Best Essays on the Essay
19 items ranked
Essayists seem to love writing about writing, and about writing the essay in particular. Here are some of the most helpful essays on the essay.
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1.
John D’Agata’s “Mer-Mer: An Essay about How I Wish We Wrote Our Nonfictions”
6 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
2.
Phillip Lopate’s “In Search of the Centaur”
This one is focused on essay films, but still helpful when considering text essays
3 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
3.
Theodor Adorno’s “The Essay as Form”
This one is more difficult to read than most of the others on this list, but when you want an in-depth theoretical discussion of the genre, this is one to dive into.
2 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
4.
Michel de Montaigne’s “To the Reader”
This is a classic (and brief!) intro to his canonical Essais
0 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
5.
Nancy Mairs’ “The Way In”
This piece is very helpful for opening up “permission to write” for beginning essayists
0 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
6.
Lia Purpura’s “On Miniatures”
This is a great piece on the aesthetics of writing short, short essays.
0 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
7.
Phyllis Rose’s “Whose Truth?”
0 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
8.
Elizabeth Mittman’s “Christa Wolf’s Signature in and on the Essay: Women, Science and Authority”
0 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
9.
Peggy Shumaker’s “Prose Poems, Paragraphs, and Brief Lyric Nonfiction”
0 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
10.
David Hume “Of Essay Writing”
0 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
11.
George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”
0 points - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
12.
Carl Klaus’ “Essayists on the Essay” in Literary Nonfiction: Theory, Criticism and Pedagogy
-1 point - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
13.
Phillip Lopate’s introduction to The Art of the Personal Essay
This is one of the best-written overviews of the elements of the genre.
-1 point - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
14.
Michael Hall’s “The Emergence of the Essay and the Idea of Discovery”
This is a wonderful analysis about the cultural milieu out of which the essay sprang
-1 point - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
15.
O.B. Hardison’s “Binding Proteus: An Essay on the Essay”
-1 point - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
16.
William Hazlitt’s “On Familiar Style”
-1 point - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
17.
R. Lane Kauffman’s “The Skewed Path”
-1 point - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
18.
Pamela Klass Mittlefehldt’s “A Weaponry of Choice: Black American Women Writers and the Essay”
-1 point - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
19.
Alexander Smith’s “On the Writing of Essays”
-1 point - added 14 years ago by phdlist -
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