Title
From the Perspective of the Self : Montaigne's Self-Portrait / Craig B. Brush.
ISBN
9780823295739
Published
New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2021]
Copyright
©1994
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (328 p.)
Item Number
10.1515/9780823295739 doi
Dewey Decimal Classification
844/.3
Summary
In 1580 Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) presented a literary project to the public the type of wich had never before been introduced- a collection of Essays with himself as subject. Never before had a writer attempted a literary self-portrait, and in so doing Montaigne named and defined a new literary form, the essay. Brush's critical study of Essays examines the complex process of writing a self-portrait and showing the ways in which it is an entirely differnt enterprise from writing an autobiography. The author discusses how Montaigne revealed his "mind in motion," and the most remarkable feature of that mind, skepticism. He treats Montaigne's development of a conversational voice and explicates how Montaigne's intense self-examination became an evolutionary process which had consequences in his life and literature. The work concludes with a discussion of how Montaigne's self-assigned task of introspection included the formulation of a view of humanity and its ethics. Brush's work fills a gap in scholarship by critically examining the essential loci of the Essays, namely, the creation of a literary self-portrait. The book makes its points convincingly because of Brush's intimacy and command of the essays. Montaigne's works are cited in English translation, and the subject is presented in terms accessible to the non-specialist.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 03. Jan 2023)
Available in Other Form
print 9780823215508
Frontmatter
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Likenesses
3. A Self-Portrait Is Not an Autobiography
4. The Form of the Portrait
5. Beginnings
6. An Animal that Reasons
7. I Have Nothing to Say About Myself Simply
8. Modest Me
9. Making It Personal
10. Study Without a Book
11. The Portrait of Man
12. Living for the Self
13. The Portrait of the Self
Notes
Bibliography
Index