78-514: Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry ( French: [pɔl valeʁi] ; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist , and philosopher . In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, music, and current events. Valéry was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 12 different years. Valéry
156-438: A thesis statement , body paragraphs with arguments linking back to the main thesis, and conclusion. In addition, an argumentative essay may include a refutation section where conflicting ideas are acknowledged, described, and criticized. Each argument of an argumentative essay should be supported with sufficient evidence, relevant to the point. A process essay is used for an explanation of making or breaking something. Often, it
234-411: A description is the scene. Description uses tools such as denotative language, connotative language, figurative language , metaphor , and simile to arrive at a dominant impression. One university essay guide states that "descriptive writing says what happened or what another author has discussed; it provides an account of the topic". Lyric essays are an important form of descriptive essays. In
312-425: A famous person. The writing of an expository essay often consists of the following steps: organizing thoughts ( brainstorming ), researching a topic, developing a thesis statement , writing the introduction, writing the body of essay, and writing the conclusion. Expository essays are often assigned as a part of SAT and other standardized testing or as homework for high school and college students. Descriptive writing
390-523: A friend of Stéphane Mallarmé 's family, who was also a niece of the painter Berthe Morisot . The wedding was a double ceremony in which the bride's cousin, Berthe Morisot 's daughter, Julie Manet , married the painter Ernest Rouart . Valéry and Gobillard had three children: Claude, Agathe and François. Valéry served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding the Prix Blumenthal ,
468-493: A grant given between 1919 and 1954 to young French painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians. Though his earliest publications date from his mid-twenties, Valéry did not become a full-time writer until 1920, when the man for whom he worked as private secretary, a former chief executive of the Havas news agency, Edouard Lebey, died of Parkinson's disease . Until then, Valéry had, briefly, earned his living at
546-449: A hotbed. Some video essays feature long, documentary style writing and editing, going deep into the research and history of a particular topic. Others are more akin to an argumentative essay in which a single argument is developed and supported throughout the video. Video essay styles have become especially prominent among BreadTube creators such as ContraPoints and PhilosophyTube . In the realm of music, composer Samuel Barber wrote
624-433: A literary species whose extreme variability can be studied most effectively within a three-poled frame of reference". These three poles (or worlds in which the essay may exist) are: Huxley adds that the most satisfying essays "...make the best not of one, not of two, but of all the three worlds in which it is possible for the essay to exist." Montaigne's "attempts" grew out of his commonplacing . Inspired in particular by
702-562: A number of official positions eagerly offered to him by an admiring French nation. He represented France on cultural matters at the League of Nations , and he served on several of its committees, including the sub-committee on Arts and Letters of the Committee on Intellectual Cooperation . The English-language collection The Outlook for Intelligence (1989) contains translations of a dozen essays related to these activities. In 1931, he founded
780-410: A particular order—or they may consist of non-ordered photographs viewed all at once or in an order that the viewer chooses. All photo essays are collections of photographs, but not all collections of photographs are photo essays. Photo essays often address a certain issue or attempt to capture the character of places and events. In the visual arts , an essay is a preliminary drawing or sketch that forms
858-494: A proliferation of great essayists in English— William Hazlitt , Charles Lamb , Leigh Hunt and Thomas De Quincey all penned numerous essays on diverse subjects, reviving the earlier graceful style. Thomas Carlyle 's essays were highly influential, and one of his readers, Ralph Waldo Emerson , became a prominent essayist himself. Later in the century, Robert Louis Stevenson also raised the form's literary level. In
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#1732791490877936-468: A set of "Essays for Orchestra", relying on the form and content of the music to guide the listener's ear, rather than any extra-musical plot or story . A photographic essay strives to cover a topic with a linked series of photographs . Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full-text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in
