Mirrors and portraits: the personal essay according to Luis Paniagua

Abstract

In Entre los árboles, la voz, Luis Paniagua offers us his vision of the essay as a genetic and literary inheritance, which dates back to the 16th century with Michel de Montaigne. The reinterpretation, recreation and biased teaching of the essay as a literary genre have dispersed the concept over time, going so far as to semi-consecrate it in the academic field and even to despise all those current literary essayistic exercises which are closest to the way in which the essay was conceived in the first place. Luis Paniagua captures his ideas and supports them with the help of quotes and references from other authors, connecting his own rhetoric with others that fit or support his. Little by little he defines the essay as a kind of self-portrait, a portrait in which we can see himself in and through the author. At the same time, rescuing fragments of other texts, Paniagua sees himself in the mirror of those other authors. This work takes the content of the first two parts of the book, and through a critical vision of it helps us take a more nourished and contextualized look.