8th Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society

Kenneth BurKe, rhetoric, and Social change

eighth triennial conference of the Kenneth Burke Society

May 26 - 29, 2011clemson university

®

20% KBS 2011 Discount on All Parlor Press Books!find our flyer/order form at the conference or ask David Blakesley

www.parlorpress.com3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson SC 29621 | 765.409.2649 (ph) | 206.600.5076 (fax) | [email protected]

Books by and about Kenneth BurkeEquipment for Living: The Literary Reviews of Kenneth

BurkeKenneth Burke. Edited by Nathaniel A. Rivers and Ryan P. Weber [2010]

Humanistic Critique of Education: Teaching and Learn-ing as Symbolic ActionEdited by Peter M. Smudde [2010]

Kenneth Burke and His CirclesEdited by Jack Selzer and Robert Wess [2008]

Essays Toward a Symbolic of Motives, 1950-1955Kenneth Burke. Edited by William H. Rueckert [2007]

Kenneth Burke on ShakespeareEdited by Scott L. Newstok [2007]

Letters from Kenneth Burke to William H. Rueckert, 1959-1987Edited by William H. Rueckert [2003]

Coming in 2011 . . .Kenneth Burke on Myth: An Introduction

Laurence Coupe (paperback edition)

8th Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society 1

Welcome!On behalf of the Kenneth Burke Society and Clemson University, it’s my plea-sure to welcome all of you to the Eighth Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society. Clemson is my new home, and I hope you find it as welcoming, beautiful, and warm as I have. I have wonderful colleagues and exceptional graduate students here, many of whom you’ll meet at the conference. If there was ever any doubt that KB’s ideas were alive and well in South Carolina, rest assured that you can now roam our beautiful campus and find the fragrance of many Burkes and rhetorics everywhere you turn.

The theme of this year’s conference, “Kenneth Burke, Rhetoric, and Social Change,” reflects the belief that now more than ever we should bring Burke’s in-sights—his terministic screens, representative anecdotes, comic and dramatistic perspectives, and more—to the pressing challenges of our times. Burke’s words from his 1942 essay, “War and Cultural Life,” seem as fresh as ever:

What one might now most avidly look for, in the cultural sphere, is some evidence of a whole intellectual movement designed thus to “frame” the conception of our exigencies, resources, weaknesses, and intentions. The need to think of global war and of its counterpart, global peace, invites us to seek also a truly global attitude toward all mankind, with its ex-pressions ranging from the austere down to the foibles of the human barnyard. The study of war aims should thus be grounded in the most searching consideration of human motives. So far, however, it seems that war aims are being treated as something of a cross between anticipatory or retrospective ideals and cameralistic proposals designed to enlist or ap-pease various economic interests. And more basic inquiries into human

ContentsWelcome! ............................................................................... 1Acknowledgments .................................................................. 2Keynote Speakers ................................................................... 4Seminars ................................................................................ 5Officers of the Kenneth Burke Society .................................. 7Awards of the Kenneth Burke Society .................................... 7Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society .................................... 8KB Discussion List ................................................................. 8Thursday, May 26 .................................................................. 9Friday, May 27 ..................................................................... 10Saturday, May 28 ................................................................. 17Sunday, May 29.................................................................... 24Index of Participants ............................................................ 27

8th Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society2

motives seem to have been postponed, as a luxury that the moment can-not afford, precisely at a time when the need for such a search is all the more urgent. (“War and Cultural Life,” The American Journal of Sociology 48.3, Nov. 1942, p. 409)

Burke was speaking as World War II ravaged the globe at a time that had its own particular mix of threats to the human condition and peaceful coexistence. Our times have their own foibles in the human barnyard, and while it sometimes may seem a luxury to reflect on them at an academic conference, the urge to do so, if we’re to believe Burke, is all the more urgent as political, social, cultural, racial, and ideological crises unfold. At those moments when we’re driven into a corner, when the possibilities for action seem limited to silence or moral outrage, Burke believed that the power of language and rhetoric could help us interpret our in-terpretations, and in doing so find a way to act both for ourselves and for change.

The conference theme reflects this optimism, and the wide variety of topics expressed in seminars and presentations throughout our three days together can be our next step in freeing ourselves, as KB might have put it, from the tragic inaction of “sour grapes” to the comic relief of “sour grapes plus.” I hope you all enjoy the conference!

Acknowledgments

This 8th Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society is an act of be-coming, with many people working behind the curtain to make it a first-order reality. I want to thank first the Burke family, three of whom are with us at the conference: Michael Burke, his wife Julie Whitaker, and their daughter Shan-non. Anthony “Butchie” Burke can’t be here, but I spoke to him the other night, and he sends his regards. I want to thank Angie Justice, my secretary and the secretary of the Cambell Chair and the Pearce Center for Professional Com-munication at Clemson. I can only imagine what she must have thought when I arrived last fall and told her that we had a conference to host in nine months. The now-permanent Dean of the College of Architecture, Arts, and Humani-ties, Richard Goodstein, supported the conference with a graduate research as-sistant this spring, a newly minted PhD himself, Josh Abboud. My colleagues in the Department of English have been eager to help all the way, and many of them are first-rate Burke scholars in their own right. At the conference, you’ll find Steve Katz leading a seminar, and Martin Jacobi presenting a paper. Victor Vitanza, Scot Barnett, Jan Holmevik, Cynthia Haynes, Tharon Howard, Bar-bara Ramirez, and Scott Mogul will be here to host panels or to make sure you enjoy the conference. Perhaps most of all, I want to thank the excellent graduate students in my Kenneth Burke seminar this past semester. Not only have they reminded me why I love thinking and writing about Burke but they have also shown me that Burke’s ideas continue to resonate with the young among us.


