(Re)Writing Craft: Composition, Creative Writing, and the Future of English Studies

by Timothy Mayers

Overview

(Re)Writing Craft focuses on the gap that exists in many English departments between creative writers and compositionists on one hand, and literary scholars on the other, in an effort to radically transform the way English studies are organized and practiced today. In proposing a new form of writing he calls "craft criticism," Mayers, himself a compositionist and creative writer, explores the connections between creative writing and composition studies programs, which currently exist as separate fields within the larger and more amorphous field of English studies. If creative writing and composition studies are brought together in productive dialogue, they can, in his view, succeed in inverting the common hierarchy in English departments that privileges interpretation of literature over the teaching of writing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822959694
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	04/16/2007
Series:	Composition, Literacy, and Culture , #163
Edition description:	1
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Tim Mayers is an assistant professor of English at Millersville University of Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Preface     ix
Acknowledgments     xvii
Composition, Creative Writing, and the Shifting Boundaries of English Studies     1
"Craft Criticism" and the Possibility of Theoretical Scholarship in Creative Writing     29
Writing, Reading, Thinking, and the Question Concerning Craft     65
Terms of an Alliance     97
Starting Somewhere     129
Notes     169
Works Cited     175
Index     183

Editorial Reviews

Mayers does an excellent job of not only remapping the territory in English studies, taking fuller measure of the role of textual production, but also presenting a useful discursive framework of craft criticism from which to begin a different disciplinary conversation.

Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wa Mary Ann Cain

A penetrating critique of English studies in the academy . . . provides an excellent history and overview of the current state of English studies. Written in a down-to-earth style with plenty of examples, this book will be accessible and interesting for readers at all levels.

Choice

If it is true—and I believe it is—that a new genre of scholarly discourse about English departments is about to appear, (Re)Writing Craft outlines the terms of that conversation. . . . the publication of this book signals a turn in English studies that reflects the recent emergence of writing programs as disciplines in many English departments across the country. . . . So accurate is his assessment that he could be talking about my department, or yours.

East Carolina University Patrick Bizzaro

A penetrating critique of English studies in the academy . . . provides an excellent history and overview of the current state of English studies. Written in a down-to-earth style with plenty of examples, this book will be accessible and interesting for readers at all levels.”
—Choice


"If it is true—and I believe it is—that a new genre of scholarly discourse about English departments is about to appear, (Re)Writing Craft outlines the terms of that conversation. . . . the publication of this book signals a turn in English studies that reflects the recent emergence of writing programs as disciplines in many English departments across the country. . . . So accurate is his assessment that he could be talking about my department, or yours."
—Patrick Bizzaro, East Carolina University


"Mayers does an excellent job of not only remapping the territory in English studies, taking fuller measure of the role of textual production, but also presenting a useful discursive framework of craft criticism from which to begin a different disciplinary conversation."
—Mary Ann Cain, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

From the Publisher