KENNETH BURKE AND HIS CIRCLES consists of original papers focusing on the intellectual circles in which Burke participated during his long career. Instead of concentrating on Burke himself, as most recent scholarship has done, this book considers Burke as one participant in a host of important overlapping intellectual movements that took place over the course of the twentieth century. Burke is considered as "in conversation" with a host of important principals who influenced Burke and were in turn influenced by him. The essays were selected from among ones first presented at a 2005 conference at Penn State University, the principal repository of Burke archives, and thus the ideal site for this conference"s exploration of the circles Burke participated in. Collectively, the papers presented at the conference conceive circles broadly to encompass Burke"s relationships to personal friends (e.g., Ralph Ellison), to major intellectual figures (e.g., Richard McKeon, Wayne Booth, Denis...