Kenneth Burke correspondence with Robert Wess, 1974-1985.

ArchivalResource

Burke, Kenneth, 1897-1993. Kenneth Burke correspondence with Robert Wess, 1974-1985.

Kenneth Burke correspondence with Robert Wess, 1974-1985.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/317036250

The collection consists primarily of letters and manuscripts exchanged between Robert Wess, a young Burke scholar, and Kenneth Burke in his later years. Their correspondence begins 14 January 1974 with Wess's letter addressed to "Dear Mr. Burke," asking permission to photocopy materials, and ends 5 October 1985, with a postcard from Burke notifying Wess he is sending him a manuscript. During its near twelve-year duration their correspondence evolved into a rich, collegial interchange. The collection contains 15 letters and 1 postcard by Kenneth Burke to Robert Wess and 16 letters from Robert Wess to Kenneth Burke. Many of the letters include enclosures. The 1982 to 1983 exchange, the most extended, includes a notable discussion about narrative, written while Burke was completing the afterwords to new editions of Permanence and Change and Attitudes Toward History. Other letter topics include Burke's unpublished "Symbolic of Motives," equations-implications-transcendence, "Bodies that Learn Language," Critical Inquiry, technology, logology, and Marxism. References to contemporary critics Frank Lentricchia, Haydon White, Fredric Jameson, and Walter J. Ong also appear. Also includes Robert Wess's notes, 2009.

0.22 cubic feet.

Pennsylvania State University Libraries