52-6695 History of the Essay

Seneca to Montaigne to Alice Meynell to Simone Weil, etc … a linear, disjunctive, or creative tour into the heart of the essay. This class will explore the essay in its historical and theoretical forms and development. The class will spend considerable time on the classical essay, but also look deeply at the protean shapes the essay can take, the different ways it makes its lyrical and intellectual possibilities manifest.

4 Credits