Representations of Authorship in French Creative Writing Manuals. A Cultural Studies Approach

Gert-Jan Meyntjens (KU Leuven)gertjan.meyntjens@kuleuven.be

Outline

• A cultural studies approach to authorship

• A typology of the French writing manual

• Representations of the author in three French writing manuals

A cultural studies approach to authorship

• Authors, writing practices and especially texts on writing that fall outside of scope of traditional literary studies

• R. Williams: culture is ordinaryo Culture as a whole way of life: writing

• Not only as activity of established authors • But as an everyday practice taken on a by a broad public

o Culture as all the various forms of signification that circulate in a society: the writing manual• Not a literary text• A text that is the expression of views on literature and writing and

gives shape to writing practices

Culture as a whole way of life: reading

• J. Collins: How Literary Culture Became Popular Culture

• Literary reading by broad publico Not only the domain of an educated elite o Not only a print-based activity o Not only a private experience

Culture as a whole way of life: the ordinary writer

• Writing as an everyday practiceo Writing contestso Fan fictiono Literary blogso Writing workshopso Writing manuals

Culture as forms of signification: the writing manual

• Comparative research project

• Genre:o Highly performatif o Goal: teach how to write and how to have success in the

literary fieldo Audience: aspiring writer, workshop animator,

professional o Language: accessibleo Three different types

The French writing manual: a typology

1. The technical manual

• How to write?

• Specific genres, specific aspects of stories

• Efficiency: formula’s for success

• Fonctional writing practice: publication, best-seller

• Writing as hard and solitary work• Antoine Albalat (literary critic and theoretician):

o L’art d’écrire enseigné en vingt leçons (1899)o La formation du style par l’assimilation des Auteurs (1902) o Le travail du style enseigné par les corrections manuscrites des

grands écrivains (1903)o Comment on devient écrivain (1925)

2. The strategic manual

• How to operate in literary field?o How does literary field worko How to present a manuscripto How to promote yourself

• Fernand Divoire (journalist-writer)• Introduction de l’étude de la stratégie littéraire (1912)

3. Atelier d’écriture manual

• Inspired by Célestin Freinet and Oulipo

• Intrinsic value of writing

• Method: stimulate writing through exercises with constraints

• Address both animator and aspiring writer

• Importance of group writing

• Therapy-oriented approach:o Élisabeth Bing, Et je nageai jusqu’à la page (1976).

• Text-oriented approach:o Anne Roche, Atelier d’écriture. Éléments pour la rédaction du texte

littéraire (1989).

A typology

• Technical manual (how to write)

• Strategic manual (how to get published)

• Atelier d’écriture manual

• Handbooks combine features of different types

A normative poetics

• Writing manual: text that gives shape to the practices of aspiring writer

• Set of norms o Literary norms (what is a text) o Extra-literary norms (what is an author)

The literary game

• The literary game (Bernard Lahire)

• <-> Field: social world in which agents participate full time

• “The notion of the “game” seems to me especially well suited for describing activities that, like literature, are practiced with very different degrees of investment, but which, over all, involve individuals who cannot afford to spend all their time playing the game in question. Materially unable to live off their writing, writers thus alternate between time and investment in a “literary life” and an “extra-literary professional life.” (Lahire, 2010, p. 454)

The literary game

• Literary players with different degrees of investment:o Handbooks for the occasional writer with economic

interests (professional) o Handbooks for the occasional writer without interest in

competing in the game

• Knowledge of (implicit) rules as condition for success

• Success: in commercial terms

3 types of players

• Occasional players: o Practice literature as a form of leisureo Do not maintain illusio

• Fanatical players:o The game as the driving force of their existenceo Maintain a paid activity outside the game

• Professional playerso Earn a living by playingo Some are former fanatics o Some are literarily less pure and less invested and

capitalize on tested techniques

1. François Bon,Tous les mots sont adultes (2005).

• François Bon: most consecrated author in corpus

• Tous les mots sont adultes: o Atelier d’écriture o Account of experienceo Detailed description of exercises:

• Read a text (Gracq, Kafka, Perec, Duras)• A constrained writing exercise • Write• Read• (Rewrite)

Authorship in Tous les mots sont adultes

• Everybody can write, few are true writers

• Constrained writing exercises allow everyone to write

• One cannot learn to become a true writer

• True writer: disposition / way of being

• Does not play by the ruleso Nor by rules of atelier: one cannot teach himo Nor by rules of game: in the margins

• Being a true writer has nothing to do with playing the game and mastering the rules of the game (professionalism)

2. Laure D’Astragal, Atelier d’écriture (2013).

• Laure D’Astragal: o Yoga – engineer – animator – author

• Atelier d’écriture: o Not atelier d’écritureo Technical and strategic approach to writing prose

Authorship in Atelier d’écriture

• Choice (becoming): (<-> Bon: being) o Occasional playero Professional player

• Occasional: this manual does not concern you

• Professional: o Work hard (becoming fanatical)o Master the rules:

• Rules of writing (seduce the reader) • Rules of literary game

• Success: in terms of the game : getting published, sold and read (<-> Bon)

3. Marianne Jaeglé, Écrire (2014).

• Marianne Jaeglé:o Animator of workshopo Non-fiction and fiction with smaller publishers

• Écrire:o Mix atelier d’écriture – technical and strategic approach

to prose writingo Account of the writing process

Authorship in Écrire• Contradictory points of view:

o One should write for pleasureo All authors should work like fanatics / professionalso No room for occasional playero Says there are no ruleso Gives rules (literary and extra-literary norms)o Rules to succeed in literary gameo Literary game is disappointing o Writing itself is the only pleasureo Writing is hardship

Conclusion• 3 very different cases

• Bon: (atelier d’écriture)o Addresses occasional player o One cannot teach to be a true writero Being a true writer has nothing to do with playing the game well

(professionalism)

• D’Astragal: (technical approach)o Addresses occasional player that wants to become professional o Therefore one has to work as a fanatic and master the rules of the gameo Consecration as getting published and sold

• Jaeglé: (atelier – technical manual)o Excludes the occasional player but states that one has to write for pleasureo Between learning rules in order to have success in literary game and

writing for pleasure because the game is disappointing

Final remark

• The author who plays the game the best is the most critical towards it

• Idea of exception: author wants to help others in writing, but, in the end, considers it no teachable craft (status)

THANK YOU!

Selected bibliography• Albalat (Antoine), L’art d’écrire enseigné en vingt leçons, Paris: Armand Colin, 2000.

• Bing (Élisabeth), Et je nageai jusqu’à la page, Paris: Des femmes-Antoinette Fouque, 1993.

• Bon (François), Tous les mots sont adultes, Paris: Fayard, 2005.

• Collins (Jim), Bring on the Books for Everybody. How Literary Culture became Popular Culture, Durham - London: Duke University Press, 2010.

• D’Astragal (Laure), Atelier d’écriture, Paris: Larousse, 2013.

• Divoire (Fernand), La stratégie littéraire, Paris: Mille et une nuits, 2005.

• Jaeglé (Marianne), Écrire. De la page blanche à la publication, Paris: Scrineo, 2014.

• Lahire (Bernard), “The Double Life of Writers”, New Literary History, 41. 2, 2010, pp. 443-465.

• Wandor (Michelene), The Writer is Not Dead, Merely Somewhere Else. Creative Writing after Theory, Hampshire - New-York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

• Williams (Raymond), “Culture is Ordinary”, Resources of Hope. Culture, Democracy, Socialism, London: Verso, 1989, pp. 3-14.