1014-545: A setting dominated by the sea, the sky, stars, rocky cliffs, and the rising sun. However, it is also possible to read the poem as an allegory on the way fate moves human affairs or as an attempt to comprehend the horrific violence in Europe at the time of the poem's composition. The poem is not about World War I , but it does try to address the relationships between destruction and beauty, and, in this sense, it resonates with ancient Greek meditations on these matters, especially in
1092-415: Is a critical piece of writing, aimed at presenting objective analysis of the subject matter, narrowed down to a single topic. The main idea of all the criticism is to provide an opinion either of positive or negative implication. As such, a critical essay requires research and analysis, strong internal logic and sharp structure. Its structure normally builds around introduction with a topic's relevance and
1170-590: Is a ghostwriting service that sells pre-written essays to university and college students. Since plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty or academic fraud , universities and colleges may investigate papers they suspect are from an essay mill by using plagiarism detection software, which compares essays against a database of known mill essays and by orally testing students on the contents of their papers. Essays often appear in magazines, especially magazines with an intellectual bent, such as The Atlantic and Harpers . Magazine and newspaper essays use many of
1248-455: Is a "prose composition with a focused subject of discussion" or a "long, systematic discourse". It is difficult to define the genre into which essays fall. Aldous Huxley , a leading essayist, gives guidance on the subject. He notes that "the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything", and adds that "by tradition, almost by definition, the essay is a short piece". Furthermore, Huxley argues that "essays belong to
1326-563: Is a series of narrative statements that are required when applying to Federal government job openings in the United States. KSAs are used along with resumes to determine who the best applicants are when several candidates qualify for a job. The knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for the successful performance of a position are contained on each job vacancy announcement. KSAs are brief and focused essays about one's career and educational background that presumably qualify one to perform
1404-474: Is characterized by sensory details, which appeal to the physical senses, and details that appeal to a reader's emotional, physical, or intellectual sensibilities. Determining the purpose, considering the audience, creating a dominant impression, using descriptive language, and organizing the description are the rhetorical choices to consider when using a description. A description is usually arranged spatially but can also be chronological or emphatic. The focus of
1482-487: Is characterized by a generalization and relevant, representative, and believable examples including anecdotes . Writers need to consider their subject, determine their purpose, consider their audience, decide on specific examples, and arrange all the parts together when writing an exemplification essay. An essayist writes a familiar essay if speaking to a single reader, writing about both themselves, and about particular subjects. Anne Fadiman notes that "the genre's heyday
1560-646: Is from Valéry's Writing at the Yalu River (1895): "Your ideas are terrifying and your hearts are faint. Your acts of pity and cruelty are absurd, committed with no calm, as if they were irresistible. Finally, you fear blood more and more. Blood and time". In the book "El laberinto de la soledad" from Octavio Paz there are three verses of one of Valéry's poems: Je pense, sur le bord doré de l’univers A ce gout de périr qui prend la Pythonisse En qui mugit l’espoir que le monde finisse. Oscar-winning Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki 's 2013 film The Wind Rises and
1638-417: Is grouped by the object (chunking) or by point (sequential). The comparison highlights the similarities between two or more similar objects while contrasting highlights the differences between two or more objects. When writing a compare/contrast essay, writers need to determine their purpose, consider their audience, consider the basis and points of comparison, consider their thesis statement, arrange and develop
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#17327914908771716-493: Is often considered one of the greatest French poems of the twentieth century. The title was chosen late in the poem's gestation; it refers to the youngest of the three Parcae (the minor Roman deities also called The Fates ), though for some readers the connection with that mythological figure is tenuous and problematic. The poem is written in the first person, and is the soliloquy of a young woman contemplating life and death, engagement and withdrawal, love and estrangement, in
1794-681: Is that women have traditionally written in Japan, though the more formal, Chinese-influenced writings of male writers were more prized at the time. The eight-legged essay ( Chinese : 八股文; pinyin : bāgǔwén ; lit. 'eight bone text') was a style of essay in imperial examinations during the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. The eight-legged essay was needed for those test takers in these civil service tests to show their merits for government service, often focusing on Confucian thought and knowledge of
