by Andrew Cowan (Author)
The
rise of Creative Writing has been accompanied from the start by two
questions: can it be taught, and should it be taught? This scepticism is
sometimes shared even by those who teach it, who often find themselves
split between two contradictory identities: the artistic and the
academic. Against Creative Writing
explores the difference between ‘writing’, which is what writers do,
and Creative Writing, which is the instrumentalisation of what writers
do.
Beginning with the question of
whether writing can or ought to be taught, it looks in turn at the
justifications for BA, MA, and PhD courses, and concludes with the
divided role of the writer who teaches. It argues in favour of Creative
Writing as a form of hands-on literary education at undergraduate level
and a form of literary apprenticeship at graduate level, especially in
widening access to new voices. It argues against those forms of Creative
Writing that lose sight of literary values – as seen in the
proliferation of curricular couplings with non-literary subjects, or the
increasing emphasis on developing skills for future employment.
Against Creative Writing,
written by a writer, is addressed to other writers, inside or outside
the academy, at undergraduate or graduate level, whether ‘creative’ or
‘critical’.
