As someone who wants to eventually teach creative writing, I would like to compare the three points on the rhetorical triangle (reader-writer-text) with some of the important concepts that emerge in creative writing workshops; furthermore, I feel that these three concepts of authority, diversity, and style apply in teaching students about creative writing.
By authority, I mean that the creative work, be it a story or poem, has a certain air of believability when presented to the reader. This is not to say that genres such as science fiction which bend our perceptions of reality are not acceptable--but it is important that the story create a small universe for itself and offer insights that allow the reader to 'enter' that universe. One important part of authority is obviously being acquainted with your subject. On the other hand, a concept that often emerges from workshops is discrimination, or recognizing that one viewpoint or perspective alone is not always right. Stories or poems written without discrimination are unbelievable because they often alienate the reader. In one poetry workshop I took as an undergraduate, we were encouraged to rewrite our poems from another point of view, which turned out to be an effective strategy in creating an authentic voice.
Another important component of teaching creative writing that I see is diversity, which mostly applies to the writer. This manifests itself many ways in the classroom with the goal of helping students widen their perspectives, stretch their writing abilities, and refine existing pieces. In preparing reading lists for classes, I would like to make sure to include a diverse pool of voices that span gender, ethnicity, genre, and experience. One professor I had made us draw genres for an assignment out of a hat (I got stuck with romance...). As students, we had to stretch beyond our writing comfort zone and approach a story with a new perspective. Diversity can take many forms in a classroom, and I believe that each kind can help students grow as writers.
What I would emphasize about text is a close attention to style. While perhaps more formalist in consideration, work that is grammatically correct, stylistically consistent, and balanced, is more accessible to a reader and reflects well upon the writer. As a student, when presented with a piece of writing for workshop that was clumsily written, I would often be so distracted by correcting errors that I could not comment on things like voice, plot, or character development. Aside from grammatical correctness, I also believe that style includes originality. A professor of mine had us each write down five interesting hook-lines (beginning sentences) for a story. The next class day, we shared our lines and picked one favorite that we all wrote stories from. In each different writers' hands, the line assumed different styles and led to unique places.
Each of these three composition concepts are things I have encountered in my writing workshops and hope to eventually take into a classroom as a teacher. While I may not have all of the different strategies for teaching with authority, diversity, and style in mind yet, I hope to develop my grasp of these concepts. My take on them seems to put me somewhere between the Expressionists and New Rhetoricians in theory.
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3 comments:
I like the idea of re-writing a poem from a different point of view. It seems like that would be an effective way to get students to understand persuasion/rhetoric as well - looking at their own story, or argument, or anything they've written to see holes.
I'm with you on the distractions of poor grammar - I don't think grammar should even have to be part of writing class. It should be a pre-requisite course.
I agree with Kimberly. There are many different strategies with perspectives that can be useful. You might look up Stanley Fish's book Is there a text in this class? He has some good ideas about interpretation and poems in composition courses.
I like your ideas about diversity. In particular, you use diversity in more ways in addition to ethnicity. Indeed, diversity can include students' varied discourses and experiences and aptitudes toward specific genre.
Well developed thinking, Valerie.
I like the concept of drawing from different genres in your creative writing classes. So often, I find the books assigned in creative writing workshops of the same style and similar voice. I'd like to study pieces in a workshop that, like you said, include works from many genres, many ethnicities, many experiences. Also, works that are structured differently -- short stories and flash fiction and novels in a fiction workshops -- long poems and poems in form and crazy experimental free verse in poetry workshops. I guess the more access your students have to different types of literature, the more likely they are to form a widened variety of tastes.
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