HIST 1301

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  • Schedule of Classes - January 19, 2016 6:14PM EST
  • Course Catalog - January 19, 2016 6:21PM EST

HIST 1301
FWS: History of the Essay

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2015-2016.

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 Fall.

Satisfies Requirement First-Year Writing Seminar.

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Syllabi: none

  •   FWS Session. 

  • 3 Credits Graded

  • 18289 HIST 1301   SEM 101

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  • For more information about First-year Writing Seminars, see the Knight Institute website at http://www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute