Abstract
This paper addresses the topic of creative writing and failure in terms of the historically embedded vocational rationales of creative writing pedagogy. It proposes that failure is fundamental to creative writing as an educational method and teaching formation, but not for the reasons suggested by its historians or detractors. Creative writing is not a failed form of vocational training for professional literary careers; rather, it is a form of general literary education in which the figure of ‘failure’ has, at times, played a key pedagogic role in forming personalities. It reviews the emergence of a distinctly modern conception of the literary artist in Romantic aesthetics as an ‘ethical exemplar’, and traces the annexation of this idea by the first generation of university creative writing educators.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | The Minding The Gap: Writing across thresholds and fault lines papersthe refereed proceedings of the 19th conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs, 2014 |
| Editors | Gail Pittaway, Alex Lodge, Lisa Smithies |
| Place of Publication | Australia |
| Publisher | The Australiasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP) |
| Pages | 1-14 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780980757385 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
| Event | Minding the Gap -Writing across thresholds and fault lines: 19th Australasian Association of Writing Programs Conference - Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand Duration: 30 Nov 2014 → 2 Dec 2014 http://www.aawp.org.au/annual-conference/19th-annual-conference/ |
Conference
| Conference | Minding the Gap -Writing across thresholds and fault lines |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | AAWP2014 |
| Country/Territory | New Zealand |
| City | Wellington |
| Period | 30/11/14 → 2/12/14 |
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