New Interpretations course by Steven Smith and Giulia Oskian: Michel de Montaigne

• Salvador Dalì, Illustration of Montaigne’s essay “On Vanity”, 1946
January 16, 2019

This course will offer a close reading of the Essays by Michel de Montaigne (1533-92).  The Essays are commonly considered a classic text of European early modernity.  Some (but by no means all) of the topics engaged in the Essays include autobiography and the discovery of the self, freedom of thought and toleration, individualism, the role of nature and the body, custom and the limits of rationality, otherness and diversity, experience, and moderation.  An important theme to be examined will be the politics of the Essays.  The course will include some brief selections from contemporary writers who have tried to bring Montaigne into conversation with our present moment. 

Read more about past Interpretations courses!

HUMS 413: Interpretations: Montaigne
Spring 2019
MW 1:00-2:15
Steven Smith and Giulia Oskian