Experimental Fiction

Subject 106-238 (2008)

Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2008.Search for this in the current handbookSearch for this in the current handbook

Credit Points: 12.500
Level: Undergraduate
Dates & Locations:

This subject is not offered in 2008.
Time Commitment: Contact Hours: A 2.5-hour workshop per week.
Total Time Commitment: .
Prerequisites: Usually 12.5 points of first year creative writing.
Corequisites: .
Recommended Background Knowledge: .
Non Allowed Subjects: .
Core Participation Requirements: .

Coordinator

Marion M Campbell
Subject Overview:

This subject will supply a forum for radical practice in creative writing, using techniques of parody, pastiche, cut-up, sampling and neoplagiarism‚ (William Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, Cathy Acker); it will take inspiration from narrative developments of the prose poem (Charles Baudelaire, Le Comte de Lautramont, Nicole Brossard), from the fable (Franz Kafka, Jorge Borges, Italo Calvino, Helene Cixous), Metafiction (Nicole Brossard, Italo Calvino, John Barth, Jorge Borges, Robert Coover) the French New‚ Novel (Alain Robbe Grillet, Michel Butor, Claude Simon, Marguerite Duras, Nathalie Sarraute, Monique Wittig), and feminist interventions in ecriture feminine (Helene Cixous, Nicole Brossard, Cathy Acker, Kathleen Mary Fallon, Sari Smith) and from fictocriticism (from Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, Cathy Acker, Nicole Brossard, Stephen Muecke, Sari Smith and Anne Brewster). This subject will put critical practice and writing experimentation in productive friction and will encourage recognition of the ways experimental narrative can (or fails to) critique and subvert dominant cultural regimes, especially those constructed around sexuality, gender, socio-economic class and ethnicity. The maintenance of the Writers' Notebook will be a key component of the subject. This will document critical reading and all materials collected, drafts and exercises in experimental practice.

Assessment: The Writer's Notebook, equivalent to 500 words 10% (due at the end of the semester); a 500-word project proposal 20% (due at the end of week 5); a 3000 word experimental project, developed from the proposal 60% (due at the end of semester); active participation in seminars, including a class presentation 10%.Note:Assessment submitted late without an approved formal extension will be penalised at 2% per day. Students who fail to submit up to 2-weeks after the final due date without a formal extension and/or special consideration will receive a fail grade for the piece of assessment.
Prescribed Texts: A subject reader will be available from the University BookshopA Lover's Discourse: Fragments (Roland Barthes (trans.) Richard Howard), Harmondsworth, Penguin 1977
Recommended Texts:

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Breadth Options:

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.
Fees Information: Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date
Generic Skills:

  • have engaged with critical reading with a view to radical experimentation in narrative possibilities;

  • have extended their repertoire of innovative techniques;

  • recognise the ethical and political effects of specific modes of textual experimentation;

  • have translated a critical perspective on the aesthetics of mainstream Âliterary publishing into highly innovative alternative writing practices;

  • be able to communicate orally to others the concepts explored in their artistic project and engage their interest.
Notes:

This subject is available to Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Creative Arts students and may be credited towards a major in Creative Writing in either course.

Related Course(s): Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts(Media and Communications)
Bachelor of Creative Arts
Bachelor of Creative Arts and Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Creative Arts and Bachelor of Teaching
Diploma in Arts (Creative Writing)
Diploma in Creative Arts
Graduate Certificate in Arts (Creative Writing)
Graduate Certificate in Arts(English Literary Studies)
Graduate Diploma in Arts (Creative Writing)
Graduate Diploma in Arts (English Literature)

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