Hybrid collision

ABSTRACT

This is a piece of new hybrid writing that I created by colliding the two parts – the so-called creative part and the so-called critical part, although both were creative/critical and critical/creative! – of my practice-based PhD in creative writing at Bath Spa University, which took inspiration from particle physics to examine the nature of wholes versus parts. The creative/critical book-length work involves a frame narrative, told in parts, in which a character named Susy is being interviewed by three interviewers, and the texts of this narrative are manipulated, run backwards and then lineated. Interspersed in between these sections are personal essays inspired by films, which were written to wrap around a pre-existing poem (not included in this excerpt), and then the prose was slowly fractured to reveal the hidden poem. There are also three further poems which stand alone. The critical/creative part is written in a fictocritical style, and gives the context for the writing of the creative work, from physics and philosophy to fragments, fractals and literary theory. The excerpt that I collided here with parts of the frame narrative is from the beginning of the thesis, where I attempted to sum up what the entire document would be about in a piece of ‘flash fiction’.

KEYWORDS:

• Hybrid texts
• particle physics
• creative writing
• fictocriticism
• creative/critical

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Tania Hershman is a short story writer and poet living in the north of England. Her debut poetry collection, Terms and Conditions, was published in July 2017 by Nine Arches Press, and her third short story collection, Some Of Us Glow More Than Others, was published in May 2017 by Unthank Books. She is currently completing a practice-based PhD in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Her website is www.taniahershman.com.