You’ll have the chance to meet all of them during the conference and to hear and see the fine work that they’ve completed. They have planned the special events at the conference, put together the best swag bag you’ve ever seen, and will ensure that the conversations in the parlor are interminable, and well past my bedtime, I’m sure. If you see them here, please join me in thanking them for their hard work and enthusiasm: Jimmy Butts, Jared Colton, Yuanrong Ding, Patricia Fancher, Steven Holmes, Walter Iriarte, Emily Ligon, Stephen Lind, Lauren Mitchell, and Glen Southergill. They are all PhD students in our still new PhD program in Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design. If this semester was any indication, Burke scholars will be hearing a lot more from them. I also want to mention Ethan Sproat, my student and friend from Purdue, who encouraged me in the beginning to give another go at hosting the Burke conference. I’m pleased that Ethan is here at the conference to show you the excellent work he and Joel Overall have accomplished thus far in their work on the video archives of the Iowa interviews with KB.

The officers of the Kenneth Burke Society keep everything running be-tween conferences and are a blessing to all of us. I’m grateful for the confidence they showed me when we burst rather late upon the scene with the promise to host the conference here at Clemson so soon after I arrived. Ann George (Presi-dent), Bob Wess (Immediate Past-President), Clarke Rountree (Vice President) Elvera Berry (Secretary), and Virginia Anderson (Treasurer) deserver everyone’s thanks. Bryan Crable, the 2008 conference chair, has always been there to offer helpful advice. I want to thank especially all those who reviewed conference proposals and offered their feedback: Josh Abboud, Virginia Anderson, Jimmy Butts, AmyLea Clemons, Jared Colton, Yuanrong Ding, Patricia Fancher, Steve Holmes, Walter Iriarte, Emily Ligon, Stephen Lind, Lauren Mitchell, Nathan-iel Rivers, Clarke Rountree, Glen Southergill, and Ryan Weber.

Finally, I want to thank the President of Clemson University, James Bark-er, our Provost, Doris Helms, my Dean, Richard Goodstein, my Department Head, Barton Palmer, and Victor Vitanza, friend and colleague, for first luring me to Clemson and now for giving me the opportunity to host this conference. Additional support for the conference comes from the Robert S. Campbell En-dowment, which provides funding for projects and events that foster deeper and clearer communication across all contexts at the university and beyond.

With that, it’s time to put in your oar (or?)!

—David BlakesleyKBS Conference Chair 2011

Cambell Chair in Technical CommunicationProfessor of EnglishClemson University

26 May 2011


Keynote Speakers

Friday Lunch, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Ballroom A & B

Scott McLemee

Inside Higher Ed

“Motives of the Public Intellectual; or, Con-fessions of an Unlicensed Burkean.”

Scott McLemee writes the weekly column “Intellectual Affairs” for Inside Higher Ed. He was a contributing editor at Lingua Franca and he covered the humanities as a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Ed-ucation. In 2004, he received the National Book Critics Circle award for excellence in reviewing, and began serving on that organization’s board of directors in 2008. Besides editing two volumes of writings by C. L. R. James, he has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers in the United States and abroad. He discovered Kenneth Burke in adolescence, which was not recently. Read “A Puzzling Figure in Literary Criticism Is Suddenly Central” at the Chronicle of Higher Education website, http://chronicle.com/article/A-Puzzling-Figure-in-Literary/15407.

Saturday Banquet, 6:00 - 8:30 pm pm, Ballroom A & B

Jack Selzer

Penn State University

“Kenneth Burke, MLK, and Me: Tak-ing a Comic Perspective on August 28, 1963”

Jack Selzer earned the Kenneth Burke Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 for service to the organiza-tion, for mentoring colleagues and graduate students in their archival research on Burke, and for his publica-tions Kenneth Burke in Greenwich Village (Wisconsin, 1997); Kenneth Burke in the 1930s (South Carolina, 2007, with Ann George); and Kenneth Burke and His Circles (Parlor, 2007, edited with Robert Wess). Currently past presi-dent of the Rhetoric Society of America, he has taught courses on rhetoric,


composition, technical writing, and Kenneth Burke at Penn State since 1978. He is currently working with Keith Gilyard on a book on the rhetoric of the civil rights movement, and researching another book on Burke’s later career.

SeminarsA distinct highlight of past KBS conferences has been the seminars, which provide opportunities for participants to focus on important subjects both prior to and throughout the conference. These seminars meet four times throughout the conference. The participants listed only include those reg-istered before May 6, 2011. If anyone is not listed and would like to join a seminar, ask the seminar leader if there’s space for you.

Burke and LawClarke RountreeUniversity of Alabama, Huntsville

This seminar will explore intersections between Burke’s work and law, with particular attention to the Clarke Rountree’s application of the pentad to the analysis of judicial discourse. Seminar participants will read the essays below. Additionally, the group will read the U.S. Supreme Court case Kelo v. City of New London (the controversial case approving Connecticut’s use of im-minent domain) as a case study in legal rhetoric.

Participants: Bob Wess, Brandon Inabinet, Cherise Bacalski, Evelyn Burg, John Roundtree, Mike Feehan, Odile Hobeika, Simone McGrath, Stan Lindsay, Virginia Anderson, Dries Vrijders, Greig Henderson, Jason Maxwell, Joyce Middleton

Race-ing BurkeBryan CrableVillanova University

Burke might seem an unlikely figure to link with race—simply because his or-igins (geographic, generational, and racial) contrast sharply with the concerns of those who advocate or construct critical race theory. Burke was not then, and is not now, known for his writings on issues of race. Some scholars have done work connecting Burke’s work to issues of race, identity, and racism. In many respects, however, Burkean scholarship focuses much more strongly on issues of class than of race (or of gender). This seminar will hope to change


that somewhat, by focusing attention on several key works by Burke that deal with matters of race.

