Attitudes Toward History

by Kenneth Burke

This book marks Kenneth Burke’s breakthrough in criticism from the literary and aesthetic into social theory and the philosophy of history. In this volume we find Burke’s first entry into what he calls his theory of Dramatism; and here also is an important section on the nature of ritual.

Genres: History, Philosophy, Criticism

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Kenneth Duva Burke was a major American literary theorist and philosopher. Burke's primary interests were in rhetoric and aesthetics.

Reviews

[Joe Juarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A person's history is defined according to its events. As a graduate student, I learned about the works of Kenneth Burke. In fact one of my last papers, I used one of his works to chronicle Bill Clinton's rise to the Presidency in 1992.

In part of the assignment, I wrote that in the early 1990s people began to reject George Bush's leadership. Examples of that lead to this rejection was related to the economy and the fact that he lost track of what was going on (examples include gay rights, women in the work force, and pro-choice). In the book, Burke stated that rejection is "but a by-product of acceptance" (p.21). That meant for my report I stated that in order for people to accept Clinton's views they must reject Bush's views. That was just a snippet of what I got from this book.

Months later, I read this book from start to finish and realized that there was more than acceptance and rejection. It mentions the definition of guilt, grotesque, and rebirth. This book is for anyone interesting in dissecting a public speech, a book, or song they like. It also says that one person may think one thing and one might think in another direction.

[Mike Rancourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is right up there with A Rhetoric of Motives for me. I particularly appreciate the discussion of the comic frame, which I contrast with the burlesque (not so much the tragic, as most people do, because I see the comic as a frame of acceptance quite in contrast to the burlesque as a frame of rejection). For me, it has been fun to apply this to the rhetoric of social movements and protest rhetoric, at least in theory.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

meandering and irrelevant in parts, doesn't understand how money works but that's to be excused as this was written well before Keynes' General Theory came out. already noticing myself using some of the terms in my daily life though

[Sophia Koleno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burke is my new favorite adopted crazy old uncle. Tuesday nights with Burke.