'Art of the essay'
Discuss
Virginia Woolf as a modern essayist with special reference to the Art of the
essay.
Or,
Offer your perspective on the essay as a literary form on the basis of Woolf’s
analysis in “Art of the Essay.’
Or, what
are the main characteristics and objectives of an essay discussed by Virginia.
Answer:
Widely
considered one of the finest essayist of the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf
composed “Art of the Essay” as a review of Earnest Rhy’s five volume of
anthology of “Modern Essay”(1870-1920). The review is originally appeared in
Times Literary Supplement, Nov 30, 1922 and Woolf included the essay with a
slightly revised version in her first collection of Essays “The Common Reader”.
“A
good essay must draw its curtain around us but it must be a curtain that shuts
us in, not out.” According to Virginia Woolf the goal of the essay is simply
that it should give us pleasure. It should lay us under a spell with its first
word and we should only wake refresh with its last word. Virginia Woolf initiates
the discussion on the subject of the essay as a literary genre by referring to
the wide extent to the form, to the variety and diversity of its examples,
suggesting that it is the richness of the present state of things in the form
that makes it an interesting style. There is an important point emphasized by
Woolf at the beginning of the discussion that ‘Present’ state of the form and
its practice is of greater than a historical survey of how the essay develops
over the period.
One of
the best practitioners of the art of writing essay, Virginia Woolf analyzed perfectly
the art that involved composing an essay and she displayed her essay writing
skills across a wide range of subjects with all the craftsmanship, substances
and rich allure like of her novels. Her emphasis on the poem that the essay is
written during a particular period can provide enough resource for the growing
of the dominant features associated with the genre. In other words she argues
that the essay is a literary form and its character can be examine on the basis
of the study of its practice in a particular time, for example in her case the
immediate present in which she was writing, that is the last phase of
nineteenth and early part of twentieth century. So, the contemporary projection
is a prominent characteristic of an essay.
The primary
objective to an essay as a literary form is to provide pleasure. The term
pleasure can have different suggestion depending on the context in which it is
placed. Here Woolf draws attention to the way it impacts and it’s received by
the reader. The distinction made by Woolf is significant and she considers it
to be a special figure of the essay form. She does not often nor perspective on
the role of pleasure that plays to create on attention as a literary type. As her
essay deals primarily with the form and its practice of her own time, he focus
is on the modern examples of the essay. Though she referred to in her initial
phase about Francis Bacon, Charles Lamb and Mark Pattison each one separated by
time, style and orientation but the common thing is that they all give pleasure
to their readers by their essays and this pleasures are also of different
types.
According
to Woolf the nature of the subject may be varied and completely different from
one another but the essay as a literary form thrives by generating an ambiance
which draws the reader within its frame. It may be hard to find the perfect
essay but a skillful essayist will always be able to the reader’s interest by
the magic of the writing. This magic is not something that can be pinned down
easily but it is that special quality of the essay which makes it possible for
the writer to transfer the knowledge through its various knowledge.
Virginia
Woolf provides the examples of Macaulay Froude, who excelled in making use of
the essay to communicate to their subjects with remarkable clearity.
Unlike
novels or poems which one aided by story and rhyme respectively, the essay wins
the reader by the power of the craft. The importance of discipline in an essay cannot
be undermined. So, the essay must be tight, precise and properly organized. In this
matter Woolf use the word ‘Pure’ to indicate how important it is for the
essayist to take proper care in writing an essay which will not make a mess of
it. Woolf considers adherence to a strict discipline to be one of the major
features of the essay form. That is why she puts so much emphasis on the
condition of purity implying that it is the responsibility of the essays to
ensure that the subject is transformed with expertise and craft.
When
Woolf refers to knowledge as one of the conditions that constitute the essay
objectives, she is not focusing on providing information through the essay. It should
be the representation of a particular vision should contain the stamp of the author’s
way of looking on the issue. In this respect she gives the examples of Walter
Peter’s essay on Leonordo Da Vince, which transforms the limits of the medium
to present the subject with intensity and conviction. An essayist must be alert
to the conditions of his style while writing an essay, otherwise even a good
subject fall fled and may appear to be a collection of facts and figures
unnecessarily ornamented.
So,
Virginia Woolf concluded her essay by saying that all essays irrespective of
the age in which they appear, they must contain the permanent quality which
will stand at the taste of time. The essay must draw the reader into it and
hold him in its gripe. Only then the reading experience of an essay will be worthwhile
and rewarding.
Thanks
for reading this topic. See you again and wishing to come again……….