ENGL 247
Art of the Essay
Last Offered n/a
Division I
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Class Details

The “essay” is one way of writing about the intersection of self and world. Writers from 16th century French Michel Montaigne to contemporary American physician Siddhartha Mukherjee and Canadian lyric essayist Anne Carson have experimented in this form, varying the proportion of self-scrutiny to outward focus. We will study the meandering history of this rich literary form, learning both how to analyze and interpret representative examples from multiple traditions, and how to try our hand at our own creative nonfiction. That is, you will do both critical writing and creative writing for this course. Throughout, we will track how this genre serves those writers and readers who gravitate toward its special arts. Works read include those by the writers named above, as well as a selection from the following list: Henry David Thoreau, William James, Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin, James Agee, John McPhee, Alice Walker, Gloria Anzaldua, Claudia Rankine, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and Maggie Nelson.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 25
Expected: 25
Class#: 0
Grading:
Requirements/Evaluation: four papers (two critical and two creative), of varying lengths (from 2-10 pages), for a total of 20 pages
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: first- and second-year students
Distributions: Division I

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