創意寫作實習
Creative Writing Practicum
| 節 | 週四 |
|---|---|
5 13:20–14:10 | 創意寫作實習 HC401 3 節連堂 |
6 14:20–15:10 | |
7 15:30–16:20 |
* 根據陽明交大上課時間表所列
Each week we will explore creative writing in light of how prevailing conceptual frames and practices are changing due to the advent of AI technologies. The aim of the course is to enable students to develop themselves as aesthetically-engaged writers capable of withstanding the AI revolution and master a foundational awareness of one's self-consciousness so as to use the new tools available in productive and meaningful ways. Creative writing aims at inciting interest in storytelling. Quantity is not as important as quality of written, oral, or digital media presentations. Final projects may range from traditional chapbooks of poetry, short stories or novellas, to new media, including short films (which everyone will produce in the course), sound art recordings or performances (for instance, original live computer-based or acoustic music, including spoken, sung, or sampled language), or dramatic vlogging (whether about Taiwan or a mockumentary of a place as imagined). Though not required, students with interest in visual media arts or sound art and music are especially encouraged to present related (conceptual) art incorporating creative writing elements (or vice versa).
Open to all university students.
The course includes many guided writing assignments of an experimental variety, including the use of various Web pages and even emerging AI technologies such as ChatGPT, Bard, DALL·E, etc. We will include short readings (literary, critical, and theoretical) and performance videos to supplement creative activities. Students may focus on the medium of their own choice (e.g., poetry, fiction, song, performance art, theatrical drama, short film or game production) and adapt assignments to their particular interests (which may expand over the duration of the course). The course provides a venue for cultivating creative work beginning with principles of creative writing and applying them both to existing and new media and genres: poetry, prose poetry, flash fiction, short fiction and novellas, creative nonfiction, experimental hybrid genres, song, performance art, theatrical (live) drama, short films (including interactive), and games (coding). Genres from any linguistic culture or language may be experimented with (for instance, Korean sijo; Japanese tanka, haiku, senryu; English sonnets and sestinas; Persian Ghazals; Chinese forms; slam poetry; and performance poetry of all sorts. Course content may be added to the current schedule in order to meet student interests in specific genres and media.
Grading is based on creative projects, and participation, attendance and mutual critical support are essential to the success of the course and figure into final grades. Projects may be individual or group (max 2 persons/group; pair your skills). Active audience participation in class oral and written critiques of ongoing peer projects: 30% Quizzes on basic concepts and terminology: 10% Grade for in-class assignments/take-home exercises and/or student project sharing: 30% Final project: 30%
| 週次 | 主題 |
|---|---|
| 第 1 週 | Introduction to course. Self-Introductions. Anyone can write: observing language and testing (invented) contexts. Developing dramatic conflicts: the key to success in creative works (suffering to pay witness, to see others' suffering and one's own—and turn them into the "backstory" for your works). Overview of media and genres: poetry, prose poetry, flash fiction, short fiction and novellas, creative nonfiction, experimental hybrid genres, song, performance art, theatrical (live) drama, short films (including interactive), and games (visual interface/light coding). Experimental vlogging (e.g. YouTube video blogging) might also be an option (finding dramatic means of engaging situations in Taiwan in English/bilingual to introduce Taiwan to the world). On keeping a journal (recording observations, passing thoughts, and fragments from readings and life experiences) and engaging the world. Be naïve and engage the world around you with fresh sensibilities. Photography and sound recording may be helpful both in helping to capture details for rendering in linguistic form and in direct use as edited into final multimedia projects. The importance of reading other writers and artists in the genre/media of most interest and as widely as possible (across genres and media). Do not worry about what language to use in prewriting notetaking. Use of English is required for in-class sharing, but you may add other languages and make projects bilingual or even multilingual (cf. Hsia Yu’s bilingual photography/poetry book assemblage First Person, or simply how subtitles are used in HK films). Each day, have an in-class project, focusing on topics designed to cultivate creative expression and engagement with others. |
