Kenneth Burke's Weed Garden

Kenneth Burke's Weed Garden, Volume 1, offers a profound reexamination of one of the most influential texts in modern rhetoric. While many scholars view Kenneth Burke's A Rhetoric of Motives as a series of disconnected provocations, Kyle Jensen argues that a deep coherence exists within the work. This scholarly study utilizes unpublished drafts and extensive correspondence to reconstruct the drafting process of A Rhetoric of Motives and the recently discovered second volume, The War of Words.

By analyzing Burke's archival history, Jensen demonstrates how the concept of myth serves as the structural foundation for Burke's rhetorical theories. The book connects Burke's intellectual development to his personal life, including his work on his Andover farm, to explain how he resolved complex theoretical problems. This work in rhetoric and semantics provides a vital perspective for anyone studying the intersection of myth and linguistic theory.