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The current work seeks to explore the development of the essay in western culture as a means of reflecting the identity of the author. In order to analyse said evolution, we draw on a model of literary text which establishes a basic distinction between the «world of the author» (encompassing the lyrical and argumentative literary genres) and the «world of the characters» (embracing the narrative and dramatic literary genres). The proposed model allows us to analyse the evolution of the essayistic-argumentative forms based on traditional rhetorical discourse, and draws a distinction between essayistic-argumentative forms which may be attributed directly to the author and those which may not due to their being expressed through fictional characters.