Wandor has written the first history of creative writing in the UK, analyzing its complex relationship with English and literary theory. Erudite and provocative, the book presents a searching critique of creative writing pedagogy, arguing for new approaches. Indispensable for teachers, students and everyone concerned with the future of literature.
Introduction: Creative Writing: A success story
First Histories: Creative writing as cultural and educational intervention
Autodidacticism and the Politics of Literacy
Walking with Swinburne: English at Oxbridge
Watching the Elephants; Creative writing in America
From Belle-lettres to Literary Criticism
Secular Intellectuals after World War II
Textual Politics in English Studies after World War II
Creative Writing Professionalised: Summary the Story so Far
Play and Pegagogy: Creativity and Creative Writing
Creative Writing: A Literature of its Own
Household Tips and Recipe Books
The Workshop and the Emperor's Clothes
Comparative Approaches: Art School and Conservatoire
Literary Criticism: Value-Judgements and Creative Writing
Composition and Creative Writing: US Critiques
Reconceiving Creative Writing: the Author is Not Dead, Merely in Some Other Text
From Criticism to Theory and On
Reconceiving Creative Writing: The Materiality of Imaginative Writing
Literacy, Writing and Textuality
From Elephants to Kangaroos: Prose Fiction
Writing Drama
Poetry and Form
The Core Genres: Pedagogy
Imaginative Writing: Summary and the Future
Epilogue.
