Creative and Critical Writing: The Hybridised Nature of a Networked Theory

Abstract

Creative and Critical Writing is a degree available at the University of Sussex. It encourages students to adopt a writerly posture in regards to the originary thinkers that are responsible for the contemporary manifestations of theory today. At the core of this degree are thinkers such as Freud, Derrida and Marx, as well as broader theoretical concepts such as Postcolonialism, Utopia and New Historicism. All the while, the student is encouraged to engage in the wealth of theoretical content as a creative writer. Armed with a framework with an unfettered speculative gaze, the conceptual space in which these works are formulated mark the potential trajectory of the future of theoretical inquiry. This paper will make the case for the emergence of Creative and Critical Writing as a hybrid praxis. For the purpose of this article I will concentrate on the reinvigoration of Marx’s works via the poetry and academic writings of Keston Sutherland – Professor of poetics at the University of Sussex. The landscape of theory and literature today suggests that Creative Writing is increasingly looking like the readily available and profitable alternative to these courses. Creative and Critical Writing is somewhat resistant to this and is also respondent to a wider transatlantic reaction to contemporary market and ideological forces. Hence the title of this paper, Creative and Critical Writing as a ‘networked’ theory as it is an example of the intersections and convergences that constitutes the hybrid theory and praxis contained within one unique conceptual space.