Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CRESP (Hybridizing Creative Writing Research: A Creatical Self-Portrait)
Período documentado: 2022-01-01 hasta 2024-12-31
CRESP investigated how creative-critical – or ‘creatical’ – writing functions as a method of knowledge production. It critically examined how hybrid, plurilingual and autotheoretical writing practices challenge conventional academic boundaries by integrating lived experience, particularly from marginalized perspectives. Through literary exegesis, qualitative interviews and creative experimentation, the research explored how innovative modes disrupt traditional notions of authority, narrative and truth.
By foregrounding multilingualism, hybridity and embodied research methods, the project fostered a more inclusive academic culture that embraced diverse voices and ways of knowing. It encouraged underrepresented perspectives and cultivated dialogue between creative practice and critical scholarship. This approach offered fresh insights into identity, power and language in a globalized, interconnected society – promoting broader understanding across linguistic and disciplinary divides.
The project established creatical writing as a methodologically innovative approach by combining close literary analysis, qualitative research, and creative practice. It fostered an international network of practitioners committed to plurilingual and interdisciplinary collaboration. By conducting plurilingual interviews with creatical authors, co-creating formats during writing workshops, presenting findings at specialist conferences and curating accessible formats for public events and digital platforms, this cross-border research advanced both conceptual understanding and creative application within Creative-Critical Writing.
By foregrounding multilingualism, hybridity and embodied research methods, the project fostered a more inclusive academic culture that embraced diverse voices and ways of knowing. It encouraged underrepresented perspectives and cultivated dialogue between creative practice and critical scholarship. This approach offered fresh insights into identity, power and language in a globalized, interconnected society – promoting broader understanding across linguistic and disciplinary divides.
The project established creatical writing as a methodologically innovative approach by combining close literary analysis, qualitative research, and creative practice. It fostered an international network of practitioners committed to plurilingual and interdisciplinary collaboration. By conducting plurilingual interviews with creatical authors, co-creating formats during writing workshops, presenting findings at specialist conferences and curating accessible formats for public events and digital platforms, this cross-border research advanced both conceptual understanding and creative application within Creative-Critical Writing.
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.
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.
The research advanced the state of the art through two methodological innovations: plurilingual play and embodied cognition, which expand my earlier creatical modes of inquiry: theoretical, metatextual and poetological knowledge production.
These innovations have already attracted strong recognition. My method-defining article was ranked first in the annual statistics of Life Writing within five months of publication and a multilingual online symposium the formation of a global network of practitioners, bridging Creative-Critical Writing and Artistic Research communities across the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA. The depth and authenticity of exchange within this emerging field highlight creatical writing’s universal scope and underscore the academic value of a more inclusive, plurilingual research culture.
By articulating and disseminating the creatical research methodology the project positioned Lancaster University as a key driver of multilingual innovation in Creative-Critical Writing, further strengthening Europe’s leadership in this emerging field.
CRESP supports European cultural policy goals by promoting linguistic diversity and inclusive knowledge practices. Its public engagement activities – such as my contributions to MSCA’s ‘Science is Wonderful!’ and Lancaster ‘Campus in the City’ fairs – encouraged diverse audiences to explore unfamiliar languages and digital translation through playful interaction.
The project outcomes are of interest not only to scholars in Creative-Critical Writing, autotheory and multilingual literature, but also to literary translators, creative writing educators and policymakers concerned with multilingual education. I have already stimulated strategic interest from institutional partners and contributed to policy discussions on modern language education in the post-Brexit landscape.
These innovations have already attracted strong recognition. My method-defining article was ranked first in the annual statistics of Life Writing within five months of publication and a multilingual online symposium the formation of a global network of practitioners, bridging Creative-Critical Writing and Artistic Research communities across the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA. The depth and authenticity of exchange within this emerging field highlight creatical writing’s universal scope and underscore the academic value of a more inclusive, plurilingual research culture.
By articulating and disseminating the creatical research methodology the project positioned Lancaster University as a key driver of multilingual innovation in Creative-Critical Writing, further strengthening Europe’s leadership in this emerging field.
CRESP supports European cultural policy goals by promoting linguistic diversity and inclusive knowledge practices. Its public engagement activities – such as my contributions to MSCA’s ‘Science is Wonderful!’ and Lancaster ‘Campus in the City’ fairs – encouraged diverse audiences to explore unfamiliar languages and digital translation through playful interaction.
The project outcomes are of interest not only to scholars in Creative-Critical Writing, autotheory and multilingual literature, but also to literary translators, creative writing educators and policymakers concerned with multilingual education. I have already stimulated strategic interest from institutional partners and contributed to policy discussions on modern language education in the post-Brexit landscape.