[KB] Ralph Ellison correspondence with Kenneth Burke

[Bryan Crable]

Hi Paul—

I just got my copy of the Selected Letters, and was happy to see all the Burke-related stuff that is included. The volume is incredible for folks interested in Ellison, and it does begin to show how much Ellison was actually a Burkean—he kept referencing Burke’s concepts and writings throughout his life.

The relationship to Burke isn’t as clear as it could be, I think, because (as I point out in my book on Burke & Ellison) you have to look at how Burke & Ellison were also connected through their friendships with Stanley Edgar Hyman (and Hyman actually introduced the two men to each other). It gets harder to see all that because the volume only includes Ellison’s side of his correspondence…so you’re not getting the whole story. For example, Ellison’s letter to Burke from November 1945 only makes sense if you have first seen Hyman’s letters to Ellison about his lecture at Bennington. Similarly, you get Ellison’s letter to Richard Wright, talking about the letter on race and identity that Burke wrote him…but not the letter from Burke himself, which is remarkable.

All that to say, Marc Conner and John Callahan have done yeoman’s work on this volume, and there’s a ton there for Burkean scholars…though I’d selfishly have loved it even more if both sides of the correspondence was included. I have only begun to really work through the Selected Letters, but it’s definitely worth the purchase.

Bryan

--
Bryan Crable, Ph.D.
Professor of Communication/Rhetorical Studies
Affiliated faculty, Africana Studies
Director, Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwfi.villanova.edu&data=02%7C01%7Cbryan.crable%40villanova.edu%7C5ae6325d44fd41a2339108d70568c8d9%7C765a8de5cf9444f09cafae5bf8cfa366%7C0%7C0%7C636983819924216690&sdata=sV24XtZhWlirdA5w1KF5Vqlr4KoODstO9Bueb0u7HPQ%3D&reserved=0>
Author, Ralph Ellison and Kenneth Burke: At the Roots of the Racial Divide<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.upress.virginia.edu%2Ftitle%2F4179&data=02%7C01%7Cbryan.crable%40villanova.edu%7C5ae6325d44fd41a2339108d70568c8d9%7C765a8de5cf9444f09cafae5bf8cfa366%7C0%7C0%7C636983819924226683&sdata=2aY1eKuI1%2FOv0NlOLHhQ2blbskfBuXv6h5e97iloMtE%3D&reserved=0> (University of Virginia Press, 2012)
Editor, Transcendence by Perspective: Meditations on and with Kenneth Burke<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parlorpress.com%2Ftranscendence&data=02%7C01%7Cbryan.crable%40villanova.edu%7C5ae6325d44fd41a2339108d70568c8d9%7C765a8de5cf9444f09cafae5bf8cfa366%7C0%7C0%7C636983819924226683&sdata=2ZxRF9cTx3SdLTTPNuoPOFYwkIHRJhlFFqwu3CryPRk%3D&reserved=0> (Parlor Press, 2014)

Department of Communication
Villanova University
800 Lancaster Ave.
Villanova, PA  19085-1699 USA
+1 610-519-4751 (tel)
bryan.crable at villanova.edu<mailto:bryan.crable at villanova.edu>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kbjournal.org/pipermail/kb_kbjournal.org/attachments/20191222/470153b3/attachment.htm>