On the Essay Considered as One of the Performing Arts

Abstract

On the basis of Montaigne’s reflections on the essay, the author forms an “ideal-type” essay, which he then compares to the ideal-type treatise. In his opinion, an essayist gives a “performative turn” to the discursive formation of the treatise and therefore makes the essay one of the performative arts. In an essay, the thinking and writing subject commands the stage; in his reflections he does not reveal facts, but rather himself. In the performance of himself, the essayist perceives himself as a dramatic persona in dialogic relation to either his own previous texts, to opposing views of other authors drawn into the text, and mainly to his readers, who are equal partners in the dialogue. The essayist always speaks only for himself and the questions he raises do not belong to one single discipline; he does not address readers with any specialized kind of knowledge or interests, but rather the common reader. The purpose of the essay is not to proclaim definite truths – it shows a process that leads to certain knowledge; and as such, is not a finished product, but merely a performance. The essay enacts thinking and writing as they develop – thought in the very process of formation. The truth of the essay is more a kind of knowledge than a truth, an experiential and experimental kind of knowledge that can only be performed in the various movements and gestures of the essay. The essay is an exercise in self-fashioning – both the self and the genre emerge in the performance only; the essayist is like modern performance artists who no longer enact a pre-given script, but improvise their performance in the act of performing.