| 第 2 週 | Empowering yourself as a writer. "Letter to My Body" (reading and exercise) Knowing oneself, one's interests, tendencies and views, issues/concerns (what you care about). Autobiographical presentation. (The rhythm of yourself, your face to the world.) To test the mythological waters, present yourself as an exaggerated version of yourself as an artist/poet/writer: how do you want people to know you, to care about you and what you have to say? (Typically: how have you struggled/suffered/helped yourself or others, and imply why or how you feel an irrepressible urge to express yourself.) |
| 第 3 週 | Poetry: shaping stanza, spaces between words. (Learning the importance of defamiliarization.) How you see and what you say matter. Share free writing/recording/commentary. Let your work have lives of their own. Discuss individual student works in progress. |
| 第 4 週 | Dramatic elements in writing poetry: writing dialogue and conflicts into poetry. Conflict: rising drama/conflict: taking your audience along by following the resolution (which need not necessarily end well so as to release the attention to the conflicts—apocalyptic events and disasters sometimes simply persist, gain the upper hand). Here, practice how to inject conflicts that only get worse: imagine a problem and how every attempt to overcoming it leads to blocked paths, danger, refusal, etc. Form and content: linking lines; continuity without a static whole. Sound and sense (music and repetition in writing). |
| 第 5 週 | Loosening up. Knowing oneself through others (responding to the audience). Embodied (contextual) emergence and literary expression in any medium. Reflexivity; interaction; worlds; action/expression. Experimental dramatic dialogue. Form and content in procedural writing. Chance operations. (Example from John Cages mesostics.) Online tools and sources. Discuss individual student works in progress. |
| 第 6 週 | Guest Lecture: Professor Michael Chasar, PhD, Professor of English, Willamette University "An Unofficial, Fast-and-Furious History of Audio-Visual Poetry" |
| 第 7 週 | Using Google translation. Writing in two languages at once. Translation can be subversive, need not be faithful to the author/poet. Recreate to the point that it becomes your interpretation—and new translation. (Cf. Tang poem by Du Fu translated dozens of times—all extremely different.) Translation in conceptual art: recording voices in other languages; collaging one line in many languages. Editing sound in Audacity (cross-platform, freeware). Also, some online AI-driven audio-enhancing websites. Discuss individual student works in progress. Also: Sound poetry: the edge of languages (cf. Japp Blonk, Kurt Schwitters). Discuss individual student works in progress. |
| 第 8 週 | Mid-semester conferences on creative writing projects with students (one-on-one and in small groups working on common projects). |
| 第 9 週 | Character sketches. Word-image combinations (begin with words/images/words using DALL·E or similar, AI chatbots, and one’s own orientation). Discuss individual student works in progress. |
| 第 10 週 | Dramatic writing: how to write a play/script/novel. Premise. Languages. Conflict. Discuss individual student works in progress. |
| 第 11 週 | Scriptwriting—a basic skill when making a YouTube video. Backstory and intertexts. Ethical dimensions and literary aspirations (beyond genre fiction). Or, more than what meets the eye. Original–Adaptation spectrum: in lieu of creating an original work, one may also adapt a work for YouTube by retelling it. Your work will naturally constitute a “misreading” or “subversive” redirection of a work to suit your own values (aesthetic, political, etc.). Editing video (depending on your operating system). Discuss individual student works in progress. |
| 第 12 週 | Engaging social injustice in creative writing (any genre or medium). How to be poetic while being "political"--differences across languages. Uses of humor, satire, and cultural jamming. Discuss individual student works in progress. |
| 第 13 週 | Flash fiction. Autobiographical fiction: crisis and conflict. Situating the self among characters (divvying the self). Also: the literary–genre-writing spectrum (adding touches of mystery, science fiction, romance). Discuss individual student works in progress. |
| 第 14 週 | Creative nonfiction: the personal essay; nature writing, travel and memoir. Vlogging Taiwan. Discuss individual student works in progress. |
| 第 15 週 | Student presentations of final projects (chapbook, play, video or sounds art, etc.). |
| 第 16 週 | Student presentations of final projects (chapbook, play, video or sounds art, etc.). |
Readings and assignments will be distributed electronically via e3 or as in-class readings and handouts. Any textbooks used in this course are available open access.
- 地點
- HC 415
- 時間
- 3EF
- 聯絡方式
- interpoetics@gmail.com brink@nctu.edu.tw x58115