On the familiar essay : challenging academic orthodoxies / G. Douglas Atkins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Atkins, G. Douglas (George Douglas), 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Essay.

Criticism.

Physical Description:

xiv, 204 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Summary:

This unique, full-scale treatment of the familiar essay advances G. Douglas Atkins's groundbreaking work on the resurgent form, its history, and its significance. Rooted in close reading of texts, including the essays of E.B. White, this assessment differentiates the familiar essay from the personal essay and engenders a new angle on literary commentary. Richly textured and highly readable, On the Familiar Essay effectively challenges a number of academic orthodoxies as it proposes alternatives to current ways of reading and writing, the practice of literary criticism, the nature of professionalism, and the ends of education.

Contents:

1 The Observing Self, or Writing Upon Something: The Character, Art, and Distinctiveness of the Familiar Essay 1

2 On Time, the Familiar, and the Essay 31

3 Envisioning the Stranger's Heart 51

4 E.B. White and the Poetics of Participation 63

5 "The Way Life Should Be," or the Maine-ing of Existence: E.B. White as Familiar Essayist 73

6 The Limits of the Familiar: E.B. White and T.S. Eliot 93

7 Toward a Familiar Literary Criticism 103

8 Of Swords, Ploughshares, and Pens: The Return of/to Civility, Against Winning, and the Art of Peace 135

9 The Essay in the Academy: Between "Literature" and "Creative Writing" 149

10 Essaying to Be: Higher Education, the Vocation of Teaching, and the Making of Persons 161.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780230620001

0230620000

OCLC:

315238624