Spring 2009

The Moral Essay

Listed in: English, as ENGL-49

Faculty

Kim Townsend (Section 01)

Description

The moral essay is a genre situated somewhere between literature and philosophy, between stories and sermons. “The essay interests itself in the narration of ideas,” one critic writes, “in their unfolding.” The moral essay is not about morals per se but about manners, about the way people live-and die. We will read essays by Montaigne, Bacon, Emerson, and Simone Weil. Spring semester. Professor Emeritus Townsend.