Modules for course R1W8 | BA/FRCW
BA French with Creative Writing
QXP-1001: Creative Writing: Prose (20)
This module, compulsory for creative writing students, introduces you to a wide range of creative prose-writing, both fictional and documentary and you will examine creative techniques used in short stories, autobiography, memoir, travel-writing, critical essays/literary reviews and play-scripts. It will include practical sessions in which students will begin to produce their own work in these genres, and group discussion of students' work in progress. We will discuss the ways in which these genres are distinct from one another and yet share certain features and may in fact be merged by deliberate techniques of hybridisation. We will ask such questions as how a writer of fiction handles the transformation of personal experience as compared to the writer of memoirs. Can imaginative, speculative biographies enhance rather than falsify our knowledge of their subjects? How do writers tackle the adaptation of their work from one medium to another? As well as examining, from the practitioner's point of view, texts by leading authors and critics, you will be encouraged to work independently on your own material, helped by writing-exercises and longer-term assignments designed to stimulate ideas and sharpen technique. You will be encouraged to present your work for class discussion and, by receiving and giving feedback in a supportive atmosphere, you will develop your skills as a close reader and an articulate critic.
QXP-1003: Creative Writing: Poetry (20)
This module, compulsory for creative writing students, introduces you to the range of forms available to the poet in the twenty-first century. You will read a variety of poetry and respond through producing your own poems. You will be asked to work in a variety of forms and to justify your reasons for choosing them. The module will demonstrate the ways in which poetry is an art form particularly well suited to expressing the experience of contemporary everyday life. We will also look at connections between poetry and music and the visual arts as well as the impact of digital technologies. Poetry will be presented both in the written and spoken form, and students will be encouraged to consider the performance of poetry both in class and by attending and reviewing recommended evening poetry readings by leading poets. .
QXP-1001: Creative Writing: Prose
QXP-1003: Creative Writing: Poetry
QXP-2001: C/Writing: Poetry & Short Fict (20) (Semester 2)
This double-thin module is designed to help solve the problem that inexperienced writers have of writing in ways that are too abstract and general. You will be set exercises that sharpen dialogue and assist with the depiction of place in fiction, and exercises that demonstrate how images are most effectively evoked in poems. These 'showing' devices will then be placed in context by the use of models that indicate the importance of 'telling', that indicate how scenic devices in fiction are framed by direct authorial intervention, and how images in poems are linked to statements that further define and complicate them. Students are required to attend and review three evening poetry-readings to be given by leading poets during the course.
QXP-2004: Creative Writing: The Novel (20) (Semester 1)
Creative Writing: The Novel will guide you through the ways and means of writing a novel. You will be taught methods of composition and creation of novels, including practical and analytical consideration of novelistic structure and design, viewpoint, voice and role-play, and developing style and tone. It also includes, with reference to the practical application and consideration of these elements, consideration of the variety of forms relevant to the contemporary novel, comparing and contrasting novels, present and past, with other forms of creative writing.
QXP-2005: Transformative Writing (20) (Semester 1)
Some of today's well known works of literature were produced by writers 'writing back' to and transforming certain source materials. Examples include Peter Carey's prize-winning tnrsformation of Dickens' 'Great Expectations' in 'Jack Maggs' (1997), and Gregory Maguire's transformation of Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' in 'Wicked: The Life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West' (1995). This module examines the ideas and chanllenges of transformative writing, how such writing differs from adaptation, and how professional writers have employed it in their works. Students will be introduced to the practice of responding through creative writing, and given the chance to select their own source material (of whatever kind) in order to experiment and 'write back' to it. Students will also have the opportunity to experience and reflect upon the nature of a negotiated writing project through the use of an initial writing contract (in weeks one and two)
QXP-2019: Contemporary Writing (CW) (20) (Semester 2)
UXS-2048: Transmedia Storytelling (20) (Semester 2)
In this module you will investigate storytelling in its various forms, writing through an awareness of critical theory, and creating original work relating to your investigations. You'll develop an awareness of issues (critical and creative) connected with storytelling, and consider the range, type and style of stories (genres, media, perspectives). You will discover how cultural norms and assumptions influence the telling of stories, exploring and applying relevant critical theory from the perspective of a writer, and reveal through your original work the nature of authorship and readership.
QXP-3011: Discovering Cities (20) (Semester 1)
QXP-3025: Fantastic Fictions (20) (Semester 2)
QXP-3093: Experimental Writing (20) (Semester 1)
QXP-3099: Creative Writing Dissertation (40) (Semester 1 + 2)
This module involves the production of an extended piece of creative writing of high quality, with an attached 'criticism in practice' piece, an introduction to the work, and relevant bibliographic and 'creative' references. The focus of the dissertation is the piece of creative writing, which can be undertaken in any genre (after agreement with supervisor) and must be preceeded by a detailed (2 3 page) plan of work to be completed. The critical piece can be in a style similar to that of a critical literature essay, or it can be more focused on creative practice or the contextualisation of that creative practice, and can use the student's own work as one of the reference points, as well as containing references to the work of other writers. The length of the dissertation varies according the genre and is the subject of discussion with the supervisor, but as a guide the total number of words for a prose fiction submission would be between 8,000 and 10,000 words. The deadline for submission of the dissertation is noon on Friday of week ten of semester two.
QXE-3105: Reading Myth (20) (Semester 2)
This module will take as its focus the textual response to inherited mythic structures: how myth may be perceived in theoretical terms as a proairetic discourse; how it establishes affinities with certain genres (e.g. epic, tragedy, romance); and how in more contemporary cultural debates it has been problematised by expectations of falsehood. The seminar programme will range from Ancient Greek representations of myth (e.g. Medea) to medieval accounts of Scripture in dramatic narrative (e.g. Abraham and Isaac) and to varying accounts of saints' lives. In the early modern period attention may be devoted to the changing importance of ancient mythologies in literary narrative. In the more contemporary periods, options will change from year to year, but may include explorations of such pervasive constructs as the Founding of Empire (Kipling, Lessing), The American Dream (Capote, Fitzgerald, Highsmith) and The War on Terror (Buchan, Fleming, and Porter's Empire State).