Writing: Before and Beyond the Image

Subject 106-427 (2009)

Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2009. Search for this in the current handbook

Credit Points: 12.50
Level: 4 (Undergraduate)
Dates & Locations:

This subject is not offered in 2009.
Time Commitment: Contact Hours: A 2-hour seminar per week
Total Time Commitment: 2 contact hours/week , 8 additional hours/week. Total of 10 hours per week.
Prerequisites: Admission to the postgraduate certificate or diploma or fourth year honours in English, creative writing or English language, or admission to Bachelor of Creative Arts (honours).
Corequisites: None
Recommended Background Knowledge: None
Non Allowed Subjects: None
Core Participation Requirements:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability
Subject Overview: This subject is designed to foster innovation and experimentation in the writing of advanced students. It is a 'stand alone' subject but one which should complement the other fourth year writing subject, Contested Sites, in that it extends that interrogation of the limits, ethics and politics of writing. It focuses, in particular, on the paradoxes of 'representation', on its 'impossibility' and engages with a range of theoretical, critical and imaginative texts and practices, which suggest possibilities for writing. While it provides a forum for discussion and a workshop space for trying out new work, it is also a place to experiment, to theorise and to stretch the possibilities for your own practice; to learn, not simply from other writing, but from a whole range of radical practices.
Objectives:
  • understand the generic principles underlying their writing in different modes;
  • be able to respond to detailed criticism, edit, re-shape and re-write;
  • produce folios which demonstrate both the imaginative range and the capacity for sustained development in their writing.
Assessment: Workshop participation 10% and the writer's notebook 10% (due at the end of the semester). All students are required to submit a short review and a draft project proposal (of not more than 500 words including a synopsis, critical reflection and draft extract) for feedback and will be resubmitted in a refined form together with the completed writing project. A writing project of 4500 words including the revised synopsis and critical reflection of 500 words 80% (due at the end of the semester). Students are required to attend a minimum of 75% of classes in order to have their work assessed in this subject.
Prescribed Texts: A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop.
Breadth Options:

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.
Fees Information: Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date
Generic Skills:
  • demonstrate a recognition of the complex political and ethical issues around writing;
  • develop experimental techniques expressive of this awareness;
  • be able to research, develop and edit extended creative projects showing some innovative flair.
Notes: Formerly available as 106-081. Students who have completed 106-081 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.
Related Course(s): Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Arts

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