HIST 1301

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  • Course Catalog - January 18, 2022 1:31PM EST

HIST 1301
FWS: History of the Essay

Course information provided by the 2021-2022 Catalog.

The analytical essay seems to be the basic form of nonfiction writing—but why?  And how did it come to be seen this way?  Why don't you learn to write prose poems in college, or memos, or just elaborate lists?  Or are those also essays?  How has the essay varied across time and cultures?  How has its form been influenced by historical forces, and how did essayists become shapers of their historical moments?  The word "essay" just means an attempt, so this course will be experimental and exploratory, analyzing many different essays in their historical context, and pausing occasionally to dwell on key writers like Montaigne, Thoreau, Woolf, Sontag, and Baldwin.  And of course you will be expected to make several attempts at creative essay-writing. 


When Offered Spring.

Satisfies Requirement First-Year Writing Seminar.

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Syllabi: none

  •   FWS Session. 

  • 3 Credits Graded

  • 19682 HIST 1301   SEM 101

  •  
    • TR White Hall B06
    • Jan 24 - May 10, 2022

    • Sachs, A

  • Instruction Mode: In Person

    For more information about First-Year Writing Seminars, see the Knight Institute website at http://knight.as.cornell.edu/.