Participants: Adiel Suarez-Murias, AmyLea Clemons, Camille Lewis, Connie Johnson, David Stacey, Guy Nave, Jean Miller, Joy Cypher, Nicholas Romeu, Celeste Zsembery, Scott Gage

Burke and EducationElvera BerryRoberts Wesleyan College

Peter M. SmuddeIllinois State University

Whatever our particular interest in the work of Kenneth Burke, to the extent that we engage his ideas, we become both student and teacher of those ideas. Taking Burke seriously calls for an examination not only of the substance of his corpus, but also of the implications of that substance for how we function as educators. The theme of the 2011 conference, “Kenneth Burke, Rheto-ric, and Social Change,” speaks directly to the nature and role of education. While he did not write extensively about education, per se, Burke left a cor-pus filled with implications for education.

Participants: Jacob Robertson, Jacqueline Preston, Jefferey Taylor, Jessica Shef-field, Jimmy Butts, Joel Overall, Lavinia Hirsu, Lorin Milotta, Michael DuPuis, Nicole Green, Ron Roach, Sarah Whyte, Walter Irarte, Yuanrong Ding, Aimee Robison, Bill Fitzgerald, Jose Cortez

Burke, “Hitler’s ‘Battle’” and Beyond Steve KatzPearce Professor, Clemson University

Kenneth Burke’s “The Rhetoric of Hitler’s ‘Battle’,” ostensibly a book review, was a rhetorically perspicacious if not prophetic analysis of what was yet to transpire. Though the layers of biography, bigotry, tirades, hatreds, and po-litical strategies that permeate Mein Kampf turned others away in disgust and disbelief, Burke foresaw the general outline of events, read in relation to capitalism, religion, and anti-Semitism, just beginning to unfold. Burke did not have the last word on the interpretation of Mein Kampf; others have examined it since. But despite Burke’s warning that “we need to discover what kind of ‘medicine’ this medicine-man concocted, that we may know exactly what to guard against if we are to forestall the concocting of similar medicine


in America,” for obvious and subtle reasons, rhetorical scholars, with a few exceptions, have tended to shy away from engaging Hitler’s manifesto, or its wider implications about genocide and rhetoric, in any hermeneutic depth. This seminar will not be so shy.

Participants: Bryan Blankfield, David Dzikowski, David Isaksen, Ethan Spro-at, Jared Colton, Jim Klumpp, Lauren Mitchell, Nate Kreuter, Patricia Fancher, Rick Coe, Sasha McNicoll, Dmitri Stanchevici, Stephen McElroy, Steve Holmes

Mining Burkean ArchivesAnn GeorgeTexas Christian University

Archival research is changing the face of Burke studies. In the past decade, a host of essays and books have demonstrated how the archives ask us to reexamine what we “know” about Burke by reexamining how we’ve come to this knowledge. Archives, that is, changewhat we study (his rhetorical strate-gies as well as his theory, how he wrote as well as what he wrote) and how we study, enabling us to employ Burke’s methodologies—to read dramatistically, to “use everything.” And, then, archives help us begin to define what “every-thing” means in each case.This seminar will enable participants to explore, practically and theoretically, the potential for and the limitations of creating new understandings of Burke via his archives.

Participants: Dmitri Stanchevici, Erin Wais-Hennen, Glen Southergill, Helen Rapoport, Nathaniel Rivers, Paul Berry, Ryan Weber, Stephen Lind, Steven Mailloux, Dieter Boxmann, William Schraufnagel

Officers of the Kenneth Burke Society President: Ann George, Texas Christian UniversityImmediate Past-President: Robert Wess, Oregon State UniversityVice President: Clarke Rountree, University of Alabama, HuntsvilleTreasurer: Virginia Anderson, Indiana University SoutheastSecretary: Elvera Berry, Roberts Wesleyan CollegeEditor of Publications: Andrew King, Louisiana State University

Awards of the Kenneth Burke SocietyThe Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes extraordinary achievement in Burke studies over a number of years. Previous recipients are Leland Griffin (1990); William Rueckert (1993); Bernard Brock (1993); James Chesebro


(1999); Tim Crusius (2002); Jack Selzer (2005); Wayne Booth, Michael Burke, Julie Whitaker (2008).

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes extraordinary service to the So-ciety. Previous recipients are Sharon Dailey (1990), James Chesebro (1993), Dale Bertelson (1996), Robert Wess (1999), Clarke Rountree (2002), David Blakesley (2005), Mark Huglen (2008).

The Emerging Scholar Award recognizes the extraordinary promise of the work of a young scholar. Recipients in the past have included both senior graduate students and new assistant professors. Previous recipients are Dale Bertelson (1993), Mark Wright (1996), Mark Meister and Glenn Stillar (1999), Debra Hawhee (2002), Ryan Weber and Nathaniel Rivers (2005), Elizabeth Weiser (2008).

Journal of the Kenneth Burke SocietyFounded in 2004, KB Journal publishes original scholarship that addresses, applies, repurposes, or challenges the teachings of Kenneth Burke, which in-clude his major books and hundreds of articles, as well as the growing corpus of scholarship about him. Nurturing interdisciplinary understanding, devel-opment, and community across communication, composition, English, gen-der, literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology, technical writing, rhetoric, and more, KB Journal’s mission is to build some stable knowledge to foster a better world.

Editors

2008-2011: Andrew King2004-2008: Clarke Rountree and Mark Huglen

Web Devlopers

2008-2011: Nathaniel Rivers and Ryan Weber2004-2008: David Blakesley

KB Discussion ListThe KB Discussion List (originally Burke-L) was launched in January, 1998. You can join here: https://lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/kb. The founder and moderator is David Blakesley.

