Writing Together (a workshop)

Workshop exploring ethics and practice of writing collaboration as theatre, fiction, poetry.

With writer and performer Jane Arnfield

Does your research involve collaboration, co-authorship or engaging with the unfamiliar?

This second workshop in a series of three over the academic year will explore ways of representing that encounter in a creative and theoretically effective way. Inspired by the collaborative work of the Sangtin Writer's in India, and by Jane Arnfield's long-standing collaboration with Zdenka Fantlova, we will consider how writing theatre, fiction or poetry can help us explore our research questions more effectively, as well as representing research findings developed in other ways.

The workshop is designed to be interactive and practical, as follows: 

Conversation with Jane Arnfield about her collaborative with Zdenka Fantlova in developing and staging the production The Tin Ring: https://vimeo.com/57454693

Participants - who will include writers, visual artists and researchers from Newcastle and York - will be led in a collaborative writing exercise and then reflect on the experience.
We will discuss the potential and limitations of co-authorship and representing collaboration in writing, notably in terms of balancing vulnerability and privacy, and the value of different modes of writing in negotiating ethical challenges. Which compromises are we willing to live with and which must we call out?

Suggested pre-reading: Chandra Mohanty's brief Forward to the Sangtin Writers' book Playing with Fire: http://www.vidyaonline.net/dl/ feministindia.pdf

We have a very limited budget for the workshops, so please bring food/drink to share, or that meets your own needs for refreshment.