It might surprise you to learn that most MFA creative writing departments don’t exactly embrace a ‘glued to your desk’ approach to writing. Depending on the discipline, some prefer to sit quietly in a corner, jotting down ideas, while others prefer to flaunt their freedom by taking the town in a different direction. In either case, your chosen genre will play a huge role in your experience as a graduate of an MFA in Creative Writing. Here, we explore the role of genre in graduate writing education and the differences in approach between various MFA creative writing programmes and programs.
What Is Genre?
Genre is simply the ‘type’ of story you are dealing with. Genre is extremely important to a writer, as it can dictate not only the nature of your text but also the manner in which you write it. Without getting too deeply into literary theory, genre can be defined as the set of conventions, practices, and ways of thinking associated with a particular group of texts. This group of texts can be termed ‘the genre’ (the plural of ‘genre’). So, if you are writing a novel, you can say that Shakespeare’s plays are the genre you are writing in, or that you are writing a crime thriller, based on the Jack the Ripper case, for example.
Why Study Genre?
Good question. There are two main reasons why you might want to study the ‘genre’ of your chosen literary work. First, you might want to find the’style and manner’ in which your favourite writer/s write. Think about it, when someone asks you to recommend a good crime thriller to read, you can’t very well give them a literary theory dissertation by Frederick Buechner, can you? Second, you might want to create pieces of work that fit into the ‘genre’ you are studying, but the question of style guides and ‘rules of thumb’ for writing may be a bit daunting. If you are lucky enough to be taught by an exceptional English teacher during your graduate studies, you can rest assured that both your writing and speaking skills will improve exponentially. At the very least, your studies will provide you with a better understanding of one of the most important elements of writing: words and their use in context.
The Differences Between MFA Creative Writing Programs
As mentioned above, your chosen genre will play a HUGE role in how you experience your graduate studies. Depending on the type of fiction you are interested in studying, you might end up in one of three distinct camps:
- Aesthetic (lit crit)–based approaches that privilege prose over poetry and favour a formal experimentation that privileges the use of language over the plot (think: Language Poetry, Formalism, Structuralism). In this case, your teacher will likely encourage you to immerse yourself in critical theory, so you can develop a nuanced understanding of the literary practices that underlie your chosen texts. Moreover, you will be expected to produce formal, critical essays and participate in peer review workshops. On this front, your teacher will help you develop your own style, so you can begin to see your work through a ‘literary eye’ that recognizes its potential for universal (aesthetic) appeal.
- Traditional narrative (plot-focused) approaches that privilege character and scene over language, preferring a linear storytelling that features clear-cut ‘rising action’ and ‘falling action’ (think: Naturalism, Realism), along with a focus on character development (think: Social Realism). In traditional narratives, your teacher will likely encourage you to craft a narrative that is character driven and shows clear signs of conflict resolution (think: Classical Comedy). Moreover, you will be expected to produce short stories, detailed character sketches, and participate in creative writing workshops. On this front, your teacher will help you develop your own style, so you can begin to see your work through a ‘narrative eye’ that recognizes its potential for engaging an audience.
- Hybrid approaches that feature a blend of the above (think: Post-Structuralism, Deconstruction). In this case, your teacher will likely encourage you to explore the interplay of language and narrative (think: Structuralism, Literary Freudianism) so you can develop your own style, while still making your work accessible to the widest possible audience (think: Popular Fiction, Mystery).
What Is The Aesthetic Approach?
The aesthetic approach is all about language, form, and style, and it privileges experimentation, in the hope of producing something that is both unique and intellectually stimulating. As the name suggests, this approach seeks to discover the ‘aesthetic’ or ‘essence’ of a literary work, rather than its (merely)’social’ or ‘historical’ context. Think: Language Poetry, Formalism, Structuralism.
Aesthetic approaches to writing (as opposed to, say, a historical or social approach) emerged in the early 1900s, with modernist movements like Dada and the Surrealists championing a non-traditional approach that sought to break away from the ‘conventions’ of classical narrative structures. In other words, a traditional narrative might start with a conflict, followed by some sort of character development, climax, and denouement. The aesthetic approach to writing rejects this structure and opts for something new. Sometimes, this new structure is built on the foundations of the old one; sometimes, it is not. Sometimes, it even reverses the role of the protagonist and antagonist. As the famous Russian Formalism scholar Roman Jakobson puts it:
“The task of the artist is not to represent reality but to transform it.”
Many renowned English teachers are associated with the aesthetic approach, such as William Gass (author of Death of the Bachelor) and Louis Begley (author of I, Claudius). You will likely have the opportunity to study with some of the best writers in this field, as well as engage with renowned artists and thinkers from across the discipline. This is also one of the reasons why, if you are choosing to study English Literature as a modern language, you definitely want to be in an MFA programme in English Creative Writing.
What Is The Narrative Approach?
The narrative approach is all about the story, or more specifically, about following a chronology of events. Moreover, your teacher will likely encourage you to craft a linear progression of events that begin in the present and then proceed into the past. Think: Naturalism, Realism, Social Realism, and even a dash of Mystery (suspenseful, surprise endings).
In the narrative approach, your teacher will encourage you to follow a set structure, featuring a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning sets the scene, and it usually includes a synopsis of what is to come. The middle comprises the bulk of the story, featuring a mixture of action and dialogue, as well as the necessary sub-plots. It is here that your character(s) achieve(s) something, overcoming various obstacles in the process. The end provides a denouement, and it is usually the resolution of this conflict, along with a few twist(s) that will leave your audience both satisfied and surprised. This is actually a fairly easy structure to follow, which made it popular with 19th century realists like Honoré de Balzac and Guy de Maupassant. Indeed, the “artistic” or “literary” form of a work governed by this approach is called a “novel” (or “roman”).
This is quite a different beast from the above two approaches. In fact, it could be labeled as “functional” or “pragmatic”. The novel form is still associated with formalism, as the very name “novel” (from the French ‘nouvelle’) denotes an experimental, sometimes ‘futuristic’ form. Pragmatics can be defined as the “application of theory to practice”. To return to the question at hand, this approach is all about story, story, and story. Moreover, your teacher will likely encourage you to follow the rules of thumb of ‘good’ storytelling, featuring clear-cut ‘rising action’ and ‘falling action’, as well as a plot that takes a step forward, instead of remaining static (think: Aristotle’s ‘motive’, as opposed to ‘means’). In other words, this approach privileges character over plot, and it generally favors a “show, don’t tell” approach, as opposed to the more “tell, don’t show” one adopted by the aesthetic and structural approaches.