(Re)Scripting the Self: Subjectivity, Creative and Critical Practice and the Pedagogy of Writing

Abstract

This PhD research focuses on Queer Theory and its application to subjectivity in the contexts of creative practice, Practice-Led Research (PLR) and Creative Writing pedagogy. One of the principal concerns of the project is how a queered PLR might foreground subjectivity as a practice in itself and view both creative practice and critical research as components in an “ethics of the self” (Foucault 1978) or “selfbricolage” (Rabinow 1997). In this context, creative practice is conceived as an intervention into subjectivity and creative works are framed as artefacts that both document this interventional process and express or disseminate new subjectivities arising from that process. In a similar vein, research in the Creative Arts is seen as a performative act that includes affect (produced through engagement with both creative and critical texts) as a form of knowledge. As with creative practice, this kind of research informs the ongoing constitution of subjectivity. The research project also explores the notion of effeminacy as a liminal masculinity of considerable discursive potency that simultaneously disrupts both masculinity and femininity. This exploration is undertaken in relation to the Southern Gothic genre of literature, cinema and television.