AustLit

'The requirement for separate creative and exegetical components by universities offering creative doctoral programmes is a largely accepted model in Australia. The Research Question Model adopted by Curtin University in Western Australia is an example of this. The parallel, ‘independent’ articulation of creative and academic responses is explored in this article by a supervisor and three PhD candidates all writing in the genre of creative non-fiction. We suggest that the boundaries between the scholarly and creative in creative non-fiction works are far from clear and that this reflects both contemporary non-fiction publishing and new movements in scholarly writing. We propose that Barthes’s ‘ambiguous genre’, the essay, may be one useful way of conceptualising the non-fiction creative doctorate.'  (Publication abstract)

'A mosaic of lyric fragments, ‘First Cake Method’ is a short piece of experimental memoir working within the lyric essay form to explore the complexity of a father/daughter relationship. Shifting between first and third person narrative, from the child narrator to adult, it sketches a story that is both personal and universal, exploring the human need for love and acceptance while hinting at the specifics of this family’s dysfunction. Relating moments of intimacy and distance, at different stages of life, cooking and food is the central motif for an exploration of the narrator’s determination to master the ‘recipe’ for connection. Thus the structure and content of the essay work to embody the complexity of familial relationships. The use of fragmentation and repetition also mimics memory’s tendency to ‘snapshots’, thematic grouping and revision.' (Abstract)