Crossing Borders: Between Fact and Fiction

Building upon units Impossible Worlds, Writing from the Edge and Script and Screen, this unit focuses on the uneasy parallels and sometimes arbitrary boundaries between fiction and non-fiction in a variety of forms. Students are asked to interrogate the interconnectedness of these apparently distinct genres from a theoretical and creative perspective in either narrative (fiction and non-fiction) or scriptwriting formats (documentary or feature film), and to familiarise themselves with the generic conventions and contemporary and critical debates surrounding this form. By interrogating key texts in this field, students will critically reflect on the implications of writing in a global environment. Students will also be asked to commentate and critically review how writers of marginal ethnicities, class, gender and sexual identities have interrogated canonical ideas about creative writing. Crossing Borders asks students to work together to design an e-book and accompanying book launch to showcase students’ writing work. This unit will encourage students to position their writing within a wider discourse, and to commentate on their own and others' creative writing through a theoretical lens.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Analyse and critique contemporary theoretical and cultural ideas related to creative writing;
2. Exemplify critical and theoretical ideas through composition of creative works;
3. Evaluate and reflect on professional and creative writing texts through a theoretical lens;
4. Appraise the application of a major area of theory to writing practice;