1872-452: Is written in chronological order or numerical order to show step-by-step processes. It has all the qualities of a technical document with the only difference is that it is often written in descriptive mood , while a technical document is mostly in imperative mood . An economic essay can start with a thesis, or it can start with a theme. It can take a narrative course and a descriptive course. It can even become an argumentative essay if
1950-679: The Cahiers have been published in their entirety only as photostatic reproductions, and only since 1980 have they begun to receive scholarly scrutiny. The Cahiers have been translated into English in five volumes published by Peter Lang with the title Cahiers/Notebooks . In recent decades Valéry's thought has been considered a touchstone in the field of constructivist epistemology , as noted, for instance, by Jean-Louis Le Moigne in his description of constructivist history. One of three epigraphs in Cormac McCarthy 's novel Blood Meridian
2028-496: The Collège International de Cannes , a private institution teaching French language and civilization. The Collège is still operating today, offering professional courses for native speakers (for educational certification, law and business) as well as courses for foreign students. He gave the keynote address at the 1932 German national celebration of the 100th anniversary of the death of Johann Wolfgang Goethe . This
2106-464: The Four Books and Five Classics , in relation to governmental ideals. Test takers could not write in innovative or creative ways, but needed to conform to the standards of the eight-legged essay. Various skills were examined, including the ability to write coherently and to display basic logic. In certain times, the candidates were expected to spontaneously compose poetry upon a set theme, whose value
2184-517: The Japanese novel of the same name (on which the film was partially based) take their title from Valéry's verse "Le vent se lève... il faut tenter de vivre !" ("The wind rises… We must try to live!") in the poem "Le Cimetière marin" ( The Graveyard by the Sea ). The same quote is used in the closing sentences of Anthony Burgess 's 1962 novel The Wanting Seed . "Le Cimetière marin" is also quoted in
2262-555: The United States and the United Kingdom , essays have become a major part of a formal education in the form of free response questions. Secondary students in these countries are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills, and essays are often used by universities in these countries in selecting applicants ( see admissions essay ). In both secondary and tertiary education, essays are used to judge
2340-429: The audience , think critically about different causes or consequences, consider a thesis statement, arrange the parts, consider the language , and decide on a conclusion. Classification is the categorization of objects into a larger whole while division is the breaking of a larger whole into smaller parts. Compare and contrast essays are characterized by a basis for comparison, points of comparison, and analogies. It
2418-434: The dialectic form of the essay, which is commonly used in philosophy , the writer makes a thesis and argument, then objects to their own argument (with a counterargument), but then counters the counterargument with a final and novel argument. This form benefits from presenting a broader perspective while countering a possible flaw that some may present. This type is sometimes called an ethics paper. An exemplification essay
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2496-540: The 17th century, the Spanish Jesuit Baltasar Gracián wrote about the theme of wisdom. In England, during the Age of Enlightenment , essays were a favored tool of polemicists who aimed at convincing readers of their position; they also featured heavily in the rise of periodical literature , as seen in the works of Joseph Addison , Richard Steele and Samuel Johnson . Addison and Steele used
2574-481: The 20th century, a number of essayists, such as T.S. Eliot , tried to explain the new movements in art and culture by using essays. Virginia Woolf , Edmund Wilson , and Charles du Bos wrote literary criticism essays. In France, several writers produced longer works with the title of essai that were not true examples of the form. However, by the mid-19th century, the Causeries du lundi , newspaper columns by
2652-717: The Chair of Poetics at the Collège de France . During World War II , the Vichy regime stripped him of some of these jobs and distinctions because of his quiet refusal to collaborate with Vichy and the German occupation, but Valéry continued, throughout these troubled years, to publish and to be active in French cultural life, especially as a member of the Académie française . Valéry
2730-507: The French comic "Le concombre masqué: Comment devenir maître du monde?", authored by Mandryka and published in 1980. Essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument , but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter , a paper , an article , a pamphlet , and a short story . Essays have been sub-classified as formal and informal: formal essays are characterized by "serious purpose, dignity, logical organization, length," whereas