Thursday, May 26, 2011 9

Thursday, May 26

3:00 – 7:00 pmMartin Inn PassagewayRegistration Table OpenExhibits Open

5:00 – 6:30 pm Seminar Meetings 1Seminar Room 1Burke and Law (Leader: Clarke Rountree)

Meeting Rooms 1 & 2Race-ing Burke (Leader: Bryan Crable)

Seminar Room 2Burke and Education (Leaders: Elvera Berry and Peter M. Smudde)

Executive BoardroomBurke, “Hitler’s ‘Battle’” and Beyond (Leader: Steve Katz)

Teleconference RoomMining Burkean Archives (Leader: Ann George)

7:00 - 9:00 pmWelcome ReceptionMartin Inn Passageway and Patio (by Registration Table)

9:00 pm - ? After hours parlor in Hospitality Suite 430

Friday, May 27, 201110

Friday, May 27

Auditorium QuadRegistration and exhibits open from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

A: Concurrent Sessions (8:30 - 9:45 am)A.1 Seminar Room 1Featured SessionBurke in the Archives: Using the Past to Transform the Future of Burkean

Studies

Dana Anderson, Indiana UniversityJessica Enoch, University of PittsburghAnn George, Texas Christian UniversityJeff Pruchnic, Wayne State University

A.2 Seminar Room 2Rhetorics of WorkChair: Erin Wais-Hennen, Lindsay Wilson CollegeFrédérique Chave, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France“All the Emergency Room’s a Stage”

Alexandra Bidet, Centre Maurice Halbwachs CNRS, France“From Dewey to Burke: New Perspectives on Communication at Work”

Sarah Whyte, University of Waterloo“Introducing Team Briefings in the Operating Theatre: A Pentadic Ethnog-

raphy of Social Change”

A.3 Teleconference RoomBurke and the Good LifeRon Roach, Young Harris College“Lucky Strikes and Gray Flannel: TV’s Mad Men as Redemptive Drama”

Stan A. Lindsay, Florida State University“Disney’s “Tangled” Take on Parent-Child Separation”

Stephen McElroy, Florida State University“Identifying With the NFL: The Rhetoric of Sunday’s “Battle””

Friday, May 27, 2011 11

A.4 Meeting Rooms 1 and 2Rhetorics of IdentificationChair: Virginia Anderson, Indiana University SoutheastWalter Iriarte, Clemson University“Devising an Image: Burke’s Identification as Pedagogy”

Camille Kaminski Lewis, Independent Scholar“‘The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same’—Coding and

Exploding “Segregation” into Thousands of “Separations””

Scott Gage, Florida State University“Intimate Horrors: Lynching Postcards and the Role of Personalization in

Burke’s Theory of Consubstantiality”

A.5 Meeting Rooms 3 and 4Burke and the Good LifeChair: David Dzikowski, Penn State UniversityLorin Milotta, Texas Christian University“Perspective by Incongruity: Burke as Personal Trainer”

Nicole E. Green, Texas Christian University“Prom, the “Big Game,” Homecoming, and Becoming Symbol-Wise?: A

Case for Kenneth Burke in the High School Classroom”

Cherise Bacalski, Brigham Young University “‘being alive, we seek to live’: The Body and Aesthetic Experience”

9:45 - 10:15 amAuditorium QuadRefreshment Break

B: Concurrent Sessions (10:15-11:30 am)B.1 Seminar Room 1Eco-Rhetoric I: Using Burke to Counter ‘Pollution’ with ‘a Totally Different Magic’Chair: Rick Coe, Simon Fraser UniversityRick Coe, Simon Fraser University“Using Burkean Rhetoric to Save Nature from Culture: A Draft Program

for Intellectuals, Artists, and Activists”

Nathaniel Rivers, Georgetown University“Action Constituting Motion: Revisiting Burke to Revive Ecology”


Robert Wess, Oregon State University“Burke and the Current Crisis in Ecocriticism”

B.2 Seminar Room 2PedagogyChair: Kris Rutten, Ghent UniversityAshley Watson, Purdue University“The Isolated Pentad: Composition Textbooks’ Evolving Adaptations of

Kenneth Burke’s Dramatism”

Emily Ligon, Clemson University“Theory in Action: Putting Terministic Screens into Practice”

Jacob Robertson, University of Houston“The Dramatistic Classroom: Burkean Grammatics as Critical Pedagogy”

B.3 Teleconference RoomSpatial RhetoricsChair: Yuanrong Ding, Clemson UniversityGretchen Underwood, Penn State University“To Go Where No (Hu)Man Has Gone Before: A Dramatistic Analysis of

Presidential Discourse on Space”

Josh Mehler, Florida State University“The Human Barnyard: Kenneth Burke, Time Geography, and the “Spatial

Turn””

Katherine Bridgman, Florida State University “Re-“Fitting” Scene: Identification”

B.4 Meeting Room 1 and 2Rhetorics of War and PeaceChair: Scot Barnett, Clemson UniversityDmitri Stanchevici, University of Memphis“The Constitution of Order in the Reports of Stalin’s Secret Police”

James J. Kimble, Seton Hall University“Ad Pacem Purificandam: Toward a Burkean Perspective on the Rhetoric of

Rehumanization”

Friday, May 27, 2011 13

Nate Kreuter, Western Carolina University“Ingenuous and Cunning Identification: How the Pallor of Unnoticable-

ness Facilitated the Invasion of Iraq in 2003”

B.5 Meeting Rooms 3 and 4Rhetorical TheoryChair: Steve Katz, Clemson UniversityJason Maxwell, Penn State University“Kenneth Burke at the Limits of Pluralism”

Ethan Sproat, Purdue University“The Ethic of “Bringing Together:” Sympheron and the Expediency of

Democratic Inefficiency”

Michael DuPuis, University of Pittsburgh “Kenneth Burke and the Democratic Tradition”

11:30 am - 1:00 pmBallroom A & BLunch: Keynote Speaker Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed“Motives of the Public Intellectual; or, Confessions of an Unlicensed

Burkean”

Scott McLemee writes the weekly column “Intellectual Affairs” for Inside Higher Ed. He was a contributing editor at Lingua Franca and he covered the humanities as a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education. In 2004, he received the National Book Critics Circle Award for excellence in reviewing, and began serving on that organization’s board of directors in 2008. Besides editing two volumes of writings by C. L. R. James, he has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers in the United States and abroad. He discovered Kenneth Burke in adolescence, which was not recently. Read Scott’s article on Burke, “A Puzzling Figure in Literary Criti-cism Is Suddenly Central” at the Chronicle of Higher Education website, http://chronicle.com/article/A-Puzzling-Figure-in-Literary/15407.

