Anderson, Zachary
R 11:10 AM
Park Hall 61
“Imitation is a liberating writing philosophy because it acknowledges that literature is dependent on what has gone before,” writes Nick Groom in The Forger’s Shadow. The concept of “originality” was not a criterion for English literature until fairly late in the game (roughly the 17th century). This introductory creative writing course questions the privileged status that originality has been granted in the production of “authentic” literature in the centuries since. Against this tradition of “original genius,” K.K. Ruthven points out in Faking Literature that “[s]ince nothing human is created ex nihilo, everything is made of something else, and is in that respect a bricolage.” By giving critical attention to impostors, imitations, plagiarisms, translations and mistranslations, copies, and forgeries, we will test the limits of concepts like authenticity, originality, and authorship. We will put these ideas into practice by creating poems, fictions, and nonfiction pieces which will involve experimenting with strategies like erasure, imitation, translation, found poetry, and constraint-based writing. This course will create space for you to explore your own interests in writing, and you will have the opportunity to workshop what you produce.