Mapping invention : how creative writers use experiential techniques to produce literary sense of place : The fever diaries : a novel

Abstract

This project examines the nexus of creative writing practice and the human relationship with place. The PhD thesis is comprised of two parts: a critical exegesis, and a novel (The Fever Diaries). Seeking to resolve a gap in the scholarly literature around creative writing practice and place, the exegesis addresses the research question: How do creative writers use experiential techniques to produce 'literary sense of place'? Based on case studies developed from in-depth interviews with four experienced Australian and New Zealand authors, this multidisciplinary investigation draws upon prior research from human geography, psychology, creativity studies, memory studies, phenomenology, and literary and narrative theory, and presents an original conceptual framework - the Place-Based Experiential Techniques (PET) Model - to illuminate how writers evoke place. Producing 'literary sense of place' is a generative, cumulative and associative process, informed by a range of experiential techniques, which can include planned strategies, personal memory, imaginative inhabitation of characters, socio-cultural information-sharing, happenstance, imaginative constructions, and enigmatic but keenly felt responses to place. The creative component of this PhD, The Fever Diaries, takes an imaginative approach to the fictional evocation of place. Fleeing their pandemic-stricken homelands, a shipload of migrant workers departs the former UK to seek a new start in prosperous Australia. Among The Steadfast's passengers are Cleary Sullivan, a young deaf boy from Dublin; Billie Galloway, a Glaswegian singer and former hospital orderly; and English schoolteacher Tom Garnett. After Cleary discovers the body of a murdered crew member, a contagious illness plunges the whole vessel into survival mode. Set in the near future, across three locations - the ship, a quarantine station, and a gated urban community - The Fever Diaries explores the limits of resilience, the vicissitudes of place, the urge for belonging, and the capacity for strangers to become people who matter to us. In an exegesis chapter reflecting on my own creative practice, I employ my PET Model to explicate how I produced literary sense of place in The Fever Diaries. My exegesis seeks to contribute new knowledge about the work practices of creative writers by illuminating how they use their own experiences to evoke place on the page. In broader terms, the project sheds new light on what places can mean to us - as writers, as readers, and as human beings.

Date of Award	2016
Original language	English