Musico-literary miscegenations : word and sound relationships in creative writing pedagogy

Since 2012 I have been teaching an evolving postgraduate unit about the contemporary literature-music relationship. The unit is part of a Master of Arts (MA) in Literature and Creative Writing based in the Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University. Generically called "Sounds, Images, Texts" for administrative purposes, it actually focuses on relationships between literature and music, words and sound in contemporary literature and experimental intermedia. The unit is unusual in that it concentrates on the intermedia relationship as the basis for both literary studies and creative writing. In addition, the unit has a strong critical and theoretical basis, it does not revolve (as many creative writing subjects do) around creative writing exercises (though such exercises are included), and the creative writing aspect of the unit is gradually evolving. The unit is based on the model of a one-hour lecture, followed by two hours of discussion and workshopping. It introduces students to the various ways in which sound and music can impact on literature and on their own creative writing. In addition, it demonstrates how word-sound relationships can facilitate ideas about disability, gender, and ethnicity.