| Call Number | 10017 |
|---|---|
| Day & Time Location |
TR 9:00am-12:10pm 652 Schermerhorn Hall [SCH] |
| Points | 3 |
| Grading Mode | Standard |
| Approvals Required | None |
| Instructor | Wendy C Schor-Haim |
| Type | SEMINAR |
| Method of Instruction | In-Person |
| Course Description | “Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.”― Michel de Montaigne “There is something you find interesting, for a reason hard to explain. It is hard to explain because you have never read it on any page; there you begin. You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment.” Annie Dillard, The Writing Life “Find a subject you care about and which in your heart you feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.” Kurt Vonnegut What makes the essay of personal experience an essay rather than a journal entry? How can one's specific experience transcend the limits of narrative and transmit a deeper meaning to any reader? How can a writer transmit the wisdom gained from personal experience without lecturing her reader? In The Art of the Essay, we explore the answers to these questions by reading personal essays in a variety of different forms. We begin with Michel de Montaigne, the 16th-century philosopher who popularized the personal essay as we know it and famously asked, “What do I know?,” and follow the development of the form as a locus of rigorous self-examination, doubt, persuasion, and provocation. Through close reading of a range of essays from writers including Annie Dillard, Salman Rushdie, Jamaica Kincaid, and June Jordan, we analyze how voice, form, and evidence work together to create a world of meaning around an author's experience, one that invites readers into conversations that are at once deeply personal and universal in their consequences and implications. |
| Web Site | Vergil |
| Subterm | 05/22-06/30 (A) |
| Department | Summer Session (SUMM) |
| Enrollment | 5 students (15 max) as of 3:06PM Saturday, April 27, 2024 |
| Subject | English |
| Number | S3915 |
| Section | 001 |
| Division | Summer Session |
| Campus | Morningside |
| Section key | 20232ENGL3915S001 |