Creative Writing: Innovation and Experiment
MA/PgDip
School - School of Arts & Media
Subject area - English and Creative Writing
Start Dates(s): September
Duration:
MA (one year full-time or up to three years part-time)
PgDip (eight months full-time or two years part-time)
Fees:
Part-time - £1,260 per 30 credit module
UK - £7,560
International - £13,860
In Brief:
- Learn from internationally published and performed award winning writers
- Develop a highly-innovative approach to creative writing
- Work in a vibrant location that nurtures your creative development
- Part-time study option
Course Summary
Our course encourages you to develop and work at the edge of new and evolving practices. You will be invited to engage with fundamental issues in the theory of literature, producing original creative writing in prose, poetry, hybrid and experimental forms as you develop your personal practice through critical reflection.
The course will be of particular interest if you are a writer of prose or poetry, but you will not be required to commit to either form and will have the opportunity to work in other forms if you wish.
You may also be interested in taking individual modules from the course syllabus on a pay-as-you-go basis. This way you could either build up to gaining the full qualification or study for your own enjoyment and/or professional development.
"I found the theory elements of the course particularly useful because they challenged me to think critically about my creativity. It helped me look at my writing not just as an artist but as an academic, and engagement with theoretical material gave me a better understanding of my own ideas. These improvements were especially apparent in the Theory, Text, & Writing module, where our assessment allowed us to respond to theory through a piece of creative work— in prose, poetry, script, etc.
The scope of creative form was vast, making me feel the academic underpinning wasn’t limiting my ability to be creative. What’s more, I was introduced to thinkers whose work helped me to flesh out my own ideas. By the end of the course, I found that my creative work was underpinning theory effortlessly, not because it needed to in order to fulfil an academic “requirement,” but because literary theory actually enhanced the quality of my work. So I can say that the creative engagement with theory on this course improves you not just as an academic, but as a writer. I don’t think I could go back to writing whatever came out of my brain without wanting to understand what the literary canon has to say about it.
I’ve learned that to improve as a writer, I have to engage in the literary community, and the theoretical side of that journey is so necessary. Luckily, the staff at Salford recognise that and have shaped the course accordingly!”
Christina Sims, MA graduate 2016-2017, now working as a Salford University Wordscope tutor
Course Details
MA Creative Writing: Innovation and Experiment offers you the opportunity to develop your writing and to challenge your creative habits. You will be invited to:
- Engage with fundamental issues in the theory of literature
- Produce original creative writing in prose, poetry, hybrid and experimental forms
- Develop an ongoing personal practice through reflection on creative achievement and speculation on future development.
Full-time
Trimester 1
You will explore the role of theory in creative writing – engaging with fundamental issues that have influenced the development of innovative and experimental writing. You will engage with the rich legacy of experimental writing from the 1950s onwards, learning about its links to theory. You will be encouraged to try out your own experiments and to push the boundaries of your creative practice in an adventurous way.
A series of lecture and seminars on philosophical contributions to major questions surrounding contemporary writing:
- What is a literary text?
- What is the relationship between language and writing?
- How can one write politically?
- How does one’s awareness of gender affect writing?
We will be reading the work of Freud, Marx, Derrida and others, examining how a wide variety of contemporary writers have explored these questions in creative practice including Charles Bernstein, Caroline Bergvall, David Eggers, Christine Brooke-Rose and many more.
With
- Technologies of the book
- Visual, sound and concrete poetry
- The use of mathematical rules and constraints in writing
- An introduction to new writing technologies including: hypertext, Photoshop, flash and web or CD/DVD
- The Novel as hypertext and narrative engineering
Study Experimental Practice as a single module.
If you do not wish to continue onto the Postgraduate Diploma or full Masters qualification you can be awarded the Postgraduate Certificate if leaving the course at this stage.
Trimester 2
You will be writing your own original work in a stimulating and supportive workshop environment, continuing to draw on fundamental issues relating to innovative creative writing, and reflecting on how your social, political and gender positioning influences your creative production. You will continue to develop and extend the boundaries of your creative practice and will also receive training in how to conduct yourself as a professional writer in the academic and cultural worlds.
- The public value of the arts
- Marketing, publishing and networking
- Writing a research proposal
- Effective oral presentations
Study Literature in the Academic and Cultural World as a single module.
With
You will undertake a series of workshops in which you share your own creative projects with fellow students and a writing tutor. Work will be submitted regularly in advance to the group and the tutor, who will make detailed preparation for the workshops including annotated material. This workshop provides a context for an on-going creative exploration of how theoretical ideas can influence and inform creative practice.
If you do not wish to continue onto the dissertation project you can be awarded the Postgraduate Diploma if leaving the course at this stage.
Trimester 3
As the culmination of this course of study, you will undertake an ambitious, large-scale independent creative project which will allow you to pursue the creative questions which fascinate you in more detail.
Part-time
Year 1, Trimester 1
- Theory, Text, Writing (30 credits)
Year 1, Trimester 2
- Writing Workshop (30 Credits)
Year 2, Trimester 1
- Experimental Practice (30 credits)
Year 2, Trimester 2
- Literary Research Practice (30 credits)
Year 3, Trimesters 1 and 2
- Dissertation: Creative Project (60 Credits)