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50307 Ficto-Critical Writing

UTS: Communication: Cultural Studies
Credit points: 8 cp
Result Type: Grade, no marks

Requisite(s): 50123 Narrative Writing OR 50243 Narrative Writing

Handbook description

Ficto-criticism deforms the limits of literary genres, working both within and beyond them. Post-romantic in conception, it is driven less by the individual imagination and more by the material and attitudes thrown up by the writer's encounter with everyday political emergencies. At its simplest, it makes a persuasive argument while telling an engaging story; at its most complex, it is a surrealist montage of different styles and media. Ficto-criticism can label a wide variety of styles – the renaissance tradition of the essay (from Montaigne to Barthes); the new journalism of Joan Didion; the travelling philosophy of Alphonso Lingis; and the hallucinatory ethnographies of Mick Taussig.

Subject objectives/outcomes

Ficto-critical writing aims to develop students' intellectual and writing skills together. Students will aim to develop arguments in narrative frameworks, to workshop particular techniques such as montage, characterisation, and discontinuous narrative. Students will develop their reading and critical skills through the classroom discussion of samples of ficto-critical writing.

The aim of this subject is to develop the original ideas in each of the workshopped pieces and to develop the skills while effectively responding to shifts in the material as they occur through the semester.

At the completion of this subject, students are expected to:

  1. have demonstrated creative, imaginative and fluent practises as writers
  2. have developed their self-reflective critical and editing skills
  3. have gained an insight into their own writing habits
  4. have honed their skills in analysing the writing of others
  5. possess a greater appreciation of the short story
  6. have a clear understanding of the limits and possibilities of the ficto-critical text, of where it differs from other prose forms, and of the range of structures it can accommodate.

Contribution to graduate profile

This subject:

  • enhances specific skills in writing
  • develops a knowledge of a specific genre of writing in relation to other genres
  • encourages a practical understanding of cultural and political debates
  • enhances critical and creative thought in relation to contemporary writing.

Teaching and learning strategies

The weeks will include a lecture, film or excursion focussed upon a particular site or idea. This will be followed by a discussion of the week's topic and weeks reading and will usually be followed in turn by writing exercises either in the tutorial or as take-home assignments.

Students will be asked to work on two major pieces of writing. The first will be workshopped through the class in weeks 5 and 7 and the second is to be completed as a single short essay. The third assessment is a journal response to four different weeks of the subject (excluding workshopping weeks) along with a five-minute verbal overview of the course. All writing submitted must be original pieces, written specifically in the context of this class. All students will also be expected to participate in all discussions.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: Fictocritical Work - Local Consumption

Objective(s): a, b, c
Weighting: 50%
Length: 2000-3000 words
Task: Taking 'Local Consumption' as your working title, compose a 2000-3000 word (video, music etc) piece that responds to the ideas of consumption and local. Drafts of this work will be workshopped in weeks 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Assessment criteria:
  • At least one workshop of submitted work is required
  • Completion and revision of work according to advice and recommendation from workshop session
  • Inventiveness and originality of concept of 'local consumption'
  • Writing style and expression reflective and inventive of site of 'local consumption' as you have defined it.

Assessment item 2: Fictocritical Essay: Sensing Selves

Objective(s): b, c, d
Weighting: 30%
Length: 1000-1500 words
Task: Write a fictocritical essay on the topic 'Sensing Selves'. You are able to define, redefine , cut-up or pervert this title as long as doing so reflects a knowledge and appreciation of the history and cultural meanings of the idea of 'the senses' and 'the self'. Drafts of this work will be workshopped in weeks 10, 11, 12, 13.
Assessment criteria:
  • Writing style and expression reflective and inventive of your response to 'Sensing Selves' as you have chosen to understand this topic.
  • Demonstration of original research
  • Capacity to synthesise ideas and display that synthesis through appropriate writing styles.

Assessment item 3: Present a Verbal Overview of and Hand in Journal of Responses to Four Different Weeks

Objective(s): b, c, d
Weighting: 20%
Length: 300 words for each response to four readings
Task: In the final week students are to deliver a five minute verbal overview of their various responses to four readings from different weeks of the semester. These written responses much each be 300 words long.
Assessment criteria:
  • Clarity of responses
  • Originality of responsiveness within class time limits
  • Written display of critical/creative intelligence.

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g., illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Attendance is particularly important in this subject because it is based on a collaborative approach which involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas. Students who attend fewer than ten classes are advised that their final work will not be assessed and that they are likely to fail the subject.

Indicative references

Ficto-critical e-readings

All writing students are expected to read widely in fiction and non-fiction