Course Description

Course Website

http://parlormultimedia.com/burke/

Reading List

These are the primary course readings. The books are available at Clemson University Bookstore. The course calendar specifies what should be read and when.

• Blakesley, David. The Elements of Dramatism. New York: Longman, 2002.
• Burke, Kenneth. Counter-Statement. 1931. Berkeley: U of California P, 1968.
• ---. Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose. 1935. 3rd edition. Berkeley: U of California P, 1984.
• ---. The Philosophy of Literary Form. 1941. Berkeley: U of California P, 1974.
• ---. A Grammar of Motives. 1945. Berkeley: U of California P, 1969.
• ---. A Rhetoric of Motives. 1950. Berkeley: U of California P, 1969.
• ---. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of California P, 1966.

Digital Coursepack: This will be distributed electronically via the course website, our Feed Aggregator, a shared folder in Instapaper, and other sources. It includes some of Burke’s uncollected essays, poetry, and  important secondary readings. Required readings will be identified on the course calendar, but you should also check the feed now and then for new items.

Extensions and Connections

During the semester, each student will read and report on one of these books, focusing on ways that each extends, elaborates, complicates, refines, or shares ideas with Burke. Some of these books do not mention Burke at all, even though the interanimation may be substantial. Students will choose books the second week of the course, and a calendar of presentations and the format will be then be developed.

• Covino, William A. Magic, Rhetoric, and Literacy: An Eccentric History of the Composing Imagination (SUNY P, 1994)
• de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life (University of California Press, 2002)
• Feyerabend, Paul. Against Method 4th ed. (Verso, 2010)
• Johnson, Steven. Where Do Good Ideas Come From? The Natural History of Innovation (Penguin, 2010)
• Johnson, Steven. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World (Penguin, 2006)
• Kelly, Kevin. What Technology Wants (Penguin, 2010)
• Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 3rd ed. (University of Chicago Press, 1996)
• Latour, Bruno. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (Oxford UP, 2007)
• Sacks, Oliver. The Mind's Eye (Knopf, 2010)
• Taylor, C. Mark. The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture (University of Chicago Press, 2001)
• Tietge, David. Rational Rhetoric: The Role of Science in Popular Discourse (Parlor Press, 2008).

Elaborations

These books focus specifically on Burke's work. Each student will choose one title to read and summarize for the rest of the class in a short, in-class presentation. Books will be chosen in week 2, and a calendar and the format for presentations will be developed after that.

• Anderson, Dana. Identity's Strategy: Rhetorical Selves in Conversion (University of South Carolina Press, 2008)
• Clark, Gregory. Rhetorical Landscapes in America: Variations on a Theme from Kenneth Burke (University of South Carolina Press, 2004)
• Crusius, Timothy. Kenneth Burke and the Conversation after Philosophy (Southern Illinois University Press, 1999)
• Hawhee, Debra. Moving Bodies: Kenneth Burke at the Edges of Language (University of South Carolina Press, 2009)
• Lentricchia, Frank. Criticism and Social Change(University of Chicago Press, 1984)
• Selzer, Jack. Kenneth Burke in Greenwich Village (University of Wisconsin Press, 1996)
• Selzer, Jack, and Ann George. Kenneth Burke in the 1930s (University of South Carolina Press, 2007)
• Selzer, Jack, and Robert Wess, Kenneth Burke and His Circles (Parlor Press, 2008)
• Smudde, Peter, ed. Humanistic Critique of Education. (Parlor Press, 2010)
• Weiser, M. Elizabeth. Burke, War, Words: Rhetoricizing Dramatism (University of South Carolina Press, 2008)
• Wess, Robert. Kenneth Burke: Rhetoric, Subjectivity, Postmodernism (Cambridge University Press,1996)

More Burke

We don't have time during the course to cover these works by Burke, so students will work collaboratively in teams of two to prepare a short oral presentation on the nature of the work and its place in Burke's corpus. Teams will form in Week 2 and books will be chosen by Week 3.

• Equipment for Living: The Literary Reviews of Kenneth Burke. Ed. Nathaniel Rivers and Ryan Weber (Parlor Press, 2010)
• Essays Toward a Symbolic of Motives, 1950-1955. Ed. William H. Rueckert (Parlor Press, 2007)
• Kenneth Burke on Shakespeare. Ed. Scott L. Newstok (Parlor Press 2007)
• Here and Elsewhere: The Collected Fiction of Kenneth Burke (Godine, 2005)
• Late Poems, 1968–1993 Attitudinizings Verse-wise, While Fending for One's Selph, and in a Style Somewhat Artificially Colloquial. Ed. by Julie Whitaker and David Blakesley. University of South Carolina Press, 2005.
• The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology. 1961 (University of California Press, 1970)
• Attitudes Toward History. 1937. 3rd ed. (University of California Press, 1984)
• On Human Nature: A Gathering While Everything Flows. Ed. William H. Rueckert and Angelo Bonadonna (University of California Press, 2003)
• Towards a Better Life: Being a Series of Epistles, or Declamations: A Novel. 1932 (University of California Press, 1982)

Description

This course will take Kenneth Burke as an exemplary figure in the genesis of rhetoric, composition, communication, cultural studies, and literary theory in the twentieth century. The focus will be on Burke’s continuing relevance for our understanding of key rhetorical principles (identification, context, terministic screens), of emergent subjects in the field (visual rhetoric, complexity theory, cultural studies), and of the relationships between rhetoric, composition, new media, and literary theory. Course readings will include primary Burkeian texts and secondary work by other rhetoricians, theorists, and philosophers. Coursework will include three book presentations, regular written responses to the readings, a major print or multimedia project. and a large-group project for presentation at the 2011 Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society, to be hosted at Clemson from May 26-29, 2011.

