The short answer: a collection of short stories and an analysis of the use of short fiction in the teaching of creative writing

Mycroft, Jonathan Ian (2020). The short answer: a collection of short stories and an analysis of the use of short fiction in the teaching of creative writing. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis will explore how writers learn and how best to facilitate this learning using short fiction within Creative Writing education. The critical essay will demonstrate how short fiction is a particularly appropriate literary medium for the development of Creative Writing students, and will argue a need for a more formalised language of Creative Writing criticism and for an extension of applied theoretical tools, modelled in this thesis. The study also explores how best to apply flexibility to the curriculum, in order to meet the needs of a perennially diverse student body producing a variety of different works in different styles, and calls for tutors to be more consciously engaged in translating their writing experience into innovative pedagogies.

The associated portfolio of original short fiction has been developed in concert with the study, using techniques and processes detailed within. It aims to demonstrate the overall suitability of the short story form for the development and assessment of student-writers, while charting my own dual development as both a student and teacher of writing.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):