Taught Transgressions
Taught Transgressions
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1) Introduction – Transgressions and Teaching
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This proposal exploring the merit of using transgressive literature and encouraging transgressive writing has the University writer in mind. At BA level particularly, there is more scope for experimentation in form and content than in community workshops, where writers tend to be bringing in their own projects. In addition to this, transgressive literature encourages more challenging reflection that would be suitable for the critical element of a university writing course. As ‘Creative Writing is often considered less intellectual, more instinctual, and thus given a place on the fringe of English studies,’ (Miller, 2005, p40) this opportunity for greater critical reflection on the process of writing is suitable and desirable.
The biweekly seminar/workshop approach is widely regarded as the most effective means of teaching and encouraging writing, and it is this reflexive process as well as tutorial guidance that attracts writers to the degree course. Broadly speaking, the lecture/workshop structure serves three purposes: to generate ideas on how a piece may be developed; to open a dialogue of free, critical exchange about a piece so that the writer may see if their intentions were achieved and if the piece is working; and to teach writers to read with a critical eye so that they are eventually able to self-edit and redraft alone. From these three points, I shall explore the merit of using transgressive literature and of encouraging transgressive writing in a workshop program.
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2) Generation and Implementation
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Literary transgression is that which highlights taboos and boundaries, moral and social, by exceeding them in subject and style. Immediately, a prosaic topic within this parameter will force students to go at least some way beyond the borders of their own experience. This is not so removed from the usual fodder of Creative Writing exercises, however: writers have the urge to experience in their work that which they can only explore imaginatively; transgressive writing encourages writers to explore imaginatively that which, in real terms, they should not.
Jenks (2003, p177) tells us that ‘if boundaries, prohibitations and taboos are to be tested in a transgressive manner then the relationship between the perpetrator and the act must be wilful and intended, not accidental or unconscious.’ Thus, writers must be aware that it is not enough to transgress for transgression’s sake. There must be a conscious and calculated intent, and the transgressive element necessary and relevant to the story.
In this respect, transgressive writing offers a closer link between the theoretical and artistic elements of writing which has held tensions since quality needed to be assessed against established and evolving parameters within the Academy. Transgressive writing forces conscious decision making and risk taking for deliberate gain, rather than allowing student writers to rely predominantly on their woollier visceral instincts. For every boundary pushed, the nature of that boundary and how it came to be there needs to be known. As well as enforcing greater critical reflection of their own work, this also serves to encourage writers to examine the world and the different social and moral values that structure it.
The first complete module based on transgressive writing ran across a third year group at the
Hardy (2007, p109) tells us that ‘exposing students to a variety of literary traditions and movements provides the acumen of cherry-picking the more masterful tropes and qualities of genius as opposed to simply mimicking great literature to the letter, as imitation tends to do.’
Within a transgressive pedagogy, transgressive writing can be interpreted in many ways: from a controversial subject to an experimental style. Offence is not a requirement: only risk-taking and a confrontational attitude towards that which has been deemed unacceptable to write about. Transgressive literature is about engaging original and challenging writing through starting points potentially more stimulating and adventurous than the traditional fare. The aim is to provoke original thought and writing by forcibly removing barriers, encouraging writers to engage with subjects that had previously been off-limits to creative thought.
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3) The Workshop and Hatchets
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Writers come to a university Creative Writing course not only for the qualification but because they require something more than time to write. They want the reflexive processes of the course: the provision of guidance and critique. It is this final element that is typically the most useful.
It is only fitting that if the writing is intended to be a challenging and provocative process that the workshops should also be unflinching, exposing the plain truth of how a piece succeeds or fails. It is ideal that there is no censorship at any stage of the writing process, particularly in the workshop.
Writers should be bold in experiencing the world and documenting or imagining a diverse range of experiences in their work, not stifling their writing to protect feelings or avoid taboo. This in addition to a critique environment where students are firmly discouraged from being precious with their work will inevitably create stronger writers.
In this light, the transgressive approach should be reserved for students at a later stage in their course, as new writers are likely to be too nervous and apologetic to engage with this method comfortably enough to be productive. As the group becomes more cohesive, coming to understand and trust each other, more provocative writing can naturally be entered into.
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4) The Role and Redundancy of the Tutor
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The role of the Creative Writing tutor is not only to create time, permission and encouragement to write. They also have the slippery task of teaching students how to decode their subjective experience of the world and to confidently reinterpret it into a creative piece. This is done by empowering the student with creative boldness and enthusiasm.
The hierarchy of ‘student’ and ‘teacher’ cannot exist in the same way as within other disciplines. The tutor cannot simply pontificate and expect learning to occur. Instead there is a growing equalising of voices within the workshop group, as the student-writers become more confident in providing feedback to others and in speaking about their own work.
In transgressive literature the leash is a little shorter, as the tutor is wholly responsible for leading writers down unplumbed paths laced with taboo and discomfort, presenting the need for stronger escorting and directing. Certainly part of teaching Creative Writing is in helping a writer to identify what it is they want to write, and in this respect wholly transgressive writing can be accused of having a significant weakness. However, ‘transgression’ can be approached and interpreted in many ways, and the ultimate goal of the course remains in having students leave as better writers than when they arrived. Transgressive writing finds great strength here as it pushes writers to develop and experiment, writing in ways and on topics that they had not previously thought possible or permissible.
However, the content of the topics given and the texts taught by the tutor does inevitably raises the question of ethical responsibility: Is it acceptable to coerce writers to imaginatively participate in the darkest acts and experiences of the world?
This query is primarily based on the fear that has fuelled much of the backlash against transgressive literature: that representing ‘forbidden’ viewpoints and encouraging apparent empathy with such people serves to condone the acts taking place, and perhaps even encourage them. However, imagining is not to adopt the text’s perspective as one’s own. Lolita (Nabokov, 1980) is no more a paedophile’s handbook than American Psycho (Ellis, 2006) is a guide to murder in metropolitan cities. What is gained from reading and writing such texts is a moral understanding, both of oneself and of the world as a whole, which is itself morally valuable.
Transgressive literature does not seek to destroy boundaries by exceeding them, but serves to highlight those moral and social lines so that we may probe for where exactly our fears and repulsions lie and to reaffirm them. It is a means of furthering our individual understanding of the world.
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5) Conclusion
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A module dedicated to transgressive writing is an exhausting undertaking that should be reserved until the student writers are competent and comfortable with their authorial voices. It is challenging but holds the promise of greater confidence and understanding of the writing process, as well as teaching an unforgiving critical eye so that writers may self-edit alone effectively.
It must also be said that this genre is one that has moved from the peripheries of the Marquis de Sade and Bataille to the shelves of local bookshops, with motivations varying from titillating humour in absurdist texts such as Luke Rhinehart’s The Dice Man, to readerly rubber-necking in the ‘Real Life Tragedies’ section of WH Smith. I received this promotional ad from Abe Books just the other day…
Naturally, a module that confronts and generates controversial texts on a regular basis comes with risks. Hardy (2007, p107) explained this best when speaking of gonzo-formalism, a workshop ethos exalting unrestrained critical feedback: ‘Any provocative and reflexive pedagogy that goes against the grain of convention… is fraught with contretemps but then what is ‘evolved’ teaching without some inherent risk?’
Kayleigh J Moore is a 23 year old author living in the Cotswolds in the United Kingdom.