2808-429: The French infinitive essayer , "to try" or "to attempt". In English essay first meant "a trial" or "an attempt", and this is still an alternative meaning. The Frenchman Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) was the first author to describe his work as essays; he used the term to characterize these as "attempts" to put his thoughts into writing. Subsequently, essay has been defined in a variety of ways. One definition
2886-549: The Ministry of War before assuming the relatively flexible post as assistant to the increasingly impaired Lebey, a job he held for some twenty years. Also in 1920, he began a tumultuous affair with a fellow poet, Catherine Pozzi , which lasted for eight years. After his election to the Académie française in 1925, Valéry became a tireless public speaker and intellectual figure in French society, touring Europe and giving lectures on cultural and social issues as well as assuming
2964-472: The Principle of Population are counterexamples. In some countries (e.g., the United States and Canada), essays have become a major part of formal education . Secondary students are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills; admission essays are often used by universities in selecting applicants, and in the humanities and social sciences essays are often used as a way of assessing
3042-547: The Senior Executive Service must demonstrate. A film essay (also essay film or cinematic essay ) consists of the evolution of a theme or an idea rather than a plot per se, or the film literally being a cinematic accompaniment to a narrator reading an essay. From another perspective, an essay film could be defined as a documentary film visual basis combined with a form of commentary that contains elements of self-portrait (rather than autobiography), where
3120-411: The argument is supported by evidence and to evaluate the quality of that evidence. The academic essay tests the student's ability to present their thoughts in an organized way and is designed to test their intellectual capabilities. One of the challenges facing universities is that in some cases, students may submit essays purchased from an essay mill (or "paper mill") as their own work. An "essay mill"
3198-414: The author feels the need. After the introduction, the author has to do his/her best to expose the economic matter at hand, to analyze it, evaluate it, and draw a conclusion. If the essay takes more of a narrative form then the author has to expose each aspect of the economic puzzle in a way that makes it clear and understandable for the reader A reflective essay is an analytical piece of writing in which
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3276-466: The beginnings of Japanese literature. Many of the most noted early works of Japanese literature are in this genre. Notable examples include The Pillow Book (c. 1000), by court lady Sei Shōnagon , and Tsurezuregusa (1330), by particularly renowned Japanese Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenkō . Kenkō described his short writings similarly to Montaigne, referring to them as "nonsensical thoughts" written in "idle hours". Another noteworthy difference from Europe
3354-480: The comparison, and reach a conclusion. Compare and contrast is arranged emphatically. An expository essay is used to inform, describe or explain a topic, using important facts to teach the reader about a topic. Mostly written in third-person , using "it", "he", "she", "they," the expository essay uses formal language to discuss someone or something. Examples of expository essays are: a medical or biological condition, social or technological process, life or character of
3432-414: The critic Sainte-Beuve , are literary essays in the original sense. Other French writers followed suit, including Théophile Gautier , Anatole France , Jules Lemaître and Émile Faguet . As with the novel , essays existed in Japan several centuries before they developed in Europe with a genre of essays known as zuihitsu —loosely connected essays and fragmented ideas. Zuihitsu have existed since almost
3510-557: The cynical. His view of state power was broadly liberal insofar as he believed that state power and infringements on the individual should be severely limited. Although he had flirted with nationalist ideas during the 1890s, he moved away from them by 1899, and believed that European culture owed its greatness to the ethnic diversity and universalism of the Roman Empire. He denounced the myth of "racial purity" and argued that such purity, if it existed, would only lead to stagnation—thus
3588-675: The death of Montaigne, containing the first ten of his essays), 1612, and 1625, were the first works in English that described themselves as essays . Ben Jonson first used the word essayist in 1609, according to the Oxford English Dictionary . Other English essayists included Sir William Cornwallis , who published essays in 1600 and 1617 that were popular at the time, Robert Burton (1577–1641) and Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682). In Italy, Baldassare Castiglione wrote about courtly manners in his essay Il Cortigiano . In
