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eview
undergraduate provision.The strength
of creative writing within the academy
derives from its popularity with
students and its capacity to recruit.
Thus the agenda for creative writing
has been driven by considerations
which are primarily pedagogical in
nature: innovations in teaching and
workshop-based practice have been
the main focus of the discipline.The
research agenda is less clear, or has yet
to be fully established in certain
aspects.This is especially the case at
doctoral level, where the balance of
theory and practice, and appropriate
benchmarks and methodologies for
assessing both creative artefacts and
research produced by postgraduate
students, have yet to be fully defined.
The main body of the volume
consists of contributions from
individuals based in universities in the
UK, the United States and Australia, all
of whom are both practitioners of
creative writing, and tutors in the
university sector. Using concrete
examples drawn from their own firsthand
experiences as tutors, students of
creative writing, authors, translators and
administrators, the contributors reflect
on their practice, testing the
epistemological validity of their evolving
theories and ideas against their actual
experiences in the classroom and
workshop. The contributors also
consider both the process of creative
writing and the final written artefact,
and in what ways this process sheds
further light on the nature of
composition, the specific formal genres
of the novel and poetry, and
engagement with an already established
literary tradition and canon. All these
considerations are components of the
material pedagogical practice that
enable the students to create a finished
artefact, which must then be assessed
within the formal requirements of the
degree programme.This is not a
straightforward process; it may
engender frequent tensions between
creative and critical practices, and
within departments and institutions,
given that any creative writing
programme must demand a high
degree of personal autonomy and
originality on the part of students. Of
particular interest in the volume,
therefore, are those chapters that
integrate accounts of students
undertaking a formally assessed
creative writing programme and the
perspective they themselves may bring
to the process. Some innovative
approaches are suggested by Nat
Hardy in the chapter “Gonzoformalism:
a creative writing
meta-pedagogy for non-traditional
students”, which also explores the
nature of the student cohort and the
role of the student in the formation of
“theoretical praxis”. Of interest also is
Nessa O’Mahony’s chapter,“That was
the answer: now what was the
question The PhD in Creative and
Critical Writing: a case study”. The
chapter details her experience of
undertaking a Master’s programme and
the ongoing process of creating an
imaginative written piece within the
formal educational contexts of a PhD
programme,“elucidating the process of
writing” while she does so.
While the volume does not pretend
to provide a definitive answer to the
numerous challenges facing those
seeking to embed the discipline further
within higher education, it defines what
those challenges are in a lucid and
readable way, and is recommended for
any tutor and administrator seeking to
define their theoretical practice further
within the field.
Dr Margaret Anne Clarke is an
Associate Senior Lecturer in the
School of Languages and Area
Studies, University of Portsmouth.
Graeme Harper and Jeri Kroll (eds)
(2007)
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
ISBN-13: 978-1-84769-020-3 (hbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-84769-019-7 (pbk)
Liaison magazine • llas.ac.uk •43