1:00 pm - 2:30 pmSeminar Meetings 2Seminar Room 1Seminar Room 1Burke and Law (Leader: Clarke Rountree)


Meeting Rooms 1 & 2Race-ing Burke (Leader: Bryan Crable)



Teleconference RoomMining Burkean Archives (Leader: Ann George)

2:30 - 3:00 pmAuditorium QuadRefreshment Break

C: Concurrent Sessions (3:00-4:15 pm)C.1 Seminar Room 1The Dialectical Imagination: Burke and Western MarxismChair: Robert Wess, Oregon State UniversityDavid Cratis Williams, Florida Atlantic University“Marxist Flirtations of Kenneth Burke in the 1930’s”

Greig Henderson, University of Toronto“Dramatism and Dialogism: Burke, Bakhtin, and the Languages of Social

Change”

C.2 Seminar Room 2Political RhetoricChair: Jean Costanza Miller, The George Washington UniversityBrandon Inabinet, Furman University“Burke & the Politics of President Obama’s Empathic Civility: Mere Per-

suasion Over Identification”

Connie Johnson, University of Texas at Austin “Perfecting a More Perfect Union with Crocodile Tears: Barack Obama and

the Jeremiah Wright Legacy”

James F. Klumpp, University of Maryland“What We Are: Textures of Identification in Barack Obama’s Arizona

Elegy”

Friday, May 27, 2011 15

C.3 Teleconference RoomInstitutional RhetoricsChair: Cherise Bacalski, Brigham Young UniversityBrita Dooghan, University of Pittsburgh“Academic Battle Royals: Kenneth Burke’s Intervention in Interdisciplinary

Conflicts”

Jefferey Taylor, Metropolitan State College of Denver“Resisting Atomized Subordination: Using Burke and Douglas to Counter

the Machinations of Invisible Power”

Katherine Tanski, Purdue University“Entering the Parlor: Burke, Rhetoric, and Interdisciplinarity”

C.4 Meeting Room 1 and 2Transitional RhetoricsChair: Cynthia Haynes, Clemson UniversityVirginia Anderson, Indiana University Southeast “Always with Us: Death, Taxes, and Division”

Kris Rutten, Ghent University and Ronald Soetaert, Ghent University “The Rhetoric of Education and Religion: Allowing or Prohibiting the

Headscarf?”

Nicholas Romeu, Villanova University “Leaving Never-Never Land: Symbolic Rebirth, Conflict, and Reconcilia-

tion”

C.5 Meeting Rooms 3 and 4Terministic RhetoricsChair: Jan Holmevik, Clemson UniversityDries Vrijders, Villanova University“The Case of Burke’s Anecdotes: Burke’s Views on Narrative as the “Tem-

porizing of Essence””

Lavinia Hirsu, Indiana University“An Incommensurate Proposal on Identity and Identifications”

Odile Hobeika, University of Pittsburgh“Objectification: The Scapegoated Subject”


Featured Sessions (4:30 – 5:30 pm) AuditoriumThe 25th Anniversary Edition of Conversations with Kenneth BurkeEthan Sproat, Purdue UniversityJoel Overall, Texas Christian University

In this featured session, Ethan Sproat and Joel Overall tell the story of the digitization and transcription of Conversations with Kenneth Burke. Until re-cently the interviews were only available in various analog formats from the University of Iowa. This DVD project, which will be available through the Kenneth Burke Society in the next year.

Seminar Room 1“Equipment for Living: Behind the Scenes”Nathaniel Rivers, Georgetown UniversityRyan Weber, Penn State Altoona

This panel provides the backstory on the collection Equipment for Living: The Literary Reviews of Kenneth Burke. The panel details the detective work necessary to obtain permissions from many now-extinct publications—detec-tive work that included a call to Penthouse Magazine. Based on this experi-ence and archival research, Nathaniel Rivers and Ryan Weber will also discuss how Burke’s reviews fit in the world of the Little Magazines of the 1920s and 1930s (and as a bonus anecdote, learn which publication had a dispute with Burke about providing free copies of reviewed books). Beyond these magazines, the presenters place Burke’s reviews within the larger canon of his work, arguing for their importance as precursors to his later thought and as insightful essays in their own right.

6:00 - 9:00 pmBarbecue, Michael Burke Reading, Open-Mic NightPavillion (Outdoors)Michael Burke will be reading from his new novel, Music of the Spheres.

After the reading, he’ll be signing copies of this novel and the first in the “Blue” Heron series, Swan Dive.

9:00 pm - ?

After hours parlor in Hospitality Suite 430

Saturday, May 28, 2011 17

Saturday, May 28Auditorium QuadRegistration and Exhibits open from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

D: Concurrent Sessions (8:30-9:45 am)D.1 Seminar Room 1Rhetoric and MedicineChair: Scott Mogull, Clemson UniversityJoy M. Cypher, “Technology and the Perfect Face: Transplanting Burke

and Disability”

Ronald Soetaert, Ghent University and Kris Rutten, Ghent University “Literature as Equipment and Medicine”

Dieter Boxmann, University of Iowa“The Logology of Assisted Death: Terms Bearing the Burden of How We

Live and Die with Medicine”

D.2 Seminar Room 2The Permanence of Change: Burke in TransitionChair: Nathaniel Rivers, Georgetown UniversityJeff Pruchnic, Wayne State University“Burke and the ‘End(s)’ of Humanism: Rhetoric, Revision, Propaganda”

Antonio Ceraso, DePaul University“In Highly Transitional Eras’: Situating Burke in the Transition Debates”

Michael John Ristich, Wayne State University “Rhetoric and Revolution, or, the Anarchist Burke”

D.3 Teleconference RoomAudio-Visual RhetoricsChair: Lavinia Hirsu, Indiana UniversityDavid Stacey, Humboldt State University“Reading and Writing about Jazz and Rhetoric with Kenneth Burke”