3666-405: The death of his mentor, Stéphane Mallarmé . When, in 1917, he finally broke his 'great silence' with the publication of La Jeune Parque , he was forty-six years of age. This obscure, but sublimely musical, masterpiece, of 512 alexandrine lines in rhyming couplets, had taken him four years to complete, and it immediately secured his fame. With "Le Cimetière marin" and "L'Ébauche d'un serpent," it
3744-415: The different forms and styles of essay writing. These are used by an array of authors, including university students and professional essayists . The defining features of a "cause and effect" essay are causal chains that connect from a cause to an effect, careful language, and chronological or emphatic order. A writer using this rhetorical method must consider the subject , determine the purpose , consider
3822-581: The duties of the position being applied for. An Executive Core Qualification, or ECQ, is a narrative statement that is required when applying to Senior Executive Service positions within the US Federal government. Like the KSAs, ECQs are used along with resumes to determine who the best applicants are when several candidates qualify for a job. The Office of Personnel Management has established five executive core qualifications that all applicants seeking to enter
3900-568: The essay types described in the section on forms and styles (e.g., descriptive essays, narrative essays, etc.). Some newspapers also print essays in the op-ed section. Employment essays detailing experience in a certain occupational field are required when applying for some jobs, especially government jobs in the United States. Essays known as Knowledge Skills and Executive Core Qualifications are required when applying to certain US federal government positions. A KSA, or "Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities",
3978-447: The essay's topic. Most academic institutions require that all substantial facts, quotations, and other supporting material in an essay be referenced in a bibliography or works cited page at the end of the text. This scholarly convention helps others (whether teachers or fellow scholars) to understand the basis of facts and quotations the author uses to support the essay's argument. The bibliography also helps readers evaluate to what extent
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#17327914908774056-725: The informal essay is characterized by "the personal element (self-revelation, individual tastes and experiences, confidential manner), humor, graceful style, rambling structure, unconventionality or novelty of theme," etc. Essays are commonly used as literary criticism , political manifestos , learned arguments , observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. Almost all modern essays are written in prose , but works in verse have been dubbed essays (e.g., Alexander Pope 's An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man ). While brevity usually defines an essay, voluminous works like John Locke 's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and Thomas Malthus 's An Essay on
4134-461: The journal Tatler (founded in 1709 by Steele) and its successors as storehouses of their work, and they became the most celebrated eighteenth-century essayists in England. Johnson's essays appear during the 1750s in various similar publications. As a result of the focus on journals, the term also acquired a meaning synonymous with " article ", although the content may not the strict definition. On
4212-413: The last of the French symbolists . However, he published fewer than a hundred poems, and none of them drew much attention. On the night of 4 October 1892, during a heavy storm, Paul Valéry underwent an existential crisis , an event that made a huge impact on his writing career. Eventually, around 1898, he quit writing altogether, publishing not a word for nearly twenty years. This hiatus was in part due to
4290-425: The life of the mind, I thereby earn the right to be stupid for the rest of the day." The subjects of his Cahiers entries often were, surprisingly, reflections on science and mathematics. In fact, arcane topics in these domains appear to have commanded far more of his considered attention than his celebrated poetry. The Cahiers also contain the first drafts of many aphorisms he later included in his books. To date,
4368-553: The mastery and comprehension of the material. Students are asked to explain, comment on, or assess a topic of study in the form of an essay. In some courses, university students must complete one or more essays over several weeks or months. In addition, in fields such as the humanities and social sciences, mid-term and end of term examinations often require students to write a short essay in two or three hours. In these countries, so-called academic essays, also called papers , are usually more formal than literary ones. They may still allow