Coursework

Further details about each of these project will be discussed in class:

1. Weekly Written Responses: Each week, I want you to respond to questions or readings listed on the calendar with one short (200- 300-word) semi-formal response posted to your blog at the course website. These responses will need to be posted by class time every Tuesday. I will also give you 10-15 minutes at the start of every class meeting to write comments on the posts of others and to compose new responses of your own. Some topics will be open. I plan to ask one question each week. I would also like you to write a minimum of 3 comments and replies each week. These can be shorter posts that ask questions, comment, elaborate, or link. These follow-up comments and replies should normally be no more than 150 words, but length ultimately depends on the nature of your response. (20% of course grade.)
2. Book Presentations (3): Each student will present individually on two books (selected from the Extensions/Connections and Elaborations lists above) in class. These presentations should be 10-15 minute oral reports, accompanied by a summary sheet that outlines key ideas and suggests connections to Burke's work and its relevance. For the third presentation, you'll work with a peer to present on one of the titles in the "More Burke" section above. The format for the presentation, including the summary sheet, will be the same as it is for the other book presentations. You will be able to use a computer and projector for any of these presentations if you'd like. The summary sheets should be posted to the course site after the presentation has been completed, following guidelines discussed in class. (30% of course grade.)
3. Major Print or Multimedia Project: At the end of the semester, submit a research essay, hypertext, or other multimedia project that draws on course readings and any other work relevant to your subject matter and advances a position on a topic of potential interest to others in your field of study. You’ll be provided with detailed guidelines for this project in Week 8 and be required to submit work-in-progress on a regular schedule in a project log. A list of suggested topics will be provided. Length: 4,000 – 8,000 words or the equivalent. You may think of this project as a conference presentation or the draft of a project to submit for publication to a journal. (40% of course grade.)
4. Group Project for Presentation at KBS 2011: The class will work as a group to devise a creative presentation at the 2011 Burke Conference. We'll talk in class about the possibilities, but they include an interactive exhibit, a performance, or other event that will be of interest to conference attendees. You don't have to be present at the conference to earn credit for this project. (10% of course grade)

Resources

KB Discussion List . In existence now for 13 years, this list includes approximately 240 members from many different fields of study. I would like each of you to join the list and “lurk” or participate (as you choose). List traffic is usually light but will pick-up now and then as people ask questions or introduce topics. To learn about how to join the list, visit http://kbjournal.org/mailing. I am the list moderator. Please email me by the start of Week 2 to let me know that you have successfully joined the list.

KB Journal http://www.kbjournal.org
In addition to newly published articles on Burke, the journal features discussion forums, bibliographies, information about the Kenneth Burke Society, announcements, and more. KB Journal is hosted at Clemson. The bibliographies will be especially useful for your research.

Grading

Attendance

Attendance is required at all scheduled meetings. Three absences may result in your final grade being lowered by as much as a letter grade. More than three absences can result in a failing grade for the course. Excused absences will only be granted for religious holidays or university-sponsored events, provided you make a written request to me no less than two weeks in advance and that you complete any required work before the due date. Being excessively or regularly late for class can also be counted as an absence. Note: If the instructor is late to class, you only need to wait ten minutes.

Academic Integrity

Clemson students and their instructors are expected to adhere to the community and ethical standards for behavior and academic integrity at the University:

"As members of the Clemson University community, we have inherited Thomas Green Clemson's vision of this institution as a "high seminary of learning." Fundamental to this vision is a mutual commitment to truthfulness, honor, and responsibility, without which we cannot earn the trust 2 and respect of others. Furthermore, we recognize that academic dishonesty detracts from the value of a Clemson degree. Therefore, we shall not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing in any form."

"When, in the opinion of a faculty member, there is evidence that a student has committed an act of academic dishonesty, the faculty member shall make a formal written charge of academic dishonesty, including a description of the misconduct, to the Associate Dean for Curriculum in the Office of Undergraduate Studies. At the same time, the faculty member may, but is not required to, inform each involved student privately of the nature of the alleged charge."

Unless otherwise noted in assignment guidelines, you should not submit work for this course that has been submitted for a grade in other courses.

In Case of a Campus Emergency

In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines and grading percentages are subject to changes that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances. You can acquire updated information from the course website, by emailing me, or by contacting me through the English Department at (864) 656-3151.

Late Work

The majority of missed class assignments cannot be made up. If a serious and unavoidable problem arises, however, you should contact me in writing prior to the deadline to determine whether or not an extension for the work will or will not be granted.