One of the advantages of this kind of writing is that you can put
together fragments of writing, which is something we have been looking at
throughout this book. Any tiny fragment you write can be revitalised
through the generic melting pot!
For Exercise 3 assemble your own mixed-genre piece. Choose a topic
and then start writing fragments. The fragments can be in any genre: you
can traverse the realms of prose and poetry, and draw in non-literary
forms too. Arrange the bits and pieces in any way you like on the page. A
striking visual arrangement can not only increase the impact of the words,
but encourages readers to move over the page in a multidirectional, rather
than purely left-to-right manner.
FICTOCRITICISM
Fictocriticism (see Exercise 4) is a fusion and exchange of critical and cre-
ative writing. Again, therefore, it cross-dresses different types of writing,
a point previously made by Anne Brewster (1996) in her excellent article
on fictocriticism. Fictocriticism, sometimes known as the paraliterary or
postcritical, attempts to bring together academic discourse and creative
practice, and overcome the division between them. Such work is very
important in universities today, where we are undertaking creative writing
within an academic environment. In fact, fictocriticism, which arose
sharply in Australia in the 1990s, was largely a response to the growth of
creative writing teaching and learning within the university environment,
where—as Brewster points out—creative writing is taught in conjunction
with other intellectual disciplines, including subjects about post-struc-
turalist theory (Brewster 1996). In the context of the university, and with
the rise and popularity of creative writing courses, the question has repeat-
edly arisen: how do we bring together the different worlds of learning and
research, and creative work? In fact theory and creative writing usually
address similar intellectual issues, though through different methods. On
the one hand, creative texts often fictionalise philosophical and political
issues, which are in turn theorised by critics. On the other hand, many well-
known theoretical texts engage with creative writing strategies such as
puns, the construction of new words, poetic metaphor, multiple voices or
extensive use of the first person to develop ideas.
Fictocriticism or paraliterature has also arisen because of an increase of
writers who wanted to transmit their own poetics as well as presenting
their creative work. Generic experimentation inevitably led to a breaking
of boundaries between theoretical and creative work. This was true, for
example, of the Language Poets in America. Some of these poets wrote
204 The Writing Experiment