[.ca] Kenneth Burke on Shakespeare (ISBN 1602350027)

The title says it all: Kenneth Burke on Shakespeare:
My introduction to Kenneth Burke was a classmate in graduate school whose enthusiasm was such that we were going to get him a t-shirt to wear to bars that said, "At my first mention of Kenneth Burke, stop serving me." Exposed to different theories of human communication it was Burke's dramatistic approach that appealed to me the most. It is simplistic to say that Burke provides a synthesis of Marx and Freud, but it does suggest the level of his critical thinking, the extent to which it speaks to the human condition, and the reason to despair that he is not considered the equal of that particular pair, especially since he work on rhetoric and aesthetics has more contemporary value. "Kenneth Burke on Shakespeare" gathers and annotates all of Burke's thoughts on Shakespeare, including previously unpublished notes and lectures. The result is not as epic as Harold Bloom's ""Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human," but just as insightful on its own terms. You will learn more about the Bard, but probably even more about Burke, which might be even better. For me the most important essay by Burke has always been "The Rhetoric of Hitler's Battle," because of the way in which his critique of "Mein Kampf" exposed Hitler as a psychopathic snake oil salesman committed to escalating violence as a means to ignoble ends. However, his essay I have used the most in classes has been "Antony in Behalf of the Play," Burke's critique of "Julius Caesar" that is the third essay collected here. It is a stellar example of synchronic analysis, as Burke looks at how Antony's celebrated funeral oration worked upon Shakespeare's Elizabethan audience, showing how the Bard dictates the reactions of the playgoers almost as precisely as he scripts those of the Roman mob on the stage. Burke pays as much attention to syllables as he does to psychology and works out the dynamic of one of the great scenes (and speeches) of all time. The other dozen essays (nee chapters) collected here include his look at "Hamlet" to develop the relationship between "Psychology and Form" and "'Othello': An Essay to Illustrate a Method," along with looks at "Twelfth Night," "Venus and Adonis," "Timon of Athens," "Antony and Cleopatra," "Coriolanus," "King Lear," "Troilus and Cressida," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and his notes on "Macbeth." The Editor's Introduction, "Renewing Kenneth Burke's 'plea for the Shakespearean drama,'" is designed to "prove a series of entry-points" to Burke's work and prove "a recursive gathering of different perspectives on what exactly makes his Shakespearean meditations so (demandingly) reward." Following the essays a lengthy Appendix provides a look at "Additional References to Shakespeare in Burke's Writing." This goes all the way back to quoting Flaubert that Shakespeare was "not a man, but a continent," included in the 1921 essay "Three Adepts of 'Pure' Literature" that was republished in "Counter-Statement," and ends with references to "Troilus and Cressida" and "Othello" as examples of the manifestations of the "hierarchal" motive, taken from a 1955 essay published this year in "Essays Toward a Symbolic of Motives, 1950-1955." The excerpts show Shakespeare was a recurring touchstone in Burke's writing, and also give an indication of the scope of his intellectual grasp. The story I heard was that Burke dropped out of Columbia University and continued his education by reading everything in the New York Public Library. Certainly this tale is apocryphal, but it is easy enough to believe when you read Burke and he gets going. The lecture that Burke delivered entitled "Shakespeare Was What?", which serves as the introduction to the 13 essays that make up the main part of this volume, not only references over a dozen Shakespeare plays but also works in Aristotle's' "Poetics," the British mathematician George Boole, "The New Criticism" of John Crowe Ransom, a poem by Henry Rago, the German word "Geworfenheit," and sundry other points of reference for his thinking. When you read Burke there will always come a point where his examples will leave you in the dust and send you to your library (or the Internet) scrambling to find a clue so you can try and get back on the same page. When Daniel Webster gave his last great speech during the Senate debate on the Compromise of 1850, his introduction asked his audience to "Hear me for my cause." Apparently he assumed that most Americans, or at least most educated Americans, would recognize the quote from Brutus' funeral oration in "Julius Caesar," and therefore appreciate the deep sense of irony involved in its usage. I shudder to think of how few Americans today would recognize the quote, but when it comes to keeping up with Burke's encyclopedic knowledge I cannot imagine anyone can really keep up. That is why it is helpful that the essays and excerpts in this book are essentially annotated. Footnotes are reserved primarily by Burke's omissions from each work, the result of having access to the original manuscripts in preparing this edition, while the annotations that make up for the educational gap between Burke and his readers are provided as Notes following the book's Appendix. My preference would have been for the notes to be footnotes, but then I like annotated works as opposed to edited ones. Those who come to this volume looking for Burkeian insights into a particular play will find an Index of Works by Shakespeare before the book's regular Index; there is no breakdown of particular elements play by play, but that will simply compel you to flip through most of the book.