A literary essay can be an analytical and reflective text that focuses on a certain work of literature.
The etymology of essay takes us to the late Latin exagium , which refers to the action of regret . Said verb (regret), in this case, is linked to the careful examination that is carried out of something with the aim of developing a judgment about it .
The notion of essay can be used to refer to the text where an author expresses his ideas and personal vision about a certain issue . In this way, the writer pours the conclusions of his analyzes into the essay.
As for the literary adjective, which comes from the Latin litterarius , it refers to that linked to literature . The concept of literature, in turn, is related to artistic expression of a verbal nature.
What is a literary essay
Starting from these definitions, we can understand what a literary essay is. This is the name given to the work where a literary work is studied in detail .
Generally, the literary essay goes beyond the book in question. Typically, the essayist also reflects on the historical context and focuses on the writer of the work .
It is important to clarify that the literary essay is subjective since it includes opinions and the essayist usually makes his position explicit. You may even posit theories or hypotheses that are based on your research or exploration.
An essay can be classified as literary when its author, in addition to carrying out an analysis of a topic, appeals to creativity and has an aesthetic intention.
a free style
It should be noted that the idea of a literary essay can be considered based on the style of the essay itself, and not its content. In this framework, the literary aspect of the essay is mainly given by the aesthetics of the text and the creativity shown by its author.
The essay, then, appears as a literary genre , like poetry , the novel or the story . It can be said that in these texts attention is paid to both the topic to be developed and the way of writing.
In this way, it is possible to maintain that a literary essay can revolve around any topic , not just a literary work. The essayist investigates, reflects, appeals to his imagination and has an aesthetic purpose. The case of an academic essay is different, in which formality is central and strict criteria must be respected.
Structure of a literary essay
Beyond the differences of each case and the desire for experimentation, the most common thing is that the literary essay has a structure that includes the introduction , the development and the conclusion .
In the introduction, a first approach to the topic is made so that the reader begins to become familiar with it. The development is the longest section: data from the research is included and arguments, deliberations, etc. are presented. The conclusion is the last part of the literary essay, with a recount, balances, judgments , etc.
An example
The literary essay has a rich history and remains fully relevant in the 21st century . A fairly recent example of a literary essay is “Hunger” , by the Argentine Martín Caparrós .
Published in 2014 , “Hunger” is a book of more than 600 pages. Caparrós wonders why, in a world that produces enough food for all human beings, so many people are hungry.
Throughout the text, Caparrós offers chronicles of the trips he made investigating this problem, reproduces dialogues he had with numerous interviewees and provides statistics from different organizations and institutions. Thus, in this literary essay it is proposed to inspect the causes and consequences of hunger .