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Part of
Discourses on the Edges of Life
Edited by Vicent Salvador †, Adéla Kotátková and Ignasi Clemente
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 26] 2020
► pp. 125–146

Montaigne, the essay and the end of life

| Institute of Clinical Sciences, University of Birmingham

This study builds on previous work in the way that death and dying are represented in writing in the Humanities by looking principally though not exclusively at the work of Montaigne. It is argued that while literary texts of course portray end of life issues, it is often either focussed on the death of an individual and the surrounding grief, or “death” is used for symbolic purposes, for example as evidence of a society in decay. The essay form, which was to a large extent created by Montaigne, offers the opportunity to explore end of life questions as concepts, and to consider through them how to die – and by extension, how to live.

Keywords: essay, reflection, scepticism, perspective, death
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.An ordinary life
  • 3.Presenting the self
  • 4.Je suis moi-même la matière de mon livre
  • 5.A question of perspective
  • 6.Montaigne and dying: The sceptic spirit
  • 7.Montaigne and dying: Philosophy and the self
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Bibliography
Published online: 9 April 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ivitra.26.09ske
References

Bibliography

All references to Montaigne’s works are to

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Shuckburgh, Evelyn
1899 (tr). Letters of Cicero 1899 London: Chiswick Press. Available online at [URL] (Accessed 7th April 2018). (Originally written 68–43BCE).
Skelton, John R.
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University of Chicago
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