52653 Vorlesung

Claudia Olk

The English Essay (auf Englisch)

Montag, 16-18 Uhr
Invalidenstr. 110, Raum 302

Beginn: 17. Oktober 2005

An Essay, or 'attempt' in the proper sense of the word, presents a train of thought. The relative openness and flexibility of the form of the Essay accomodates divers purposes and styles. The sometimes playful, discursive, informal and also intimate reflexions presented in the Essay may account for its popularity throughout literary history. Although the Essay has flourished from the 15th century onwards, it has been largely and unduly neglected by literary scholarship.

In this course we will explore the form of the Essay in a diachronic approach, which will take its starting point in Early Modern England, including Essays by European predecessors and contemporaries (Bacon, Montaigne). A further main focus of interest will be the development of the art of Essay writing in the 17th and 18th centuries (Dryden, Pope, Addison, Johnson, Coleridge). Finally, we will study Essays from the beginning of the 20th century (Woolf, Eliot, Huxley) and also look at contemporary Essays (Rushdie). Although this is strictly not a course in Essay writing, our close-readings and detailed textual analyses are set out to familiarize students with techniques of Essay writing and will give them the opportunity to write essayistic texts themselves.

A reader will be made available at the beginning of the semester.