Summary Of Thomas Burke's Attitudes Towards History

In Burke’s book, “Attitudes Towards History” he argues that the symbolic action of literature offers audiences a “perspective by incongruity” (225) on their own situations. Ultimately, Burke is saying that readers can draw conclusions and react to literature by creating judgements based on their own experiences. A perspective by incongruity is taking two ideas and creating something completely new by incorporating them with each other. Burke says that, “In this ‘imperfect world,’ no imaginative possibility can ever attain complete bureaucratization” (225). The world realistically can never create a true bureaucracy where each member of the middle class is satisfied with their living situation; however, if an author combines literature with