Department of English

Topic: The Essay and the Epic, Invented, Critical Self

In this course we will investigate how writers use the essay form and personal experience to critique life in the United States. We will study the fundamental practices of some contemporary essayists through their recent works of nonfiction. Also, we’ll examine how contemporary writers have improvised on the essay and created various, new forms that allow them to critique American cultural politics and “invent” their literary personas simultaneously. Along the way, we will detail the different techniques these artists employ in order to describe the ways that their epic personas emerge, in fact, from paying intense critical attention to the multilayered arrangements of US life.

• A&H
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