Princeton prof. addresses self-expression through the essay
“If you don’t have it figured out, the essay will help you,” Christy Wampole, an associate professor of French Literature and Thought at Princeton University, told students during her Self-Edification Through the Essay lecture on Jan. 30.
Wampole spoke to a crowd of first-year College of General Studies students about the essay as a form of self-discovery and self-expression. She began by discussing the various definitions of the word essay.
“It’s really important to understand this term because it gets muddled in contemporary language,” Wampole said.
She then launched into the discussion of self-edification by talking about authors whose books take a deeper look into the idea of improving morally, citing Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist as an example of attempting to understand multiple meanings of the concept of feminism through writing.
She was an active presenter, engaging with the audience by asking them questions and showing a video essay, Chloé Galibert-Laîné’s “Watching The Pain of Others.”
At the end, she described her current work called American Time Capsule, which she says was inspired by the movie Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater. Her book will place over 12 years and be comprised of essays she writes one month of each year about social and political developments that month.
“What I am trying to do with my essays is trying to connect the dots between myself and the political and social world,” she said.
Students said they enjoyed Wampole’s energy and her perspective on the essay.
“I really enjoyed how she was so passionate about the topic and I feel like this will help me in the future,” said Bianca Chao (CGS’21 COM’23).
— Story and Photos by Natalie Seara