ENG 201 - History of the Essay

As Annie Dillard wrote, “the essay is, and has been, all over the map.  There’s nothing you can’t do with it; no subject matter is forbidden, no structure is proscribed.”  Today essayists as varied as the classical, sedate Phillip Lopate and the lyrical, innovative Eula Bliss draw inspiration from a long line of progenitors.  In this course, we will get to know these literary ancestors, from Japanese courtier Sei Shonagan to be-ruffed, ink-stained Montaigne to the hard-drinking New Journalists of the 1960s.  We will examine the moves these thinkers make and try them out in essays of our own, taking risks and expanding our ideas of the possible.  We will think about the ways the essay has been used to create new knowledge, to assert identify, and to advocate for important causes.  Focusing particularly on the personal essay, we will challenge, revise, and refine our idea of where we each fit within this rich and varied community of writers.

Satifies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.