Welcome to Creative Critical
The twenty-first century has seen the erosion of any sharp distinction between the ‘creative’ and the ‘critical’. Can criticism itself aspire to be creative? Does creative writing have a critical force? Or should we dispense with these terms altogether?
Such questions come to the fore as creative writing embeds itself in the academy, demanding fresh thought about the forms and languages of criticism, and new kinds of literature more attentive to their own critical force. This website aims to be a forum for all such forms of writing, thinking, and teaching.
Welcome to Creative Critical
The twenty-first century has seen the erosion of any sharp distinction between the ‘creative’ and the ‘critical’. Can criticism itself aspire to be creative? Does creative writing have a critical force? Or should we dispense with these terms altogether?
Such questions come to the fore as creative writing embeds itself in the academy, demanding fresh thought about the forms and languages of criticism, and new kinds of literature more attentive to their own critical force. This website aims to be a forum for all such forms of writing, thinking, and teaching.
The Function of Criticism at the Present Time
By Robert Hampson. A talk given at the summit event 'On the Creative-Critical' held on 1 June 2019 in Norwich and organised by the University of East Anglia and the Institute of English Studies.
A Little Death
By Vijay Khurana. A Little Death is a parody project in which the author rewrites the same passage of Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ again and again (and again and again), in various styles, in an attempt to reveal the secrets of one of the 20th century’s most influential short stories, while also exploring other writers and forms through the imitation of style.
Found Poem
By Tim MacGabhann. 'Found Poem' is a text that tries to blur the borders between autofiction, the critical essay, and poetry. By examining misquotation and redrafting in detail — with successive drafts of ‘the same poem’ presented as a demonstration of these practices — the text opens itself outwards towards the argument that forgetting and remembering are not opposites, but aesthetic strategies that aid and abet one another.