106-452 Thinking Writing

Usually admission to fourth year honours in creative writing or the postgraduate certificate or diploma or honours in English.

In this subject, we will examine several recent theoretical discussions of writing, introducing the broad concepts of the major schools of philosophy interested in writing, including structuralism, phenomenology, deconstruction and psychoanalysis. Students will encounter, through close reading of texts, the issues that make the philosophy of writing critical to theorising culture. In workshops, we will examine the elements identified by these theorists of language and writing as critical to its production, and we will apply these insights to writing and reading tasks of our own. Workshop topics may include: metaphors and models, concepts, percepts and affects, myth and narrative, the distinction between fact and fiction, the association of ideas, argument and rhetorical force, genre and what is a discourse?

A 2500 word critical discussion 50% (due mid-semester), and a 2500 word creative piece 50% (due at the end of the semester). Students will be required to give a 10 minute class presentation in order to present work for assessment in this subject.

A subject reader will be available for purchase from the University Bookshop