Fall 2006

E 385N • The Personal Essay

Course Description

The most popular form of the personal essay is the memoir, but it is a form that also includes adventure essays, ruminations on works of art, appreciations of one writer by another, family histories, and other variations. The single element defining the personal essay is that the writer is present in the narrative

Texts

We will read a variety of writers, including Faye Weldon, Patricia Hampl, Richard McCann, Richard Rodriguez, Dennis Covington, J. R. Ackerly, Paula Fox, and Mary McCarthy.

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