Overview

This is a book on how to read the essay, one that demonstrates how reading is inextricably tied to the art of writing. It aims to treat the essay with the close literary attention that has been given to other literary forms. Patricia Hampl explores F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famously confessional 'The Crack-Up' from what was once his grandmother’s house in St. Paul, Minnesota; Sven Birkerts compares the power of Cynthia Ozick’s brief essay 'A Drugstore in Winter' to 'watching an enormous jet achieve lift-off from the shortest little patch of tarmac'; and Gayle Pemberton turns to Ralph Ellison for a 'bracing blast of air' when the Racism in contemporary American culture seems inescapable.

Full Product Details

Author:   Patricia Foster ,  Jeff Porter
Publisher:   Broadview Press Ltd
Imprint:   Broadview Press Ltd
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.318kg
ISBN:  

9781554810208

ISBN 10:   1554810205
Pages:   280
Publication Date:   25 July 2012
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction: “A History and Poetics of the Essay,” Jeff Porter Introduction to David Foster Wallace Reading “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” Jeff Porter Introduction to Anne Carson Reading “On Trout,” Eula Biss Introduction to Jamaica Kincaid Reading A Small Place, Donald Morrill Introduction to Scott Russell Sanders Reading “Under the Influence,” James McKean Introduction to Joy Williams Reading “The Case Against Babies,” Sara Levine Introduction to Joan Didion Reading “Georgia O’Keeffe,” Patricia Foster Introduction to John McPhee Reading Encounters with the Archdruid, Adam Hochschild Introduction to Cynthia Ozick Reading “A Drugstore in Winter,” Sven Birkerts Introduction to James Baldwin Reading “Notes of a Native Son,” Honor Moore Introduction to Seymour Krim Reading “For My Brothers and Sisters in the Failure Business,”Vivian Gornick Introduction to Ralph Ellison Reading “The Little Man in Chehaw Station,” Gayle Pemberton Introduction to George Orwell Reading “A Hanging,” Carl H. Klaus Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald Reading “The Crack-Up,” Patricia Hampl Introduction to Virginia Woolf Reading “Street Haunting,” Marilyn Abildskov Introduction to Mark Twain Reading “To the Person Sitting in Darkness,” Robin Hemley Introduction to William Hazlitt Reading “On the Pleasure of Hating,” Phillip Lopate Introduction to Charles Lamb Reading “New Year’s Eve,” David Lazar Introduction to Jonathan Swift Reading “A Modest Proposal,” Xu Xi Introduction to Michel de Montaigne Reading “On Some Verses of Virgil,” David Hamilton Key Terms for the Essay Contributors

Reviews

Understanding the Essay is a warm and intelligent addition to our understanding of a form seemingly built for confusion. Foster and Porter know their subject: the subtle demands and inventions of the form; the tension between a narrator and her unsettled sibling, the author; the importance of integrity to both the known and the inventive voice. The brief biographies create a nuanced context in which to read the work; the analytic essays offer insight into work we think we know--or have yet to explore--in such a way that we can read as though for the first time. --Sallie Tisdale

Understanding the Essay is a magnificently intelligent examination of the essay's diverse pleasures, with fresh, revealing looks at writers from Montaigne to David Foster Wallace. Bravo to Patricia Foster and Jeff Porter for providing this important, insightful, readable resource. Teachers, students, and essayists will be bending back pages and marking the margins for years to come. - Dinty W. Moore, author of Crafting the Personal Essay Understanding the Essay is a warm and intelligent addition to our understanding of a form seemingly built for confusion. Foster and Porter know their subject: the subtle demands and inventions of the form; the tension between a narrator and her unsettled sibling, the author; the importance of integrity to both the known and the inventive voice. The brief biographies create a nuanced context in which to read the work; the analytic essays offer insight into work we think we know-or have yet to explore-in such a way that we can read as though for the first time. - Sallie Tisdale

Author Information

Patricia Foster is the author of All the Lost Girls (2000) and Just beneath My Skin (2004) and the forthcoming novel Girl from Soldier Creek (2012). She has received a PEN/Jerard Fund Award for nonfiction, a Florida Arts Council Award, a Dean’s Scholar Award, and the Fred Bonnie Award for a first novel. She is Professor of English at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the MFA Program in Nonfiction. Jeff Porter is the author of Oppenheimer Is Watching Me (2007). His essays have appeared in Antioch Review, Isotope, Northwest Review, Shenandoah, Missouri Review, Hotel Amerika, Wilson Quarterly, Contemporary Literature, Blackbird, and other journals. He is Associate Professor of English at the University of Iowa, where he teaches in the MFA Program in Nonfiction.

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