| Lec # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | In Depth, Introduction, 2-7 | Hoaglund, Edward. "What I Think, What I Am." The New York Times Book Review, June 27, 1976. Didion, Joan. "On Keeping a Notebook." In Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays. New York, NY: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990. ISBN: 9780374521721. Menard, Louis, and Robert Atwan, eds. The Best American Essays 2004. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. Foreword, ix-xiii; and Introduction, xiv-xviii. ISBN: 9780618357093. |
| 2 | In Depth, Discussion of Bacon, Montaigne and White Essays | Bacon, Francis. "Of Marriage and Single Life." In Essays, Civil and Moral. The Harvard Classics. 1909-14. (A version of "Of Marriage and Single Life" is available through Bartleby.com.) de Montaigne, Michel. "Of Idleness." (A version of "Of Idleness" is available at Project Gutenberg.) White, E. B. "The Essayist and the Essay." In Essays of E. B. White. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers Inc. (now owned by Addison Wesley Longman), 1977, pp. 30-31. ISBN: 9780060145767. |
| 3 | Discussion of Fadiman and Gopnik Essays | Fadiman, Anne. "Mail." Gopnik, Adam. "The Unreal Thing." In The Best American Essays. Edited by Louis Menard, and Robert Atwan. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. ISBN: 9780618357093. |
| 4 | In Depth, Discussion of Didion, Walker and White Essays | Didion, Joan. "On the Road." In The White Album. New York, NY: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990. ISBN: 9780374522216. Walker, Alice. "Am I Blue?" In Alice Walker Banned. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books, 1996. ISBN: 9781879960473. White, E. B. "Once More to the Lake." In Essays of E. B. White. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers Inc. (now owned by Addison Wesley Longman), 1977. ISBN: 9780060145767. |
| 5 | Workshop of Essays Submitted on Lec #4 | |
| 6 | In Depth, Discussion of Oates and Chetkovich Essays | Oates, Joyce Carol. "(Woman) Writer: Theory and Practice." In (Woman) Writer: Occasions and Opportunities. New York, NY: Plume, 1989. ISBN: 9780525484943. Chetkovich, Kathryn. "Envy." The Best American Essays 2004. Edited by Louis Menard, and Robert Atwan. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. ISBN: 9780618357093. |
| 7 | Workshop of Essays Submitted on Lec #6 | |
| 8 | In Depth, Discussion of Mairs, Gould and Orwell Essays | Mairs, Nancy. "On Not Liking Sex." In: Merton, Andrew. In Your Own Voice: A Writer's Reader. New York, NY: Longman Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780065017632. Gould, Stephen Jay. "A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse." In The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1992. ISBN: 9780393308198. Orwell, George. "Politics and the English Language." In The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968. (First published: London, UK: Horizon, April 1946. Reprinted in George Orwell.) |
| 9 | Workshop of Essays Submitted on Lec #8 | |
| 10 | Discussion of Diamond, Fadiman and Pollan Essays | Diamond, Jared. "The Last Americans." In The Best American Essays 2004. Edited by Louis Menard, and Robert Atwan. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. ISBN: 9780618357093. Fadiman, Anne. "The Arctic Hedonist." In The Best American Essays 2004. Edited by Louis Menard, and Robert Atwan. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. ISBN: 9780618357093. Pollan, Michael. "Why Mow? The Case Against Lawns." New York Times, May 28, 1989, section 6, p. 22. |
| 11 | In Depth, Discussion of Oates, Wolfe and White Essays | Oates, Joyce Carol. "Blood, Neon, and Failure in the Desert." In (Woman) Writer: Occasions and Opportunities. New York, NY: Plume, 1989. ISBN: 9780525484943. (Originally published in The Village Voice. March 24, 1987. Reprinted in Joyce Carol Oates.) Wolfe, Tom. "O Rotten Gotham-Sliding Down into the Behavioral Sink." In Valence and Vision: A Reader in Psychology. Edited by Rich Jones, and Richard L. Roe. New York, NY: Rinehart, 1974. ISBN: 9780030084164. White, E. B. "The Age of Dust." In Poems and Sketches of E. B. White. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1983. ISBN: 9780060909697. |
| 12 | In Depth, Discussion of Dillard, Woolf, Eiseley and Doyle Essays | Dillard, Annie. "The Death of a Moth." In The Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition. New York, NY: Norton, 2003. ISBN: 9780393978827. Woolf, Virginia. "The Death of the Moth." In The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. Berkeley, CA: Harvest Books, 1974. ISBN: 9780156252348. Eiseley, Loren. "The Bird and the Machine." In The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1959. ISBN: 9780394701578. Doyle, Brian. "Yes." The Georgia Review LVI, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 569. |
| 13 | Workshop of Essays Submitted on Lec #12 | |
| 14 | Discussion of Mori and Koestenbaum Essays | Mori, Kyoko. "Yarn." In The Best American Essays 2004. Edited by Louis Menard, and Robert Atwan. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. ISBN: 9780618357093. Koestenbaum, Wayne. "Called me. My '80s." Artforum International 41, no. 8 (April 2003): 220-224. |
| 15 | Workshop of Essays Submitted on Lec #14 | |
| 16 | Oral Presentations | |
| 17 | Workshop of Essays Submitted on Lec #16 | |
| 18 | Workshop of Essays Submitted on Lec #17 | |
| 19 | Discussion of Allen and Walker Essays | Allen, Woody. "Random Reflections of a Second-Rate Mind," and Walker, Alice. "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self." In In Depth: Essayists for Our Time. Compiled by Carl H. Klaus, Chris Anderson, and Rebecca Blevins Faery. 2nd ed. Heinle, 1993. ISBN: 9780155001725. Gopnik, Adam. "Bumping into Mr. Ravioli," and Doyle, Brian. "Yes." In The Best American Essays 2003. Edited by Anne Fadiman and Robert Atwan. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. ISBN: 9780618341610. |
| 20 | Silent Reading Session | |
| 21 | Workshop of Essays Submitted on Lec #19 | |
| 22 | Discussion of Orwell, Twain, White, and Woolf Essays | Orwell, George. "Marrakech," Twain, Mark. "Corn-Pone Opinions," White, E.B. "The Ring of Time," and Woolf, Virginia. "The Moment: Summer's Night," all In In Depth: Essayists for Our Time . Compiled by Carl H. Klaus, Chris Anderson, and Rebecca Blevins Faery. 2nd ed. Heinle, 1993. ISBN: 9780155001725. |
| 23 | Silent Reading Session | |
| 24 | Course Summary and Evaluations | |
| 25 | Last Class: Tea and Celebratory Reading |
Table of Contents
Study Materials
Readings
| When you click the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book (or other media) from Amazon.com, MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of this purchase and any other purchases you make during that visit. This will not increase the cost of your purchase. Links provided are to the US Amazon site, but you can also support OCW through Amazon sites in other regions. Learn more. |