Paul Berry, Yale School of Music“Gestures of Self-Effacement in a Brahms Intermezzo: Burke and the His-

toriography of Musical Détente”

Saturday, May 28, 201118

Joyce Irene Middleton, East Carolina University “The Hyperlink Film: Visual Rhetoric and Identification in Film”

D.4 Meeting Room 1 and 2Political RhetoricJean Costanza Miller, The George Washington University “From the Parlor to the Barnyard: Obama and Holder in Dialogic Tension”

Erin Wais-Hennen, Lindsay Wilson College “‘It’s our God-given right to burn coal’: Hyperbole and Clean Coal Dis-

course”

D.5 Meeting Rooms 3 and 4Attitudes Toward the FutureChair: Victor Vitanza, Clemson UniversitySteven Keoni Holmes, Clemson University“The Object’s Attitude: Scenes without (Human) Actors”

Glen Southergill, Clemson University “Instinct in a Dramatistic Gaming Situation”

Sergio Figueiredo, Clemson University “Future Perspectives by Incongruity: A Burkean Response to the 9/11

Commission Report”

9:45 - 10:15 amAuditorium QuadRefreshment Break

E: Concurrent Sessions (10:15 - 11:30 am)E.1 Seminar Room 1Searching for Motives in Film, Drama, and SpeechChair: Clarke Rountree, University of Alabama, HuntsvilleDavid Dzikowski, Penn State University“The Razor’s Edge: A Journey through Different Pentadic Ratios”

Martin Jacobi, Clemson University“Scenic Realism and the Pessimism of David Hare’s Recent Drama”

Simone McGrath, University of Alabama, Huntsville“Freeing the Lockerbie Bomber: The Contested Motives of Scottish Justice

Secretary Kenny MacAskill”


E.2 Seminar Room 2Eco-Rhetoric II: Using Burke to Counter ‘Pollution’ with ‘a Totally Different Magic’Chair: Rick Coe, Simon Fraser UniversityJose Manuel Cortez, Eastern Washington University“Attitudes Toward Nature: A Logologic Analysis of British Petroleum’s

Environmental Disaster Rhetoric”

Alexandra McNicoll, Food Secure Canada“A Burkian Analysis of Tar Sands Rhetoric”

Jessica Sheffield, University of South Carolina “Champion of Champions: Harry Hampton and the Movement to Save

Congaree”

E.2 Seminar Room 2Rhetorics of Utopia and DystopiaChair: William FitzGerald, Rutgers UniversityAmyLea Clemons, Francis Marion University“‘It Gets Better’: Utopian Rhetoric and Burke’s Symbolic Action”

Brian O’Sullivan, St. Mary’s College of Maryland“The Ecology of The Waste Land: Negation and Social Change”

E.3 Teleconference RoomArchival BurkeChair: Victor Vitanza, Clemson UniversityRyan Weber, Penn State Altoona“Kenneth Burke vs. the Legion of Indecency!!!”

Steven Mailloux, Loyola Marymount University “Gods and Dogs: Conferencing with Kenneth Burke on Language and

Religion”

E.4 Meeting Room 1 and 2Literary Theory and AnalysisLaura E. Rutland, Gannon University “Merger, Sacrifice, and the Kill in Sharon Olds’ “Rites of Passage””

Miriam Marty Clark, Auburn University “Pragmatism, Poetry, and A Grammar of Motives”


Satish Gupta, WR Govt. College (India)“Kenneth Burke’s The Rhetoric of Religion and Charu Sheel Singh’s Con-

centric Imagination: Modalities of Intention and Idiom”

E.5 Meeting Rooms 3 and 4Public RhetoricsAdiel Suarez-Murias, Florida Atlantic University “Honor, Sanity, and Change: A Rhetorical Analysis of the “Rally to Restore

Honor” and the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear””

Peter DuPuis, College of Charleston “A War Against Themselves That You Will Surely Lose: Using Kenneth

Burke’s Theory of Identification to Explain the Rhetoric of the West-boro Baptist Church”

Helen Rapoport, Columbia College “Is There a Price to Pay for Free Speech?”

11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Ballroom A & BLunch (Sandwich Buffet)

1:00 pm - 2:30 pmSeminar Meetings 3Seminar Room 1Burke and Law (Leader: Clarke Rountree)

Meeting Rooms 1 &2Race-ing Burke (Leader: Bryan Crable)



Teleconference RoomMining Burkean Archives (Leader Ann George)

2:30 - 3:00 pmAuditorium QuadRefreshment Break


F: Concurrent Sessions (3:00 – 4:15 pm)F.1 Seminar Room 1Theorizing the Pentad for Criticism, Prayer, and Political IdeologyChair: Clarke Rountree, University of Alabama, HuntsvilleWilliam FitzGerald, Rutgers University “Kenneth Burke, Reinhold Niebuhr and the Pragmatics of Prayer: A Dra-

matistic Reading of the “Serenity Prayer”

Clarke Rountree, University of Alabama, Huntsville “When Actions Collide: Pentadic Constructions Spanning Different Acts,”

Mark Huglen, University of Minnesota, Crookston“How the Pentad Functions in a Theory of Political Ideology”

F.2 Seminar Room 2Burke and MultimodalityChair: Tharon Howard, Clemson UniversityJoel Overall, Texas Christian University“Yes We Can, Can, Can’: Kenneth Burke’s Aural Rhetoric”

Joshua Daniel-Wariya, Texas Christian University “‘We Are the One’s We’ve Been Waiting For’: Timelessness in Digital

Cinema”

Teleconference RoomThe Dynamics of ChangeChair: Jessica Sheffield, University of South CarolinaManuel Boutet, Université de Paris Ouest la Défense, Paris, France “Avatars in the Realm of Gargoyles: Incongruity and Orientation in Digital

Worlds”

Erik Garrett, Duquesne University “Permanence and Change and the Book of Change--I Ching”

Richard H. Thames, Duquesne University“Recalcitrance and Revolutionary Change: The Material/Ideal Dialectic in

