Power and Identity in the Creative Writing Classroom: The Authority Project (New Writing Viewpoints, 1) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1853598461 ISBN 13: 9781853598463

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

Power and Identity In the Creative Writing Classroom remaps theories and practices for teaching creative writing at university and college level. This collection critiques well-established approaches for teaching creative writing in all genres and builds a comprehensive and adaptable pedagogy based on issues of authority, power, and identity. A long-needed reflection, this book shapes creative writing pedagogy for the 21st century.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Anna Leahy is Associate Professor of English, Associate Director of the MFA in Creative Writing, and Director of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity at Chapman University, USA. She has published widely on creative writing pedagogy, as well as creative non-fiction and poetry. She is the editor of TAB: The Journal of Poetry & Poetics.

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Power and Identity in the Creative Writing Classroom

The Authority Project

By Anna Leahy

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2005 Anna Leahy
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-85359-846-3

Contents

Acknowledgments, 
Foreword Anna Leahy, 
Part 1: Understanding the Larger Influences, 
1 Personal Therapeutic Writing vs. Literary Writing Nancy Kuhl, 
2 Who Cares – and How: The Value and Cost of Nurturing Anna Leahy, 
3 Inspiration, Creativity, and Crisis: The Romantic Myth of the Writer Meets the Contemporary Classroom Brent Royster, 
4 Reinventing Writing Classrooms: The Combination of Creating and Composing Evie Yoder Miller, 
5 The Double Bind and Stumbling Blocks: A Case Study as an Argument for Authority-conscious Pedagogy Carl Vandermeulen, 
Part 2: The Teacher's Place, Voice, and Style, 
6 Teaching and Evaluation: Why Bother? Mary Cantrell, 
7 Who's the Teacher?: From Student to Mentor Audrey Petty, 
8 The Pregnant Muse: Assumptions, Authority, and Accessibility Rachel Hall, 
9 Dismantling Authority: Teaching What We Do Not Know Katharine Haake, 
Part 3: Course Design, 
10 Contracts, Radical Revision, Portfolios, and the Risks of Writing Wendy Bishop, 
11 An 'A' for Effort: How Grading Policies Shape Courses Suzanne Greenberg, 
12 Gender and Authorship: How Assumptions Shape Perceptions and Pedagogies Susan Hubbard, 
13 Writing the Community: Service Learning in Creative Writing Argie Manolis, 
Part 4: In the Classroom, 
14 Where Do You Want Me To Sit?: Defining Authority through Metaphor Cathy Day, 
15 Duck, Duck, Turkey: Using Encouragement To Structure Workshop Assignments Mary Swander, 
16 How To Avoid Workshop Dilemmas: The Use of Myth To Teach Writerly Concepts Amy Sage Webb, 
17 Writing in the Shadows: Topics, Models, and Audiences that Focus on Language Sandy Feinstein, 
Afterword The Reason It Is; the Rhyme It Isn't Graeme Harper and Stephanie Vanderslice, 
About the Authors, 

CHAPTER 1

Personal Therapeutic Writing vs. Literary Writing

NANCY KUHL

Lately, I can't help but notice the relationship between writing and psychotherapy in American popular culture – it's everywhere. Take, for instance, Moulin Rouge, a recent film musical that is a wacky postmodern version of the back stage musicals of the 1930s, a la Busby Berkely and Ruby Keeler. The film opens with Christian, a young writer played by Ewan McGregor, weeping over his typewriter. He is about to write the story of his true love, a dancer named Satine (played by Nicole Kidman), whose untimely death has left him utterly grief stricken. The story unfolds as Christian writes of their meeting and falling in love, of the obstacles they faced together, and ultimately of Satine's death. When the film returns to this frame at its close, Christian's grief has been transformed into a bittersweetness. The film implies that, for Christian, writing his story has been a kind of solitary talking cure. He has gotten his grief off his chest, and now he can begin to move on with his life.

Another example of this popular connection between writing and psychotherapy is HBO's thirty-something-single-girl-sex-comedy Sex in the City. Carrie, the main character, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, writes a newspaper column about the sexual trials and tribulations of Manhattan party girls. The column, which is used to structure each episode around a particular topic or question ('Are all men freaks?' Carrie asks in one episode), provides a way for Carrie to sort out her boyfriend troubles, examine her life's goals and choices, and evaluate her feelings about various sexual-political issues. Carrie's column (and the show) is a kind of diary – a place where Carrie can work through difficult times and personal problems.

The idea that writing is primarily a means of self-expression, as opposed to a craft or a creative discipline, has been widely held by members of my classes and, for a variety of reasons, it has created challenges for me as a teacher. Not the least of these challenges has been to my authority in the classroom, as both a teacher and a writer. Because I promote writing as a matter of craft and skill with language and because I challenge the idea that writing is primarily a means of exploring one's psyche, I find myself in conflict with popular images and with the vast marketplace of goods that support that very idea.

As a young woman teaching writing in academic and non-academic environments, I've faced various challenges to my authority. I've had students suggest that, because I am younger than they are, I am not qualified to teach them. I've even had a student physically intimidate me. Those challenges to my authority were difficult to address, but I always felt that I could prove myself and refuse to be intimidated simply by doing a good job teaching the course. The challenges to my authority that I've faced as a result of the popular relationship between writing and self-discovery have been significantly more difficult to overcome. The marketing of this idea has been so convincing, and the commodification of the artistic process so undermines the reality of that process, that I sometimes have found it nearly impossible to have meaningful classroom interactions with students heavily invested in the popular mythologies dealing with writing and creativity.

I do not disagree or take issue with the idea that writing can help one work through difficult personal problems, or even with the idea that good literary writing can rise out of exploratory personal writing. Articles with titles like 'Expressive Writing and Coping with Job Loss,' 'Prison Poetry: A Medium for Growth and Change,' 'Postmodernism, Spirituality, and the Creative Writing Process: Implications for Social Work Practice,' and 'Establishing a Creative Writing Program as an Adjunct to Vocational Therapy in a Community Setting' indicate that writing can indeed have a positive therapeutic effect for the writer. There is even a periodical entitled The Journal of Poetry Therapy, devoted to the discussion of a therapeutic writing method. Clearly, writing is a great way for many to deal with difficulties in their lives and gain helpful insight into their emotions and experiences.

Private journal and diary writing, however, differs dramatically from literary writing. While I am glad that many find comfort and insight through the writing process, solace and self-discovery cannot be the goals of a productive literary creative writing workshop, which has become the dominant classroom teaching practice for creative writing in the United States. Generally, private writing is an end in itself. In other words, if consolation is one's goal, and the process of writing produces a feeling of consolation, the written product is somewhat beside the point; its quality as literature, at least, is really not at issue.

By contrast, the work of a literary writing workshop – where participants share work with the group, then listen silently as group members discuss the merits and weaknesses of the piece, and then revise the written product – even one that pays close attention to process, takes as its goal the production of literary writing. Therefore, the class must concentrate not primarily on the writer's feelings, but on craft, style, narrative conventions, and other elements of writing for an audience. The public writing produced in workshops can begin where private writing leaves off, but often work...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1853598461
• ISBN 13: 9781853598463
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240
• Herausgeber: Leahy Anna
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar