ENGL 379T(F) The Personal Essay+
Reading works by Montaigne, Hazlitt, Woolf, Thoreau, and Baldwin (among others), we study how the seemingly informal genre of the personal essay is shaped by literary conventions and by powerful, if often subterranean, argumentation. Students will do two kinds of writing: literary analysis of essays by others, and personal essays of their own. At mid-semester each student will choose an area of interest (nature writing, memoir, travel, etc.); prepare a bibliography of essays in this area; read extensively from this list; and write personal essays on this topic. In keeping with the tutorial format, students will meet in pairs with the instructor once a week; during these meetings each student will either present a short, prepared paper or join the instructor in responding to one such paper. The final paper will be a long personal essay which grows out of the semester's writing. Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150 (formerly 103). Enrollment limited to 10.