The Contemplative Essay

In this course we will write personal narratives and essays based on our own life experience, using the standard workshop format and a one-hour required weekly lab in Basic Mindfulness, a form of Burmese Vipassana meditation. Essays will emphasize fact, as well as insight into work, life, and writing. Readings will illustrate previous writers’ contemplative experiences, as well as matters of craft, including works by Michel de Montaigne, Rainer Maria Rilke, William James, TS Eliot, Eihei Dogen, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rebecca Solnit, David Abram, Annie Dillard, and Gary Snyder. (ENAM 0170 or approval required) 3 hrs. lect./1 hr. lab.