Kenneth Burke: “Literature as Equipment for living.”

I. Overview
 Burke, in his essay “Literature as Equipment for living”, breaks down his argument for using literature as a strategy or attitude into 3 steps.  He first begins by having his readers gain an understanding of the function of proverbs. Proverbs, according to Burke, “are designed for consolation or vengeance, for admonition or exhortation, for foretelling.”  He also explains that they “name typical, recurrent situations.”  Burke continues by quoting proverbs that apply to consolation, etc. He then ends his first step on proverbs by stating that these don't necessarily belong nor are they contained to one category but can fit into any category, that they apply to all situations in life and in a sense are dynamic, capable of fitting to other designs.   “The point of the issue is not to find categories that ‘place’ the proverbs once and for all. What I want is categories that suggest their active nature.”
 In his second step Burke explains how literature should be read and seen  the way a proverb is.  “Why not extend such analysis of proverbs to encompass the whole field of literature? Could the most complex and sophisticated works of art legitimately be considered some what as ‘proverbs writ large’?” He continues by also stating “And the kind of observation from this perspective should apply beyond literature to life in general (thus helping to take literature out of its separate bin and give it a place in a general ‘sociological’ picture).” Burke explains how literature basically, in certain instances, is a tool used to express reoccurring situations in life and the strategies or the attitude one uses towards the situation.
 The final step in Burke’s essay discusses the idea of how literature can expand to a broader sense, how it can become timeless and capable of showing these reoccurring situations in life (and the strategy or attitude one applies towards them) at any point in time while still maintaining the function similar to that of a proverb.  He states that good works of literature are those that are a bit ambiguous, whose writing holds meaning to the reader regardless of their culture or time period.  Because of the way it is written, this piece of literature is open to any interpretation and is not subjected to fit into one category alone.  “They are classifications, groupings, made on the basis of some strategic element common to the items grouped.  They are neither more nor less ‘intuitive’ than any grouping or classification of social events. Apples can be grouped with bananas as fruits, and they can be grouped with tennis balls as round.”  He ends his essay with stating that literature can be used to help at a sociological level since literature situations and strategies that are constantly being recycled.

II. Analysis
 Burke’s essay reminds me of the ideas presented by Levi-Strauss.  Levi-Strauss studied myths from throughout the world and believed that myths possessed a structure the way language does.  After analyzing many myths Levi-Strauss noticed and pointed out reoccurring themes that ran through all of them. Like Burke states that good literature is literature whose strategies/ attitudes towards situations transcends time, Levi-Strauss found that these themes transcended culture and time, speaking directly to the hearts and minds of the people.  Levi-Strauss named these reoccurring themes “mythemes”, (clever name, myth + themes = mythemes)  These mythemes, when found in literature and placed together create meaning for the reader, the reader then finds the theme of the work as a whole.  This creates a sort of emotional response from the reader that he or she recognizes because they have read this “situation” many times before, in countless other works.  Burke’s idea is similar to Levi-Strauss’s idea in that Burke states that literature has reoccurring situations.  These situations have been recognized by readers, either consciously or subconsciously.  These situations are then followed by strategies on how to deal with them or with what type of attitude one should confront these circumstances with.  Burke’s essay, in turn, truly does show how literature (literature that written in a way that makes it timeless) can become a sort of equipment that can be used for living

II. Questions:

1. How can Burke’s ideas of “situations” and “strategies” be found in Haggard’s Virgin of the Sun?
2. Is Virgin of the Sun  a “good” piece of literature, one that is “timeless“? Why?