Creston Clarke. Writing with quill pen, as a character in a play. Ca. 1890. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number, LC-USZ62-128868 (b&w film copy neg.)])
Instructor(s)
Prof. Anthony Lioi
MIT Course Number
21W.735
As Taught In
Fall 2004
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Description
As the course title suggests, this class is meant to acquaint you with the literary and rhetorical tradition of the essay, a genre which has been described by one scholar as "the meeting ground between art and philosophy," and by another as "the place where the self finds a pattern in the world, and the world finds a pattern in the self". Though the essay is part of a tradition of prose which stretches back to antiquity, it is also a thoroughly modern and popular form of writing, found in print media and on the web.