Sarah Mann-O'Donnell

artist, philosopher, educator

GEP/CRW 7170

Critical Creative Writing

 

Simultaneously a writing and literature course, Critical Creative Writing bridges several disciplines in order to foster new ways of thinking and writing. The aim of the course is to explore specific themes through first academic and then poetic writing, resulting in a hybrid piece that offers an argument in poetic form. To accomplish this goal, the class works with three themes (beginning, loss and desire), exploring each one through art, literature, theory, history and pop culture. On the first pass through these themes, students formulate positions to write a short academic piece on each one. After regrouping, they revisit each theme, exploring them creatively in poetry, memoir or experimental prose form, working with voice, definition, citation, repetition and narrative to make their argument perform itself. Students will learn to sharpen their argument skills, expand their capacity for expression, and move critically and creatively between diverse texts. Beyond developing these skills, the class will explore ways in which its themes of beginning, loss and desire are themselves implicated in the

 

process of writing (so: how does critical writing

sustain or elevate processes of loss? How does writing parallel the work of mourning?).

 

Please note that Critical/Creative Writing is not a beginner-level course; you should feel confident either with academic or creative writing to enroll.

 

 

Reading: The compiled course reader is the only book that you must purchase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1/24 Introduction

 

1/31 Critical/academic writing workshop

 

All academic writing handouts
Oscar Wilde, “The Critic as Artist.”

Due next week: Definition of “critical”

Cycle 1: Formulating a critical position

2/07 Beginnings

Dir. Christopher Nolan, Memento
Hegel, “Introduction” and “I. Sense-Certainty” of Phenomenology
Avital Ronell, The Test Drive, p. 31-42.
Elizabeth Grosz on the beginning of Freudian development as steeped in loss
Due next week: Beginning thesis and abstract

2/14 Loss

Rudyard Kipling “They”
Sarah Ruhl, Eurydice
Freud, “Mourning and Melancholia”
David Eng and David Kazanjian, “Introduction” to Loss
Avital Ronell, The Test Drive p. 63-71
Due next week: Loss thesis and abstract

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2/21 Desire (pleasure, un-completion)

 

Marilyn Hacker, Love, Death and the Changing of the Seasons
Elizabeth Grosz on Lacan’s metonymic desire

Due next week: Desire thesis and abstract

 

Cycle 2: Working your position creatively

 

2/28 Creative writing workshop

 

Della Pollock, “Performing Writing”
Neil Bartlett, Who Was That Man
Cherrie Moraga, “La Guera,” and “A Long Line of Vendidas,”) p. 109-120 in Loving In the War Years

Due next week: 500 + wd piece explaining what language you need to tap into to further develop one of your theses (following Moraga).

 

3/06 Creative beginnings

 

Peggy Phelan, “Untimely”

Nietzsche, Preface to Human, All Too Human

Due next week: creative reworking for beginning

 

con't

3/13 Creative loss

 

Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, p. 7-23
James Merrill, “Prose of Departure”

Due next week: creative reworking for loss

 

NO CLASS 3/20!!

 

3/27 Creative desire

 

Monique Wittig, The Lesbian Body

Due next week: creative reworking for desire

 

Cycle 3: Writing reflexively

 

4/03 Writing as beginning

 

Johanna Drucker, “Writing History: Mine,” “Writing as Inscription”

Other TBA

 

4/10 Writing as loss

 

Richard Stamelman, “The Representation of Loss” in Lost Beyond Telling
Peggy Phelan, Introduction, Ch. 7, Afterward in Unmarked

 

 

 

4/17 Writing as desire

 

Carol Mavor, “Touching Netherplaces” and “Conclusion” in Pleasures Taken
Other TBA

 

4/24 Individual meetings

 

Final piece due May 12; May 5 for graduating students