Creative Writing as a Situated Practice

Abstract

In this thesis I examine how students who practice creative writing use their awareness of their own personal identity to write responsibly. Based in an academic foundation of concepts such as creativity, situated knowledge, socio-identities and personal identity, writing the other, and political art I conceptualise situated creative writing. Using semi-structured interviews, I interviewed five students who practice creative writing to examine how they put situated creative writing into practice. The participants shared a creative work which provided a contextual basis for the interview. In the analysis of the interviews I looked at 4 elements: personal identity, audience awareness, depicting others, and political themes. From the interviews I conclude that the participants use their awareness of their personal identity to write responsibly. They do so by using their personal experiences to inform their creative work, and by demonstrating awareness that depicting individual experiences can carry a political relevance, thus demonstrating the potential of situated creative writing.