Olga Ravn and the Logic of the Lyric Essay

Abstract

The lyric essay is becoming one of the most significant female-coded literary and intellectual modes of the early twenty-first century. While instances of the lyric essay have recently proliferated, debate continues to surround its defining characteristics, structural antecedents, and evolution. This essay proposes that the defining contours of lyric essays emerge particularly clearly through attention to pieces that do not belong to the lyric essay tradition but share many of its qualities. Looking to the lyric essay’s adjacent forms helps to elucidate the relationship between the lyric essay’s formal dimensions and its characteristic thematic associations with care. Show more