Science and Culture” [Posted online]”


F.4 Meeting Roooms 3 and 4Rhetorics of IndeterminisimChair: David Stacey, Humboldt State UniversityBryan Blankfield, Penn State University “Escaping the Skinner Box: Kenneth Burke, Behaviorism, and (Nonsym-

bolic) Motion/(Symbolic) Action”

Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed“Burke and Calverton on Cultural Compulsives”

William Schraufnagel, Penn State University “Kenneth Burke’s Auscultation: Aesthetic and Economic Criticism”

F.5 Meeting Room 1 and 2 (3:00 - 4:45 pm)Indexing the Rise and Fall of a Friendship: Archival Research into the Kenneth Burke and Wayne C. Booth Letter CorrespondenceChair: Elvera Berry, Roberts Wesleyan CollegeAimee Robison, Brigham Young University “Friends Share One’s Sorrows: Burke, Booth, and the Rhetoric of Forgive-

ness”

Andrew Wells, Brigham Young University “Do Words Think For Us? Free Will and Literary Determinism in the

Burke/Booth Correspondence”

David Isakson, Brigham Young University “Indexing Burke and Booth: A Dramatistic Analysis of the Burke/Booth

Correspondence”

Cherise Bacalski and Shannon Stimpson, Brigham Young University “Considering Content: Booth’s Moralizing Extension of the Burkeian

System”

Celeste Zsembery, Brigham Young University “Consummation: Achieving Self-Consistent Connections through Burke’s

Symbolic Action and Booth’s Listening Rhetoric”

4:15 - 5:00 pm Break (on your own)


5:00 - 6:00 pmFeatured SessionCash Bar

AuditoriumScreening BurkeStephen Lind, Clemson University“Kenneth Burke: 2-Minute Thinker”A two-minute video summary of Kenneth Burke and launch of the

2-Minute Thinker YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/2MinuteThinker

Jimmy Butts, Clemson University“Three Film Adaptations of Kenneth Burke Short Stories”“Parabolic Tale, with Invocation”“The Excursion”“Scherzando”

Both presenters will screen original films about or adapting Kenneth Burke’s work, with discussion and cash bar.

6:00 - 8:30 pmBanquet, Keynote Address, and Awards Ceremony

Keynote AddressJack Selzer, Penn State University“Kenneth Burke, MLK, and Me: Taking a Comic Perspective on August

28, 1963”

Jack Selzer earned the Kenneth Burke Society Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 for service to the organization, for mentoring colleagues and grad-uate students in their archival research on Burke, and for his publications Kenneth Burke in Greenwich Village (Wisconsin, 1997); Kenneth Burke in the 1930s (South Carolina, 2007, with Ann George); and Kenneth Burke and His Circles (Parlor, 2007, edited with Robert Wess). Currently past president of the Rhetoric Society of America, he has taught courses on rhetoric, composi-tion, technical writing, and Kenneth Burke at Penn State since 1978. He is currently working with Keith Gilyard on a book on the rhetoric of the civil rights movement, and researching another book on Burke’s later career.

Awards Presentation to follow . . .

9:00 pm - ? After hours parlor in Hospitality Suite 430

Sunday, May 29, 201124

Sunday, May 29

8:30 – 9:30 am

Seminar Meetings 4Seminar Room 1Burke and Law (Leader: Clarke Rountree)

Meeting Rooms 1 &2Race-ing Burke (Leader: Bryan Crable)



Teleconference RoomMining Burkean Archives (Leader Ann George)

9:30 – 9:45 amAuditorium QuadRefreshment Break

9:45 – 10:45 amAuditoriumKenneth Burke Society General MeetingGeneral Meeting Agenda1. Approval of minutes from 2008 meeting.2. Reports: Treasurer, 2008 Planner, KB Journal editor3. Election of New Officers: Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary4. Dues and Membership Benefits

Proposal to raise duesWhat can we offer members for the dues they pay?Should membership be required to participate in the conference? If not, how much of a break should members get on the registration fee?

5. Proposal for New Award (Best KB Journal Article of the Year) and Awards Criteria 6. Conference planning for 20147. Constitutional Amendments8. Announcements: Ad Hoc Graduate Student Committee, KB DVD, Iowa Interviews DVD

Sunday, May 29, 2011 25

11:00 am – NoonExecutive BoardroomKenneth Burke Society Officers Meeting

Noon – 12:30 pm Auditorium QuadBox lunches (pick-up and go)

1:00 – 5:30 pmGolf Outing, Walker Golf Course Email [email protected] if you want to play; players are responsible for

their own green fees, club rental, etc.Tee times have been booked for 1:30 and 1:40 pm. Meet at the Walker Club-

house.

7:00 pm - ?Post-Conference Pool Party, hosted by Parlor Press Directions to David Blakesley’s House/Parlor Press (20 minutes east of

Clemson)

3015 Brackenberry DriveAnderson, SC 29621864-760-1126 (h)765-409-2649 (c)

Google Maps: http://goo.gl/cM3Rn

Parking: along Brackenberry Drive, going up the hill. The driveway is huge, so there’s some spaces there.

From Clemson (20 minutes):

Option 1: take 76 (Clemson Blvd) toward Anderson, turn left on Brown Road (by the big WalMart). Go ~2 miles on Brown Rd., turn left on Plum Lane into the Harper’s Ridge subdivision. Follow Plum until you come to Bracken-berry, the second left. Our house is on the corner of Plum and Brackenberry and will be looking right at you from up on the hill. “3015” is written in big numbers on the front door. People can come in the front door or just go straight to the pool out back (the walkway by the garage.

Sunday, May 29, 201126

Option 2: Take Hwy 28 (Pendleton Road . Mechanic St.) to Pendleton. Turn left on E. Main St. (SR 29) at the Pendleton Square, toward Anderson. E. Main St. turns into Lebanon Road, which will eventually become Harris Bridge Road as you get closer to Anderson. Go over I-85 and take the first right on Little Creek Road. Follow Little Creek about ~1/2 mile, then take a left on Plum Lane, then a fairly quick right on Brackenberry Drive. The house is on the corner, 3015, on the hill.

