Thinking through Fiction

A conference at the University of Kent
Centre for Creative Writing
21st-22nd June 2016
Grimond Building

This 2-day conference will explore the complex relationship between fiction, writing, and thought.

How do we use fiction to explore ideas? What do we create when we create writing? In what ways can fiction offer a means of examining, questioning, understanding the world? What are the relations between text, representation, form, language and thought? Where is the boundary between creative and critical writing—and how might we test the unstable, shifting, flexible nature of that boundary? How might we consider other art forms in these terms?

Creative Writing is now widely taught at universities across the UK and beyond, and the parameters of what constitutes a valid route of academic inquiry—the furtherance of knowledge—are adjusting accordingly.

Call for Papers
For interested participants:
We welcome perspectives from creative writers both within and beyond the academy, and from other fields such as linguistics, philosophy, arts, film, and social sciences. Contributions are welcome from all: academic staff, postgraduate students, and other practitioners.

Panels might include (an indicative, not an exhaustive list):

• The ‘novel of ideas’ past and present
• (How) can we render thought in prose and other creative mediums?
• Streams of consciousness
• Philosophy and the novel
• Writers writing about writing
• Creative-critical boundaries
• Experimental fiction(s)
• Genre fiction and allegory
• Politics and polemics

Please send a short abstract of 200-300 words for a 20-minute paper or presentation to a.sackville@kent.ac.uk by 4th March 2016.

We are open to creative approaches to presenting, from the formal academic paper to the performative reading.

This event is mounted by the Centre for Creative Writing at the School of English, University of Kent.
The convenor is Amy Sackville (a.sackville@kent.ac.uk)