Module overview
T.S. Eliot is paraphrased as saying: “Good Writers Borrow, Great Writers Steal”. In this module, we will look at how writers steal: how they draw upon other writers for knowledge about craft and for inspiration. We will look at two pairings of creative work, seeing how a contemporary writer responded creatively to a classic book. We will also look at related critical essays by writers about those works. In doing so, we will go backward to examine a writer’s influences; inward to a writer’s own writing; and forward to the writers they have influenced, analysing as we do so ideas of theme, structure, inspirations, and the craft of character, place, and narrative.
While thinking about the symbiotic relationship between these works, you will be creating your own response to the works on the module, first in a series of writing exercises in which you write either creatively or critically about the work we are reading, then in an extended creative piece that is your own response to a classic or current piece of literature. You will analyse that process in a critical essay as well.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Practical Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- have practised working with key elements of fiction and creative non-fiction, e.g. character, viewpoint, plot, dialogue and imagery
- write critical commentaries on your own work
- think critically about your own work including your creative methods and influences
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- consider both creative and critical works by the same author, enhancing your understanding of each
- enhance your understanding of creative work read in modules in Years 1 and 2
- bring an understanding of how writers are influenced by classic and contemporary writers to your reading in other modules
- use the knowledge gained about writing and authorial decisions to deepen ideas in your upcoming BA dissertation, whether a critical or creative writing dissertation
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- give constructive criticism and use constructive criticism to improve your own work
- plan, structure, rewrite and edit your work
- think critically about creative projects
- ability to generate ideas and write creatively on demand
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- the relationships between the critical and creative works of selected fiction and non-fiction writers
- the ways that writers draw upon both pre-existing stories or creative works by others as well as critical thinking in the production of their own work
Syllabus
In this module, you will read contemporary work side by side with the classic book which influenced the new work. Examples of such a pairing might be Vladmir Nabokov’s seminal memoir, Speak, Memory, with a contemporary memoir such as Chernobyl Strawberries, by Vesna Goldsworthy, and Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way with the 2010 novel Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. You will look at both the critical and creative links between them, including the formal aspects and more instinctual aspects to which the contemporary writer responded. You will also look at critical writing by creative writers, such as Nabokov’s Lectures on Literature, to gain further insight into the links between creative and critical thinking.
As you read these works, you will also be responding to them through critical analysis of the crafting of story as well as creative responses, which after a process of development become works in themselves. These responses may feed each other, your “critical” responses informing your “creative" responses, and vice versa. You will be expected to respond both critically and creatively to the work during the semester, which will lead to your assessments: a creative piece of about 3,000 words and an essay of about 1,000 words.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
The teaching whether in lectures, seminars, classes and workshops, will focus on critical analysis of published works, while engaging you in writing exercises aimed at eliciting your creative responses to your reading. You will have opportunities to review your work in small groups and with the tutor. You will be expected to bring drafts of your work to seminars prior to each deadline, and to offer feedback to your fellow students on their work. You will be able to see your seminar tutor in consultation hours and to ask for feedback on work in progress as well as on marked assignments.
We hope that a writer whose work has been highly influenced by a classic book will be invited to speak at one of the lectures.
This module includes a Learning Support Hour. This is a flexible weekly contact hour, designed to support and respond to the particular cohort taking the module from year to year. This hour will include (but not be limited to) activities such as language, theory and research skills classes; group work supervisions; assignment preparation and essay writing guidance; assignment consultations; feedback and feed-forward sessions.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Seminar | 20 |
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 56 |
| Completion of assessment task | 40 |
| Wider reading or practice | 10 |
| Online discussion forums | 4 |
| Follow-up work | 8 |
| Teaching | 12 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Jennifer Egan (2011). A Visit From the Goon Squad. New York: Anchor.
Joan Silber (2009). The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long As It Takes. St. Paul, Minn.: Graywolf Press.
Marcel Proust, translated by Lydia Davis (2003 (1913)). In Search of Lost Time: The Way by Swann's. New York: Penguin.
Vladmir Nabokov (1982). Lectures on Literature. New York: Harcourt.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Creative writing | 75% |
| Critical commentary | 25% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Creative writing | 75% |
| Critical commentary | 25% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External