-The New Yorker
My news item post is about an article in The New Yorker called “Show or Tell”. I’m not sure this is technically “news” per se, but it is definitely a valuable read for anyone who plans to take a workshop in the MFA program. I’d argue that it is worth reading for MA students as well, considering the conversation on the teachability of creativity (ie The Unteachable Dark).
To summarize: Menand poses the question “Should creative writing be taught?” Not exactly a new question, but absolutely a pertinent one. He traces the lineage and growth of MFA programs from the 1960’s and essentially shows that although writing programs seem self-serving, they give writers a context and exposure to their audience. This is a good article for anyone who isn’t exactly sure what they are trying to get out of their MFA/MA experience and I think it addresses “The Unteachable Dark” issue quite nicely.
I have spoken to a few other MFA students in the program about this in various forms, but basically I think we are here more for the exposure to each other rather than the exposure to specific material in the classroom – which opens up some interesting conversation on the way we view/approach Freshman writing.
Below are some notable excerpts. Enjoy!
“Workshop protocol requires the instructor to shepherd the discussion, not to lead it, and in any case the instructor is either a product of the same process—a person with an academic degree in creative writing—or a successful writer who has had no training as a teacher of anything, and who is probably grimly or jovially skeptical of the premise on which the whole enterprise is based: that creative writing is something that can be taught.”
“Academic creative-writing programs are, as McGurl puts it, examples of ‘the institutionalization of anti-institutionality.’ That’s why institutions love them. They are the outside contained on the inside.”
“University creative-writing courses situate writers in the world that most of their readers inhabit—the world of mass higher education and the white-collar workplace.”
On Revision: “It’s a method that generates copy for a class to chew on, but writing that way is like throwing a lot of bricks on a pile and then being asked to organize them into a house. Surely the goal should be to get people to learn to think while they’re writing, not after they have written.”