The research comprised four interrelated work packages that analyzed, contextualized, and applied the creatical method.
The ‘exegesis’ stage focused on identifying and analyzing key forms of creative-critical writing while developing a meta-reflective understanding of my own creatical practice. Through close readings of exemplary creative-critical texts, supported by post-critique scholarship, I mapped creatical tendencies across genres. A significant shift occurred during my first secondment, where exposure to autotheory as a feminist methodology enabled me to foreground lived experience and emotion in my inquiry. Engagement with sociological autofiction led to an exploration of double discourse in the post-#MeToo era, particularly around toxic intimacy and viral feminism, contextualized through media theory and reader reception studies. These developments prompted me to experiment with creative non-fiction forms such as newspaper pitches, later reworked into conference presentations to blur boundaries between fact and fiction and deepen my theorization of creatical writing.
The qualitative research phase centered on designing and conducting interviews with contemporary authors to explore their methods, motivations and understandings of creatical writing. My approach was refined through methodological reading, supervision and a pilot interview. Interviews were conducted in Swedish, French and German, allowing for rich plurilingual engagement. The multilingual interview corpus revealed recurring motifs – including fabulation, manipulation, escapism and translation – and generated interlingual serendipities that both confirmed the value of plurilingual practice and informed the development of later creative work.
The literary practice part of the project developed the creatical method of ‘embodied interlingual serendipity’ – a plurilingual approach rooted in reflective language experience and walking practice. A hybrid narrative corpus ‘on the move’ emerged organically through various formats – notes, emails, article drafts, lists, newspaper pitches and narrative sketches. Gradually focusing on a structure centered on character psychology to explore epistemic insight through fragmented storytelling, the resulting creatical text weaves together literary scenes, diary entries, online communication and newspaper columns.
The final knowledge-synthesizing stage brought together research, analysis and literary experimentation into a book-length prose manuscript. Drawing on close readings, theoretical contextualization and interview insights, the work converged on the theme of gaslighting as a lens to explore power, perception and emotional manipulation. The metatextual design invites readers to share the narrator’s uncertainty about what is real and what is constructed. Selected excerpts were adapted to prepare the creatical novel for future dissemination.
Key results include:
• A book-length creatical manuscript that interweaves stylistically heterogeneous storytelling, post-critical reflection and qualitative research into a metatextual exploration of the narrative dynamics of ‘gaslighting
• Twelve presentations at international conferences and symposia across Europe, disseminating the discourse on creatical writing.
• Two peer-reviewed, method-defining articles and a multimedia exposition published in the Research Catalogue.
• Active international collaboration, including participation in the notable global summer seminar ‘Social Capital and the City’ at the University of Notre Dame’s London Global Gateway, a landmark autotheoretical writing retreat facilitated by a leading voice in the field and interactive creative-critical events at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
• Public engagement activities comprising of an interview on pioneering women with an internationally best-selling creative-creatical author, accessible seminars, multimedia content shared on YouTube and an interactive booth at the MSCA science fair.
