Creative work as scholarly work

ABSTRACT

This article identifies the debate regarding differentiation between creative and exegetical (or scholarly) components in postgraduate research submissions and surveys the 2000-year history of creative-exegetical writing. It marks out a body of work where creative writers themselves explore and direct the theory and analysis of creative writing’s processual activities, suggesting a hybrid form that constitutes a genre in itself – what we call the Creative-Exegetical. In conclusion, the article argues acceptance for the creative work as scholarly work in the creative writing research space. The trigger for this article was provided by Peter Nash, a student at Griffith University, Australia, who in 2018 thought to challenge the status quo by submitting a crime fiction story as a ‘reflective essay’ in an Honours-level research course. Pete had already published stories in TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses which were fictions dealing with aspects of the writing process, and he wanted to go further.

KEYWORDS:

• Creative writing theory
• creative exegesis
• creative-exegetical genre
• Horace Ars Poetica
• poetics
• rhetoric

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Nigel Krauth is Professor and head of the writing program at Griffith University. He has published novels, stories, essays, articles and reviews. His research investigates creative writing processes and the teaching of creative writing. He is the General Editor of TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses. His most recent book is Creative Writing and the Radical (MLM 2016).

Peter Nash completed Honours in creative writing at Griffith University. He has published three creative-exegetical stories in TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses (2017–2018).

Notes

1. The Australian Research Council’s equivalent in the United Kingdom is United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI). Australia’s ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia) is equivalent to the UK’s REF (Research Excellence Framework).

2. Shakespeare’s character Chorus takes his/her name from Ancient Greek theatre where the chorus was the major exegetical element in a play. Amongst other duties, the chorus interpreted action and character thinking for the audience, and regularly provided insight into the dramatist’s intended purposes for the work. The authors of this article acknowledge that the subject of the Greek chorus as exegesis is a fascinating one, but a topic well beyond their expertise.

3. The authors wish to thank Dr Stephanie Green for permission to print her feedback responses.