An Historical Model for Creative-Critical Practice
As Thomas Karshan points out in his essay on teaching through imitation, parody and play, the central aim of the Renaissance schoolroom was to teach boys to speak and write well in Latin.
Creative-Critical Writing on The Tempest at A-Level
Harriet Parks, a teacher at Woodhouse College in Barnet, wanted her students to write in the voice of one of the characters in The Tempest as a form of imaginative, critical exploration of the play. To spur them on, and give them a sense of what was possible and what could be learnt about the play in the process, she wrote a monologue of her own in the voice of Miranda who has now returned to Italy with her father and Ferdinand. She also wrote an accompanying commentary explaining her choices and asked her students to do the same. Her monologue and commentary, as well as the student work, are a wonderful example of how much the creative-critical has to offer...
Daily Themes
In 1979, the celebrated poet, scholar and critic, John Hollander took over the long-standing Daily Themes course at Yale and, drawing on his vast knowledge of literature, turned it into an outstanding example of a module in writing which is founded, in his words, on ‘a set of lessons about how to engage with past literature, past models of writerly practice, about how they teach us to write.’ We offer this course as a brilliant example for teachers wishing to bring together ‘criticism’ and ‘creative writing’, reading and writing – and especially instructive for the way it reflects Hollander’s unusually well-informed understanding of Renaissance teaching practices.
Creative-Critical Writing in Schools
Barbara Bleiman works at the English and Media Centre in London, which supports teachers by providing teaching materials and resources. On these pages you will find links to articles she has published on the EMC webpages about creative-critical modes of teaching,...
Teaching Through Imitation
In Teaching through Imitation you will find an essay by Thomas Karshan on the history, theory, and practice of imitation in relation to his Ludic Literature MA module, an account by Will Rossiter of his use of imitation in his final-year undergraduate module 'The Italian renaissance', and an essay by Tim MacGabhann on the experience of studying literature through imitation.
Place Writing
By Jos Smith of UEA. In Speculative Nature Writing, you’ll find a creative-critical exercise designed by Jos, exploring how historical and personal attitudes to nature are registered in the forms and subgenres of nature writing. In The Poetics of Place, you’ll find an overview of the first half of Jos’s MA module of the same name, giving a sense of how a course on place writing might be structured to draw on both creative and critical ideas.
Reimagining Dostoevsky
Three texts that engage with Dostoevsky through parody and imitation, edited by Nicolas Padamsee. A Notes from the Underground-inspired piece by Peter Bloxham; rewritings of Dostoevsky in the styles of Nabokov and O’Brien by Caitlin Ingham; and a reimagining of The Double in the age of social media by Nicolas Padamsee.
Alice in Wonderland Workshop
Katherine Lockton runs poetry workshops at South Bank Poetry in London, where she has also been editor of poetry since 2011. Drawing on her extensive experience both teaching and writing poetry (with a publication history that includes work in PN Review, Magma,...
A Conversation with the Past: From Sappho to Bashõ
Materials from Tim Dooley's course at the Poetry School. There is still a remarkable split between courses and programmes designed to teach the practice of poetry and those designed to teach its history. This course attempts to do both, simultaneously.