Recreative Writing and Textual Transformation

Creativity and Criticism

In this course, Dr Thomas Karshan explores the history of the practice of creative rewriting and criticism. In the first lecture, we discuss the prevalence of creative rewriting on A-Level syllabi. In the second, we explore the history of creative and critical practice in the twentieth century. In the third, we consider the Renaissance humanist pedagogical practice of imitation. Next, we look at modernist practices of imitation, specifically through Virginia Woolf’s speech “How to Read a Book” (1926). In the fifth, we discuss the differences between various historical practices that could be considered rewriting, from Homer’s Odyssey to Derek Walcott’s Omeros (1990). We conclude in the sixth by considering theoretical implications and questions relevant to the practice of creative rewriting.

Recreative Writing and Textual Transformation

In this lecture, we discuss the prevalence of recreative writing on A-Level syllabi, focusing on: (i) assignments from OCR, Edexcel, and AQA that involve creative rewriting and (ii) common misconceptions around creative text transformation.