Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote Essay | Critical Essay #1

Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote Critical Essay #1

Hamilton is an English teacher at Cary Academy in Cary, North Carolina. In this essay she examines the theme of reading in the literary project of "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote."

"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" is metafiction about the overlap between essay writing and story writing. Writing certainly lies at the center of the story, beginning with the title. However, "Pierre Menard" is also "metareading," a story that concerns itself with the relationship between writing and reading.

References to writing abound in this story. The narrator establishes Pierre Menard's credibility as an author by listing a catalogue of his written work, his "visible oeuvre." The works represent a range of types, from sonnets and letters to monographs, manuscripts, and translations. The last item of the list, handwritten, is about one of the elements unique to writing: punctuation. The breadth of topics treated by...
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