Burke, Kenneth (1897-1993)

US literary critic. His works on the psychology of literary criticism were so advanced that he was called ‘the critics' critic’. Among his publications are Permanence and Change (1935), Attitudes towards History (1937), The Philosophy of Literary Form (1941), A Rhetoric of Motives (1950), and Language as Symbolic Action (1960).

Burke was music critic of The Dial 1927-29 and of The Nation 1934-36. In 1928 he won the Dial award of $2,000 for distinguished service to US literature, and in 1950 he was visiting professor of English at Chicago University.