I've taught a special writing evening class at TAFE (Technical and Further
Education) for sixteen years now, and the average class demographic goes
like this: 25 - 50, seven-eighths female (and by the end of term almost
always entirely female), tertiary educated or professional in career,
enormous readers of general fiction, ambitious to join the 'writing world'
which seems to them a romantic place to be. I am quite a good teacher (now -
wasn't in the beginning!), so I am disappointed to report only five or six
of my students have made it to print in any real sense. (A couple have
written travel snippets for small circ mags, but the ones I speak of have
published stories and poems, etc, in respected journals.)
At uni, where I have also taught, the mature women and the young intense men
produce the most written work and ask the most questions, hungry to know
what will get them on further - in the course. The skills and profession of
writing, and carving out a writing career for themselves, seems to be
secondary to their degree. This is a pity, but it seems a myopic view
encouraged by the unis themselves - and behind it all is finance from the
gov't for successfull students, how many in a classroom, etc. The corrupting
force of money yet again!
In the post grad writing group I belong to, it is about six-to-one female to
male, with the women having by far the loudest voice. The product (novels,
with little 'new' about them) is often awarded and applauded but to my mind
is safe and predictable a lot of the time. Many a good story is tamed by the
education process and the overlaying of literary theory on the creative
work. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...
Off to work now. Writing, that is.
Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joanna Boulter" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2006 12:18 AM
Subject: Re: Feminism: an aside
> Further to my earlier post, I do remember that when this fizzing, buzzing,
> and by now *confident group of women aged between 38 and 65 studied
American
> post-war poetry (from Olson on) for a semester alongside a much younger
> group of 'regular' Masters students, we found that only one, male, student
> had as much to say as we did, and the young lecturer seemed almost
> intimidated .... We took a conscious decision to cool it.
>
> joanna
>
> > On the other hand, my experience in the (similar) Newcastle MA in
Writing
> > Poetry, where quite coincidentally that entire intake was made up of
women
> > returners, most with jobs as well as their domestic responsibilities,
was
> > that we were all, individually and as a unit, fizzing with creativity
and
> > excitement.
> >
> > joanna
> >
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