WRITING THE ESSAY I: MOURNING AND MELANCHOLIA. In this first-year writing seminar we look at texts that confront depression, grief and heartbreak. Poets and philosophers have often examined these emotional states as passage through a “dark night of the soul” in which an author confronts despair and finds a way to traverse it. These personal and spiritual reckonings are often deep examinations of the self and a search for meaning in existence. This writing intensive course considers philosophical, poetic and other renderings of mourning and melancholia in authors such as Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, Claudia Rankine, Sigmund Freud, Maggie Nelson, James Baldwin, Paul Celan and others. Through a series of essays, we begin a conversation in our own writing and thought with these authors and issues.