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 Dark Path / There and Here
By David Miller with an introduction by Matt Martin.The UK poetry scene has lately become increasingly interested in interdisciplinary modes like creative criticism. The time seems right for a reminder that David Miller has pioneered such practices. The Dark Path meditates on contemporary poet Fanny Howe’s articulation of ‘negative theology’, the tradition of considering the divine in terms of what God is not, rather than what God is. There and Here addresses 19th-century French writer Gérard de Nerval.
You Can’t Say That: The Serious Limits of Literary Studies Creativity
By Tim Lanzensdörfer
A formative moment in my literary studies education, such as it is: a German class in high school, just before graduation, and we’re reading and discussing Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Die Physiker. We’re on the appendix, where Dürrenmatt outlines a theory for the play, which may be a theory of drama as a whole.
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.