Abstract: This article examines, from a rhetorical perspective, the “diversion” in the Essays. It interprets the theme as a means of persuasion and as an expression of a specific idea of wisdom. The “diversion” leads to the problem of the self`s configuration and challenges a well-established tradition of commentators which views the “detour” as an autonomous expression of Montaigne’s “self”, while discarding the paradigms which governed literary production in his historical present.
