The Essay Film (ESSAY WEEK)

What is an essay film? How can a film be essayistic? Contributors to The Cambridge History of the American Essay Nora Alter (Temple University) and Florian Fuchs (Princeton University) attempt to answer these questions following a screening of a short essay film by the German filmmaker Harun Farocki. Through this conversation, a clearer picture of the essay film’s form, common themes, and its potential uses will begin to emerge.

• • Nora Alter (Temple University) “The American Essay Film: A Neglected Genre”
  • Florian Fuchs (Princeton University) “Germans in Amerika: Written Possibility, Uninhabitable Reality”
  • Moderator – Moad Musbahi (Princeton University)

This week-long celebration of the essay genre brings together scholars and practitioners of the form for a range of lectures, conversations, and experimental activities. To celebrate the release of The Cambridge History of the American Essay, this series of events pays tribute to the richness and variety of the essayistic spirit across centuries, continents, and cultures. For information regarding the undergraduate and graduate essay contest, visit Essay Week Essay Contest.

_Organizer

Christy Wampole, Princeton University

_Sponsors

Essay Week is presented by the Department of French and Italian with support from the Eberhard L. Faber 1915 Memorial Fund in the Humanities Council and is co-sponsored by:

• Department of African American Studies
• Department of Comparative Literature
• Department of English
• Department of German
• European Cultural Studies
• IHUM (Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities)
• Princeton Public Library
• Program in Journalism
• Renaissance and Early Modern Studies