4446-703: The mixing of races was necessary for progress and cultural development. In "America as a Projection of the European Mind", Valéry remarked that whenever he despaired about Europe's situation, he could "restore some degree of hope only by thinking of the New World" and mused on the "happy variations" which could result from European "aesthetic ideas filtering into the powerful character of native Mexican art." Raymond Poincaré , Louis de Broglie , André Gide , Henri Bergson , and Albert Einstein all respected Valéry's thinking and became friendly correspondents. Valéry
4524-410: The other hand, Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is not an essay at all, or cluster of essays, in the technical sense, but still it refers to the experimental and tentative nature of the inquiry which the philosopher was undertaking. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Edmund Burke and Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote essays for the general public. The early 19th century, in particular, saw
4602-413: The performance of students during final exams. The concept of an "essay" has been extended to other media beyond writing. A film essay is a movie that often incorporates documentary filmmaking styles and focuses more on the evolution of a theme or idea. A photographic essay covers a topic with a linked series of photographs that may have accompanying text or captions . The word essay derives from
4680-674: The personal voice of a guiding narrator (often the director) with a wide swath of other voices". The University of Wisconsin Cinematheque website echoes some of Gray's comments; it calls a film essay an "intimate and allusive" genre that "catches filmmakers in a pensive mood, ruminating on the margins between fiction and documentary" in a manner that is "refreshingly inventive, playful, and idiosyncratic". Video essays are an emerging media type similar to film essays. Video essays have gained significant prominence on YouTube , as YouTube's policies on free uploads of arbitrary lengths have made it
4758-426: The plays of Sophocles and Aeschylus . There are, therefore, evident links with le Cimetière marin , which is also a seaside meditation on comparably large themes. Before la Jeune Parque , Valéry's only publications of note were dialogues, articles, some poems, and a study of Leonardo da Vinci . In 1920 and 1922, he published two slim collections of verses. The first, Album des vers anciens (Album of old verses),
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#17327914908774836-550: The predecessor of the modern essay. While Montaigne's philosophy was admired and copied in France, none of his most immediate disciples tried to write essays. But Montaigne, who liked to fancy that his family (the Eyquem line) was of English extraction, had spoken of the English people as his "cousins", and he was early read in England, notably by Francis Bacon . Bacon's essays , published in book form in 1597 (only five years after
4914-491: The presentation of the writer's own views, but this is done in a logical and factual manner, with the use of the first person often discouraged. Longer academic essays (often with a word limit of between 2,000 and 5,000 words) are often more discursive. They sometimes begin with a short summary analysis of what has previously been written on a topic, which is often called a literature review . Longer essays may also contain an introductory page that defines words and phrases of
4992-444: The reader why the argument or claim is as such. A narrative uses tools such as flashbacks , flash-forwards , and transitions that often build to a climax. The focus of a narrative is the plot . When creating a narrative, authors must determine their purpose, consider their audience, establish their point of view, use dialogue, and organize the narrative. A narrative is usually arranged chronologically. An argumentative essay
5070-441: The rest of the author's life. The logical progression and organizational structure of an essay can take many forms. Understanding how the movement of thought is managed through an essay has a profound impact on its overall cogency and ability to impress. A number of alternative logical structures for essays have been visualized as diagrams, making them easy to implement or adapt in the construction of an argument. In countries like
5148-694: The signature (rather than the life story) of the filmmaker is apparent. The cinematic essay often blends documentary , fiction , and experimental film making using tones and editing styles. The genre is not well-defined but might include propaganda works of early Soviet filmmakers like Dziga Vertov , present-day filmmakers including Chris Marker , Michael Moore ( Roger & Me , Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 ), Errol Morris ( The Thin Blue Line ), Morgan Spurlock ( Supersize Me ) and Agnès Varda . Jean-Luc Godard describes his recent work as "film-essays". Two filmmakers whose work
5226-537: The themes of deception, "fakery", and authenticity in general. David Winks Gray's article "The essay film in action" states that the "essay film became an identifiable form of filmmaking in the 1950s and '60s". He states that since that time, essay films have tended to be "on the margins" of the filmmaking the world. Essay films have a "peculiar searching, questioning tone ... between documentary and fiction" but without "fitting comfortably" into either genre. Gray notes that just like written essays, essay films "tend to marry