Index of Participants 27

Index of ParticipantsAbboud, Josh, 2, 3Anderson, Dana, 10Anderson, Virginia, 3, 5, 7, 11, 15Bacalski, Cherise, 5, 11, 15, 22Barnett, Scot, 2, 12Berry, Elvera, 3, 6, 7, 9, 14, 20, 22, 24Berry, Paul, 7, 17Bidet, Alexandra, 10Blakesley, David, 3, 8, 25Blankfield, Bryan, 7, 22Boutet, Manuel, 21Boxmann, Dieter, 7, 17Bridgman, Katherine, 12Burke, Michael, 2, 8, 16Butts, Jimmy, 3, 6, 23Ceraso, Antonio, 17Chave, Frédérique, 10Clark, Miriam Marty, 19Clemons, AmyLea, 3, 6, 19Coe, Rick, 7, 11, 19Colton, Jared, 3, 7Cortez, Jose Manuel, 19Crable, Bryan, 3, 5, 9, 14, 20, 24Daniel-Wariya, Joshua, 21Ding, Yuanrong, 3, 6, 12Dooghan, Brita, 15DuPuis, Michael, 6, 13DuPuis, Peter, 20Dzikowski, David, 7, 11, 18Enoch, Jessica, 10Fancher, Patricia, 3, 7Figueiredo, Sergio, 18FitzGerald, William, 19, 21Gage, Scott, 6, 11Garrett, Erik, 21George, Ann, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 14, 20, 23,

24Green, Nicole E., 11Gupta, Satish, 20Haynes, Cynthia, 2, 15Henderson, Greig, 5, 14

Hirsu, Lavinia, 6, 15, 17Hobeika, Odile, 5, 15Holmes, Steven Keoni, 18Holmevik, Jan, 2, 15Howard, Tharon, 2, 21Huglen, Mark, 8, 21Inabinet, Brandon, 5, 14Iriarte, Walter, 3, 11Isakson, David, 22Jacobi, Martin, 2, 18Johnson, Connie, 6, 14Justice, Angie, 2Katz, Steve, 2, 6, 9, 13, 14, 20, 24Kimble, James J., 12Klumpp, James F., 14Kreuter, Nate, 7, 13Lewis, Camille Kaminski, 11Ligon, Emily, 3, 12Lind, Stephen, 3, 7, 23Lindsay, Stan A., 10Mailloux, Steven, 7, 19Maxwell, Jason, 5, 13McElroy, Stephen, 7, 10McGrath, Simone, 5, 18McLemee, Scott, 4, 13, 22McNicoll, Alexandra, 19Mehler, Josh, 12Middleton, Joyce Irene, 18Miller, Jean Costanza, 14, 18Milotta, Lorin, 6, 11Mitchell, Lauren, 3, 7Mogull, Scott, 17O’Sullivan Brian, 19Overall, Joel, 3, 6, 16, 21Pruchnic, Jeff, 10, 17Rapoport, Helen, 7, 20Ristich, Michael John, 17Rivers, Nathaniel, 3, 7, 8, 11, 16, 17Roach, Ron, 6, 10Robertson, Jacob, 6, 12Robison, Aimee, 6, 22

Index of Participants28

Romeu, Nicholas, 6, 15Rountree, Clark, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 13, 18,

20, 21, 24Rutland, Laura E., 19Rutten, Kris, 12, 15, 17Schraufnagel, William, 7, 22Sheffield, Jessica, 6, 19, 21Smudde, Peter M., 6, 9, 14, 20, 24Soetaert, Ronald, 15, 17Southergill, Glen, 3, 7, 18Sproat, Ethan, 3, 7, 13, 16Stacey, David, 6, 17, 22Stanchevici, Dmitri, 7, 12Stimpson, Shannon, 22Suarez-Murias, 6, 20

Tanski, Katherine, 15Taylor, Jefferey, 6, 15Thames, Richard, 21Underwood, Gretchen, 12Vitanza, Victor, 2, 3, 18, 19Vrijders, Dries, 5, 15Wais-Hennen, Erin, 7, 10, 18Watson, Ashley, 12Weber, Ryan, 3, 7, 8, 16, 19Wells, Andrew, 22Wess, Robert, 4, 7, 8, 12, 14, 23Whyte, Sarah, 6, 10Williams, David Cratis, 14Zsembery, Celeste, 22

20% KBS 2011 Discount on All Parlor Press Books!find our flyer/order form at the conference or ask David Blakesley

www.parlorpress.com3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson SC 29621 | 765.409.2649 (ph) | 206.600.5076 (fax) | [email protected]

New and of Interest

Techne, from Neoclassicism to Postmodernism: Understanding Writing as a Useful, Teachable Art Kelly Pender [2011]

Rhetoric’s Earthly Realm: Heidegger, Sophistry, and the Gorgian KairosBernard Alan Miller [2011]

Visiual Rhetoric and the Eloquence of DesignEdited by Leslie Atzmon [2011]

The Best of the Independent Rhetoric and Composition Journals 2010Edited by Steve Parks, Linda Adler-Kassner, Brian Bailie, and Collette Catonn [2011]

Design Discourse: Composing and Revising Programs in Professional and Technical WritingEdited by David Franke, Alex Reid, and Anthony DiRenzo [2010]

Writing Spaces, Volumes 1 and 2Edited by Charlie Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky [2010]

Walking and Talking Feminist Rhetorics: Landmark Essays and ControversiesEdited by Lindal Buchanan and Kathleen J. Ryan [2010]

Rational Rhetoric: The Role of Science in Popular DiscourseDavid Tietge [2008]. Winner of the 2010 Gary A. Olson Award for Best Book in Rhetorical or Cultural Theory

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8th Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society

Documents

Transcript of 8th Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society