Creative writing as a communicative act - an artistic method

摘要

In my research project, I have interviewed students and teachers on a two-year university study programme in creative writing about how they perceive their own work and their own roles as authors. With Habermas' theory of communicative action as my starting point, I have devised a theoretical model to explore the act of creative writing. This article discusses writers' work procedures in a communicative network of institutional and everyday practices, in the light of established notions of literature and authors. In my informants' references to their own writing, the metaphor of 'space' - specifically, how an 'inner' creative space interacts with an 'outer' public one - is crucial. This metaphor applies to several levels of communicative action: individual, institutional, public and textual. Owing to its limited length, this article comments solely on the individual and institutional levels.