ Burke and the Web: Determining Motive in Patricia Tallakson the Click of the Mouse, Isabel Pederson and III. Presidential (Im)Politics Neil Randall ♦ “The Perfect Enemy”: Clinton, the Contradic- tions of Capitalism, and Slaying the Sin Within 9:30 AM SUNDAY Virginia Anderson I. Burke & “Everyday Life”: Health, Happiness ♦ Clinton’s Search for Symbolic Redemption & “The Good Life” in Consumer Culture Zachary White ♦ Purification through Simplification: Cutting ♦ A Sense of Telos: Bill Clinton & His Remarks Down, Scaling Back, Opting Out, Phyllis M. Before the Religious Leaders Breakfast Japp Tony Brussat ♦ Burke’s “Good Life” & the TV Food Network Mark Meister 10:30 AM SATURDAY ♦ “Caring Enough” to Purchase a Sentiment: I. Burke Among the Philosophers A Burkean Analysis of Greeting Cards ♦ Representation, Repetition, and the Political Diana Rehling ♦ Unconscious: Burke and Marx’s Eighteenth Technology as “Representative Anecdote” in Brumaire, Tom Carmichael Popular Discourses of Health and Medicine ♦ Perspectives: Nietzsche & Burke, Gary Scott Groce Lynn Harder ♦ Interrogated by the Response: Kenneth Burke II. Don’t Be a Freud in the Dark and Jacques Derrida, C. Allen Carter ♦ Norman Douglas’ Nerinda and Kenneth Burke II. Writing Women In: Critical & Theoretical Donald Jennermann ♦ Feminist Applications of Burkean Theory The Rhetoric of Desire: Burke’s Freud as ♦ Transforming Sexism: Impiety & Perspective Dialectician, Ellen Quandahl ♦ by Incongruity, Keri A. Bodensteiner Kenneth Burke & the Psychology of Identifica- ♦ The Citadel’s Response to Harassment tion, Edward Berlinski Allegations: Burke’s Pentad as a Grounding of III. Enculturation Ideographs, Julie Davis ♦ The Dialectic of John Locke’s Constitution ♦ Between Persuasion and Invitation: Burkean Then & Now; or The Turn from Enlightenment Identification as an Inclusive Theory of Persuasion to Post-Enlightenment Culture, Robert Wess Sarah T. Partlow ♦ Motivating the Molten Mass of Humanity in ♦ Logology: A Feminist Application of Burke’s Defense of Cultural Obsolescence: Kenneth Burke Method, Valerie Renegar on Altering Cultural Paradigms, Amy Sileven ♦ Burke, the Paradox of Identification & Inter- ♦ Kenneth Burke’s Rhetorical Aesthetic and the sectionality of Race and Gender, Stacey Sowards Scope of Public Discourse, Gregory Clark 1999 Programs 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567

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travel and lodging information, and other news to follow. KBSNews and The chief conference planner is David Blakesley. Ellen Quandahl is one of the two program planners, with the Announcements: second to be announced soon. James Mackin will serve th as local host. Watch for future announcements on Burke- The 5 Triennial L (and its website at http://www.siu.edu/departments/ english/acadareas/rhetcomp/burke/index.html), the Ken- neth Burke Society website, and in upcoming issues of Plans are underway for the Fifth Triennial Conference of the Society’s Newsletter. For further information and to the Kenneth Burke Society, which will convene in May make suggestions, contact David Blakesley, Department 2002 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The conference theme of English, 1356 Heavilon Hall, Purdue University, West and initial call for seminar proposals will be announced Lafayette, Indiana 47907; email: [email protected]; in Fall 2000, with a call for paper and session proposals, phone: (765) 494-3740.

Minutes: continued from page page 7 Ed Appel announced that a scholar in India needs copies of Burke’s books. Please contact him New Business: A life membership category at by e-mail ([email protected]) if you have books to $150 was approved. The offer of complimentary contribute. memberships to interested members of Burke’s Continuation of the oral history project and the family was also approved. tape projects was endorsed. Jack Selzer will serve Replacement of officers in the interim between as contact. triennial meetings is covered by the constitution, Article V, Section 1, so no action was necessary. The meeting was adjourned at 11:20. The proposal to create a new award modeled on the Dial Award was remanded to officers for Respectfully submitted, further consideration. Phyllis Japp, Secretary

June 2000 24 The Kenneth Burke Society Newsletter