Innovative Writing

Defining the context

Cult Authors• Linked to the 1960s popular

culture revolution and the rise of counter-culture

• The difference between highbrow and lowbrow culture became blurred

• The notion of the cult author was developed eg JD Salinger for The Catcher in the Rye and Truman Capote for Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Is it literature?

• Rock music and pop offer an alternative world view to classical music; in the same way, innovative writing offers an alternative and radical path to the canon of literature

A Definition?

• Defining innovative writing is difficult, especially where writers earn their status from being reclusive or dead

• Readers decide on the definition and these definitions can change with each new era

Defining Eras

• 1920s to 1930s Post War TraumaErnest Hemingway and William Faulkner

• 1950s to 1960s Beat and Hippy CultureNew journalism eg Tom Wolfe

• 1970s Bikers, Mods and Bovver Boys

Defining Eras (continued)

• 1980s Greed and Crime Bret Easton Ellis

• 1990s Cyberpunk/ Rave Culture Irvine Welsh

Why are readers attracted?• Innovative writing can be

seen as literature from the margins and extremes (not mainstream)

• By reading such literature, readers seek to share the experience of alienation

• The writing is often fresh and appealing

Sustaining Genres

• Suspense• Horror• Crime• Science fiction• Fantasy

General Qualities

• Narrative structures which break the rules and cross boundaries

• Some writers are representatives of excluded minorities eg black, gay or politically extreme

Innovative writers

• Are often read and admired in the same way as their rock music counterparts