On the Familiar Essay: Challenging Academic Orthodoxies [Hardcover]

Rooted in close reading of texts, including the essays of E.B. White, this comprehensive assessment of the oft-slighted subform of the literary essay situates the familiar at the heart of the essay as form.The Observing Self, or Writing upon Something: The Character, Art, and Distinctiveness of the Familiar Essay On Time, the Familiar, and the Essay Envisioning the Stranger's Heart E.B. White and the Poetics of Participation 'The Way Life Should Be,' or The Maine-ing of Existence: E.B.White as Familiar Essayist The Limits of the Familiar: E.B. White and T.S. Eliot Towards a Familiar Literary Criticism Of? Swords, Ploughshares, and Pens: The Return of/to Civility, Against Winning, and the Art of Peace The Essay in the Academy: Between 'Literature' and 'Creative Writing' Essaying to Be: Higher Education, the Vocation of Teaching, and the Making of? Persons

In this timely revalorization of the form, Atkins shows the unexpected depths of the familiar essay. Far from being the lightweight pieces dismissed by their detractors as trivial, he shows how, at their best, such essays are exquisitely crafted intersections of time and timelessness. Their indirectness, individuality and warmth suggest a way of knowing that at once challenges and complements the clinical prose of conventional academic articles. Essayists, says Atkins, are endeavoring to write personally and artfully about the familiar and through it to approach the universal. His study calls for a meticulous reading of their work in order, ultimately, for the reader to learn from it how to make the most of the short time we have on earth. Quoting extensively from acknowledged masters of this neglected mode of writing, Atkins provocatively questions the adequacy of established educational procedures and champions a pedagogy informed by essayistic ideals. - Chris Arthur, author of Irish Nocturnes, Irish Willow, Irish Haiku and Irish Elegies

In these pages, Atkins richly models the explorl£#