5304-559: The work of Mallarmé . His poem, Palme , inspired James Merrill 's celebrated 1974 poem Lost in Translation , and his cerebral lyricism also influenced the American poet, Edgar Bowers . Valéry described his “true oeuvre” to be prose, and he filled more than 28,000 notebook pages over his lifetime. His far more ample prose writings, peppered with many aphorisms and bons mots , reveal a skeptical outlook on human nature, verging on
5382-463: The works of Plutarch , a translation of whose Œuvres Morales ( Moral works ) into French had just been published by Jacques Amyot , Montaigne began to compose his essays in 1572; the first edition, entitled Essais , was published in two volumes in 1580. For the rest of his life, he continued revising previously published essays and composing new ones. A third volume was published posthumously; together, their over 100 examples are widely regarded as
5460-425: The writer describes a real or imaginary scene, event, interaction, passing thought, memory, or form—adding a personal reflection on the meaning of the topic in the author's life. Thus, the focus is not merely descriptive. The writer doesn't just describe the situation, but revisits the scene with more detail and emotion to examine what went well, or reveal a need for additional learning—and may relate what transpired to
5538-575: Was a fitting choice, as Valéry shared Goethe's fascination with science (specifically, biology and optics ). In addition to his activities as a member of the Académie française , he was also a member of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon , and of the Front national des Ecrivains . In 1937, he was appointed chief executive of what later became the University of Nice . He was the inaugural holder of
5616-554: Was a revision of early but beautifully wrought smaller poems, some of which had been published individually before 1900. The second, Charmes (from the Latin carmina , meaning "songs" and also "incantations"), further confirmed his reputation as a major French poet. The collection includes le Cimetière marin , and many smaller poems with diverse structures. Valéry's technique is quite orthodox in its essentials. His verse rhymes and scans in conventional ways, and it has much in common with
5694-413: Was also sometimes questioned, or eliminated as part of the test material. This was a major argument in favor of the eight-legged essay, arguing that it were better to eliminate creative art in favor of prosaic literacy. In the history of Chinese literature, the eight-legged essay is often said to have caused China's "cultural stagnation and economic backwardness" in the 19th century. This section describes
5772-725: Was born to a Corsican father and Genoese - Istrian mother in Sète , a town on the Mediterranean coast of the Hérault , but he was raised in Montpellier , a larger urban center close by. After a traditional Roman Catholic education, he studied law at university and then resided in Paris for most of the remainder of his life, where he was, for a while, part of the circle of Stéphane Mallarmé . In 1900, he married Jeannine Gobillard,
5850-524: Was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twelve times. It is believed that the Swedish Academy intended to award Valéry the prize in 1945, had he not died that year. Valéry died in Paris in July 1945. He is buried in the cemetery of his native town, Sète, the same cemetery celebrated in his famous poem Le Cimetière marin . Valéry is best known as a poet, and he is sometimes considered to be
5928-408: Was often asked to write articles on topics not of his choosing; the resulting intellectual journalism was collected in five volumes titled Variétés . Valéry's most striking achievement is perhaps his monumental intellectual diary, called the Cahiers (Notebooks). Early every morning of his adult life, he contributed something to the Cahiers , prompting him to write: "Having dedicated those hours to
6006-551: Was the antecedent to the cinematic essay include Georges Méliès and Bertolt Brecht . Méliès made a short film ( The Coronation of Edward VII (1902)) about the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII , which mixes actual footage with shots of a recreation of the event. Brecht was a playwright who experimented with film and incorporated film projections into some of his plays. Orson Welles made an essay film in his own pioneering style, released in 1974, called F for Fake , which dealt specifically with art forger Elmyr de Hory and with
6084-476: Was the early nineteenth century," and that its greatest exponent was Charles Lamb . She also suggests that while critical essays have more brain than the heart, and personal essays have more heart than brain, familiar essays have equal measures of both. A history essay sometimes referred to as a thesis essay describes an argument or claim about one or more historical events and supports that claim with evidence, arguments, and references. The text makes it clear to
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