Language As Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and MethodUniversity of California Press, 1966 - 514 pages From the Preface:The title for this collection was the title of a course in literary criticism that I gave for many years at Bennington College. And much of the material presented here was used in that course. The title should serve well to convey the gist of these various pieces. For all of them are explicitly concerned with the attempt to define and track down the implications of the term "symbolic action," and to show how the marvels of literature and language look when considered form that point of view. |
Contents
Note | 2 |
Chapter TwoPoetics in Particular Language in General | 25 |
Chapter ThreeTerministic Screens | 44 |
Chapter Four Mind Body and the Unconscious | 63 |
Chapter FiveCoriolanusand the Delights of Faction | 81 |
Antony | 101 |
Chapter TwoTimon of Athens and Misanthropic Gold | 115 |
Chapter ThreeForm and Persecution in the Oresteia | 125 |
Chapter Eleven William Carlos Williams 18831963 | 282 |
Note | 294 |
Chapter TwoThe Thinking of the Body Comments on | 308 |
Motion and Action | 344 |
Chapter Four What Are the Signs of What? A Theory | 359 |
Chapter Five Myth Poetry and Philosophy | 380 |
Chapter Six Medium as Message | 410 |
Chapter Seven A Dramatistic View of the Origins | 419 |
Chapter Four Goethes Faust Part I | 139 |
Chapter Five Faust IIThe Ideas Behind the Imagery | 163 |
Chapter SixI Eye AyConcerning Emersons Early | 186 |
Chapter Seven Kubla Khan ProtoSurrealist Poem | 201 |
A Passage | 223 |
Chapter Nine Version Con Per and In Thoughts | 240 |
Chapter Ten The Vegetal Radicalism of Theodore Roethke | 254 |
Other editions - View all
Language As Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method Kenneth Burke Limited preview - 1966 |
Language As Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method Kenneth Burke Limited preview - 2023 |
Language As Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method Kenneth Burke No preview available - 1966 |
Common terms and phrases
action Aeschylus animal approach aspect become beginning body called chapter character close comes concerned consider corresponding criticism death definition derived designed dialectic direction discussion distinction dream effect essay expression fact Faust feel figure final follow function further give given ground Hence human idea ideal imagery imagination indicate insofar instance involves kind language later least lines linguistic look matter means mind moral motion motives myth nature negative observations once origins particular perfect person play plot poem poet poetic positive possible present principle problem purely question realm reason reference regards relation represent Rhetoric role scene sense serve sheer simply situation social sort specifically spirit step story stress suggest symbolic talk theme things thought tion tragedy transcendence transformed treated turn ultimate unconscious universal whereby