The Design of Montaigne's Essais (Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs)

What can design tell us about literature? What can literature tell us about design?ÂThe Design of Montaigne's 'Essais' provides a model for answering these questions by analysing the uses and function of the term dessein. Wresting design free from its intentionalist connotations and focusing instead on the polysemy of the term in its early modern usage, which connoted both a mental plan or intention, and a material drawing or sketch, this study emphasises the open-ended design of the Essais, placing particular importance on its affinities with the practice of sketching. Looking across the Italian border at theories and practices of drawing, the book places Montaigne's dessein in dialogue with its Italian counterpart disegno, arguing for the importance of the visual dimension in Montaigne's thinking, and in his writerly imagination.