From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bold tata bungi fiction, poetry, or
non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal
professional,
journalistic,
academic, and
technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include
novels,
epics,
short stories, and
poems. Writing for the screen and stage,
screenwriting and
playwriting respectively, typically have their own programs of study, but fit under the creative writing category as well.
Overview
Somewhere in the educational scheme there must be
encouragement for the dreams and imaginings of youth. The student must
be permitted emotional expression in order that he may be taught to
discipline his emotions. His shy fancies must be drawn out of him for
the good of his soul.
[1]
Creative writing can technically be considered any writing of
original composition. In this sense creative writing is a more contemporary and process-oriented name for what has been traditionally called
literature, including the variety of its
genres. The practice of "professional
writing" is not excluded from creative writing — one can be doing both in the same action. In her work,
Foundations of Creativity,
Mary Lee Marksberry references
Paul Witty and
Lou LaBrant’s
Teaching the People's Language to define creative writing. Marksberry notes:
| “ |
Witty and
LaBrant…[say creative writing] is a composition of any type of writing
at any time primarily in the service of such needs as
- the need for keeping records of significant experience,
- the need for sharing experience with an interested group, and
- the need for free individual expression which contributes to mental and physical health.[2]
|
” |
Creative writing in academia
Unlike its academic counterpart of writing classes that teach students to compose work based on the rules of the
language, creative writing is believed to focus on students’ self-expression.
[3] While creative writing as an educational subject is often available at some stages, if not throughout,
K–12 education, perhaps the most refined form of creative writing as an educational focus is in
universities. Following a reworking of university education in the
post-war
era, creative writing has progressively gained prominence in the
university setting. With the beginning of formal creative writing
program:
| “ |
For the first
time in the sad and enchanting history of literature, for the first time
in the glorious and dreadful history of the world, the writer was
welcome in the academic place. If the mind could be honored there, why
not the imagination?[4] |
” |
Programs of study
Creative Writing programs are typically available to writers from the
high school level all the way through graduate school. Traditionally
these programs are associated with the English departments in the
respective schools, but this notion has been challenged in recent time
as more creative writing programs have spun off into their own
department. Most Creative Writing degrees for undergraduates in college
are
Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees (BFA).
[citation needed] Some continue to pursue a
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, the terminal degree in the field. At one time rare,
PhD.
programs are becoming more prevalent in the field, as more writers
attempt to bridge the gap between academic study and artistic pursuit.
Creative writers typically decide an emphasis in either fiction or
poetry, and they usually start with short stories or simple poems.
[citation needed]
They then make a schedule based on this emphasis including literature
classes, education classes and workshop classes to strengthen their
skills and techniques. Though they have their own programs of study in
the fields of
film and
theatre,
screenwriting and playwriting have become more popular in creative
writing programs, as creative writing programs attempt to work more
closely with film and theatre programs as well as English programs.
Creative writing students are encouraged to get involved in
extracurricular writing-based activities, such as publishing clubs,
school-based literary magazines or newspapers, writing contests, writing
colonies or conventions, and extended education classes.
Creative writing also takes places outside of formal university or school institutions. For example, writer
Dave Eggers set up the innovative
826 Valencia in San Francisco, where young people write with professional writers. In the UK, the
Arvon Foundation runs week long residential creative writing courses in four historic houses.
In the classroom
Creative writing is usually taught in a
workshop format rather than
seminar
style. In workshops students usually submit original work for peer
critique. Students also format a writing method through the process of
writing and re-writing. Some courses teach the means to exploit or
access latent creativity or more technical issues such as
editing,
structural techniques,
genres, random
idea generating or
writer's block unblocking. Some noted
authors, such as
Michael Chabon,
Kazuo Ishiguro,
Kevin Brockmeier,
Ian McEwan,
Karl Kirchwey,
[5] Rose Tremain and reputed screenwriters, such as
David Benioff,
Darren Star and
Peter Farrelly, have graduated from university creative writing programs.
Controversy in academia
Creative writing is considered by some academics (mostly in the USA) to be an extension of the
English
discipline, even though it is taught around the world in many
languages. The English discipline is traditionally seen as the critical
study of literary forms, not the creation of literary forms. Some
academics see creative writing as a challenge to this tradition. In the
UK and Australia, as well as increasingly in the USA and the rest of the
world, creative writing is considered a discipline in its own right,
not an offshoot of any other discipline.
| “ |
To say that the creative has no part in education is to argue that a university is not universal.[6] |
” |
Those who support creative writing programs either as part or
separate from the English discipline, argue for the academic worth of
the creative writing experience. They argue that creative writing hones
the students’ abilities to clearly express their thoughts. They further
argue that creative writing also entails an in-depth study of literary
terms and mechanisms so they can be applied to the writer’s own work to
foster improvement. These critical analysis skills are further used in
other literary study outside the creative writing sphere. Indeed the
process of creative writing, the crafting of a thought-out and original
piece, is considered by some to be experience in creative
problem solving.
It is also believed by some in the academic sphere that the term "creative writing" can include "creative reading" which is the
reading
of something not typically understood to be a creative piece as though
it were creative. This expanded concept further addresses the idea of
"found" materials being of literary value under a newly assigned
meaning. Examples of this might be product assembly directions being
considered "
found poetry."
Despite the large number of academic creative writing programs
throughout the world, many people argue that creative writing cannot be
taught.
Louis Menand explores the issue in an article for the New Yorker in which he quotes
Kay Boyle,
the director of creative writing program at San Francisco State for
sixteen years, who said, “all creative-writing programs ought to be
abolished by law.”
[7]
Elements of Creative Writing
Forms of creative writing
See also
Further reading
References
- ^ Johnson,
Burges and Syracuse University. "Creative Writing"; Inferences Drawn
from an Inquiry Now being Carried on at Syracuse University Under the
Direction of Burges Johnson, Litt.D., and Helene Hartley, Ph.D., into
the Effectiveness of the Teaching of Written Composition in American
Colleges. (Syracuse: Syracuse university, 1934), 7.
- ^ Marksberry, Mary Lee. Foundation of Creativity. Harper's Series on Teaching. (New York ; London: Harper & Row, 1963), 39.
- ^ Johnson, Burges and Syracuse University. "Creative Writing", 3.
- ^ Engle, Paul. "The Writer and the Place." In A Community of Writers: Paul Engle and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, edited by Robert Dana, 2(Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1999).
- ^ JOHN SWANSBURG (April 29, 2001). "At Yale, Lessons in Writing and in Life". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
"Karl Kirchwey, who graduated from Yale in 1979, recently became the
director of creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, after having run the
Unterberg Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y for over a decade."
- ^ Engle, Paul. "The Writer and the Place," 3.
- ^ "Show or Tell - Should Creative Writing be Taught?" by Louis Menand - The New Yorker, June 8, 2009, Newyorker.com
- ^ The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing from Harvard University Press
External links
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