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Kenneth Burke + The Posthuman

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While rhetoric as a discipline is firmly planted in humanism and anthropology, posthumanism seeks to leave the human behind. This highly original examination of Kenneth Burke’s thought grapples with these ostensibly contradictory concepts as opportunities for invention, revision, and, importantly, transdisciplinary knowledge making.

Rather than simply mapping posthumanist rhetorics onto Burke’s scholarship, Kenneth Burke + The Posthuman focuses on the multiplicity of ideas found both in his work and in the idea of posthumanism. Taking varied approaches organized within a framework of boundaries and futures, the contributors show that studying the humanist theories of Burke in this way creates a satisfyingly chaotic web of interconnections. The essays look at how Burke’s writing on the human mind and technology, from his earliest works to his very latest revisions, interrelates with current concepts such as new materiality and coevolution. Throughout, the contributors pay close attention to the fluidity, concerns, and contradictions inherent in language, symbolism, and subjectivity.

A unique, illuminating exploration of the contested relationship between bodies and language, this inherently transdisciplinary book will propel important future inquiry by scholars of rhetoric, Burke, and posthumanism.

In addition to the editors, the contributors are Casey Boyle, Kristie Fleckenstein, Nathan Gale, Steven B. Katz, Julie Jung, Steven LeMieux, Jodie Nicotra, Jeff Pruchnic, Timothy Richardson, Thomas Rickert, and Robert Wess.



“Kenneth Burke continues to be regarded as a foundational figure for the modern discipline of rhetoric, even though a major reconsideration of his humanism has never really been advanced. Kenneth Burke + The Posthuman changes that. Leading scholars in rhetoric and composition mine Burke’s extensive archive for the authors and concepts that were always on the margins of a traditional humanist reading of Burke even as they informed much of Burke’s thinking. This collection is poised to be a vital touchstone for turning Burke toward the twenty-first century and continuing his role as a leading thinker of all things rhetorical.”

—Byron Hawk, author of A Counter-History of Composition: Toward Methodologies of Complexity

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