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Kenneth Burke Quotes

Author

A renowned American literary theorist, critic, and rhetorician. Kenneth Burke is known for his unique rhetorical analysis and contributions to semiotics. His theories have had a profound impact on modern literary criticism and rhetoric.

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All Men Language Function Attitude Humans Rhetoric Selection Use Way Agents Authority Creation Deflection Ends Fall Form Ideas Ifs Order Perfection

Famous Kenneth Burke Quotes

“Language does our thinking for us.”

Thinking Doe Language

Book:The Legacy of Kenneth Burke

Source: The Legacy of Kenneth Burke

“Rhetoric is rooted in an essential function of language itself, a function that is wholly realistic and continually born anew: the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols.”

Mean Use Language Born Essentials Function Symbols Realistic Cooperation Rooted Rhetoric Symbolic Use Of Language

Book:A Rhetoric of Motives

Source: A Rhetoric of Motives

“Words are like planets, each with its own gravitational pull.”

Language Planets

Author:Kenneth Burke

“You persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his”

Men Way Ideas Order Language Attitude Speech Gestures Identifying

Book:A Rhetoric of Motives

Source: A Rhetoric of Motives

“Our purpose is simply to ask how theological principles can be shown to have usable secular analogues that throw light upon the nature of language.”

Light Purpose Asks Language Principles Secular Theological Analogue

Book:The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology

Source: The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology

About the Author

Born: May 5, 1897
Died: November 19, 1993
Known for: Author
Quotes: 22

Books & Sources

The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in LogologyRelated source material

A Rhetoric of MotivesRelated source material

Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of PurposeRelated source material

A grammar of motives, and A rhetoric of motivesRelated source material

Here & Elsewhere: The Collected Fiction of Kenneth BurkeRelated source material

Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature and MethodRelated source material

Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and MethodRelated source material

On Symbols and SocietyRelated source material

The Legacy of Kenneth BurkeRelated source material

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