The Lost Origins of the Essay

The Lost Origins of the Essay
Author: John D'Agata
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Total Pages: 656
Release: 2009-08-04
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781555975326


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An expansive and exhilarating world tour of innovative nonfiction writing I think the reason we've never pinpointed the real beginning to this genre is because we've never agreed on what the genre even is. Do we read nonfiction in order to receive information, or do we read it to experience art? It's not very clear sometimes. This, then, is a book that tries to offer a clear objective: I am here in search of art. I am here to track the origins of an alternative to commerce. John D'Agata leaves no tablet unturned in his exploration of the roots of the essay. The Lost Origins of the Essay takes the reader from ancient Mesopotamia to classical Greece and Rome, from fifth-century Japan to nineteenth-century France, to modern Brazil, Germany, Barbados, and beyond. With brief and brilliant introductions to seminal works by Heraclitus, Sei Sho-nagon, Michel de Montaigne, Jonathan Swift, Virginia Woolf, Marguerite Duras, Octavio Paz, and more than forty other luminaries, D'Agata reexamines the international forebears of today's American nonfiction. This idiosyncratic collection makes a perfect historical companion to D'Agata's The Next American Essay, a touchstone among students and practitioners of the lyric essay.


The Lost Origins of the Essay
Language: en
Pages: 656
Authors: John D'Agata
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-08-04 - Publisher: Graywolf Press

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An expansive and exhilarating world tour of innovative nonfiction writing I think the reason we've never pinpointed the real beginning to this genre is because
The Making of the American Essay
Language: en
Pages: 821
Authors: John D'Agata
Categories: Literary Collections
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-03-15 - Publisher: Macmillan

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"Now, with "The making of the American essay' the editor includes selections ranging from Anne Bradstreet's secular prayers to Washington Irving's satires, Emil
The Next American Essay
Language: en
Pages: 500
Authors: John D'Agata
Categories: Literary Collections
Type: BOOK - Published: 2003-02 - Publisher: New History of the Essay

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A collection of nonfiction essays on such topics as culture, myth, history, romance, and sex includes contributions by such authors as Guy Davenport, Annie Dill
Halls of Fame
Language: en
Pages: 218
Authors: John D'Agata
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-06-18 - Publisher: Graywolf Press

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"John D'Agata is an alchemist who changes trash into purest gold." —Guy Davenport, Harper's John D'Agata journeys the endless corridors of America's myriad ha
Philosophy Between the Lines
Language: en
Pages: 472
Authors: Arthur M. Melzer
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-09-09 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

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“Shines a floodlight on a topic that has been cloaked in obscurity . . . a landmark work in both intellectual history and political theory” (The Wall Street