In an article about the contemporary form of the essay, Adam Kirsch states, “The new essay is exclusively about the self with the world serving only as a foil and an accessory.”
This article compares essayists such as Rothbart and Crosley and Sedaris, to the prose equivalent of reality TV. In the essay, they claim to be recording their lives, while in fact they are putting on a performance, and they count on the reader to know the rules of the form.
