Kenneth Burke
From RhetorClick
Contents |
Biography
Kenneth Burke (1897-1993) was a major American literary and rhetorical theorist and critic. He was influenced by Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche, but did not explicitly follow any particular school of thought. Burke defined (hu)mankind as the "symbol-making (symbol-using, symbol-misusing) animal, inventor of the negative (or moralized by the negative), separated from his natural condition by instruments of his own making, goaded by the spirit of hierarchy (or moved by the sense of order), and rotten with perfection" (Definition of Man 53-54).
Education
- One semester at Ohio State University
- Studied at Columbia University for one year before dropping out to become a writer
Notable Quotes
"The best I can do is state my belief that things might be improved somewhat if bough people began thinking along the lines of this definition; my belief that, if such an approach could be perfected by many kinds of critics and educators and self-admonishers in general, things might be a little less ominous than otherwise" (Definition of Man 58).
Article Summaries
Burke, Kenneth "Definition of Man"
Additional Works/ Publications
A full lists of Burke's publications can be found here
Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method
Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose
Further Readings
University of Minnesota, Kenneth Burke Resources Website
