Critical moments

Description:

This volume by George Knox was the first to address and attempt to understand Kenneth Burke--author, English language educator, literary theorist, and philosopher. His ideas regarding literary aesthetics, and the nature and function of form in fiction, led to his lifelong work: a massive interdisciplinary project Burke dubbed 'dramatism'. An American original, his spiritual forbearers include Emerson and Whitman, as a fellow Bohemian seeking organization and system outside bureaucracy. As a critic, he scrutinized the consciousness of America--expressed in literature--in its attempt to shape a vision of itself. Knox argues that Burke is at his best as a non-systematic thinker, and that the terms, concepts, and the attitude he brought to literary criticism will stand as his most lasting contributions to that endeavor.

People: Kenneth Burke (1897-)