# The Essay Tradition

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Category: Literature
Slides: 30
Updated: 2026-05-15T22:18:34.239Z
Tags: literature, essay, tradition

## Summary

An essay is a piece of prose that thinks. Argument is welcome but not required; the form's distinguishing feature is the visible movement of a mind — turning a question over, qualifying, doubting, returning, surprising itself. Key sections include: The Essay.; Opening What an essay is.; Chapter I Montaigne, the inventor.; Chapter II Bacon, the other founder.; Chapter III The periodical essay.; Chapter IV The Romantic familiar essay.; Chapter V Victorian and American 19th century.; Chapter VI Modernist essayists.; Chapter VII The New Yorker essay.; Chapter VIII The serious magazine essay..

## Slide Outline

1. The Essay.
2. Opening What an essay is.
3. Chapter I Montaigne, the inventor.
4. Chapter II Bacon, the other founder.
5. Chapter III The periodical essay.
6. Chapter IV The Romantic familiar essay.
7. Chapter V Victorian and American 19th century.
8. Chapter VI Modernist essayists.
9. Chapter VII The New Yorker essay.
10. Chapter VIII The serious magazine essay.
11. Chapter IX New Journalism.
12. Chapter X The lyric essay.
13. Chapter XI Auto-theory and the personal.
14. Chapter XII The political essay.
15. Chapter XIII The essay outside English.
16. Chapter XIV Where essays appear.
17. Chapter XV What makes an essay good.
18. Chapter XVI The essay as criticism.
19. Chapter XVII The essay online.
20. Chapter XVIII Teaching the essay.
21. Chapter XIX Twenty single essays.
22. Chapter XX The case against the essay.
23. Chapter XXI The contemporary scene.
24. Chapter XXII The AI question.
25. Chapter XXIII Twenty-five works.
26. Chapter XXIV Watch & read.
27. Chapter XXV If you want to write essays.
28. Chapter XXVI Why the essay matters.
29. Chapter XXVII The next decade.
30. The end of the deck.

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