- Ariel Levy (Editor of the journal and writer of the Introduction)
- Hilton Als
- Roger Angell
- Kendra Atleework
- Isaiah Berlin
- Sven Birkerts
- Tiffany Briere
- Justin Cronin
- Meghan Daum
- Anthony Doerr
- Malcolm Gladwell
- Mark Jacobson
- Margo Jefferson
- Philip Kennicott
- Tim Kreider
- Kate Lebo
- John Reed
- Ashraf H. A. Rushdy
- David Sedaris
- Zadie Smith
- Rebecca Solnit
- Cheryl Strayed
- Kelly Sunberg
These authors are all held on a pedestal by the editor to be the best published essayists of the year of 2015: "The Best American Essays features a selection of the year's outstanding essays, essays of literary achievement that show an awareness of craft and forcefulness of thought (Levy xiii)." The authors come of various backgrounds, ages, and upbringings.
2. The primary audience of the passage is most likely serious purveyors of nonfiction literature given the intensity of its diction with words like: "kvetching", "altruism", etc. Given its widespread release, it can be assumed that its secondary audiences include the general public.
3. The context of this journal is overwhelmingly dependent on the year its reflecting on: 2015. Since it aimed to pick the best articles published in 2015, the content was specifically chosen to reflect the aforesaid goal: "To qualify for the volume, the essay must be a work of respectable literary quality...(Levy xiii)."
4. There was no real overall message to the journal except to stress the overall beauty of literature, especially works published in 2015. I determined that there was no overall message because of the various topic covered by the various authors included.
5. I believe the journal aimed to illustrate the vast literary potential of mankind through various essays of merit by various people of various backgrounds: "For me, reading the essays in this anthology was as satisfying and invigorating as glimpsing a school of dolphins rippling in and out of the water: a privilege (Levy xviii)."
No comments:
Post a Comment