Generic Transformation and Political Action: A Textual Interpretation of Edmund Burke's Letter to William Elliot, Esq.

This essay examines the rhetorical process wherein publics are created for authorial insertion. As such, it is a case-study in the relationship between textual action and contextual contraints. The former principle is represented by the transformations of genre required by the author's intent, and the latter principle by the revolutionary context in which Burke's tract is inserted. The analysis suggests that this relationship is dramatized by the rhetorical form of the public letter.