[Cwgrad-announcements] Fwd: censorship in the creative writing workshop

[Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza]

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>Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:46:15 -1000
>From: "M. Thomas Gammarino" <gammarino at gmail.com>
>To: mike.atienza at ucr.edu
>Subject: censorship in the creative writing workshop
>X-Junkmail-Status: score=60/65, host=sentoku.ucr.edu
>
>Hello,
>
>I am a PhD student at The University of Hawaii (MFA from The New School 
>2004).  I'm currently doing research in creative writing pedagogy, and to 
>that end I had hoped to get in contact with some of the MFA teachers 
>there.  If you could forward this message onto them, I'd greatly 
>appreciate it.
>
>The research I'm doing grew out of an experience I had once in a fiction 
>workshop.  As part of an exercise, I'd conjured up a rather unsavoury 
>character--what I thought of as a villain--and as a result of his 
>unsavouriness I was in effect asked to withdraw myself from the class on 
>the grounds that such writing would "offend people" and made for a 
>"hostile learning environment."  I was totally nonplussed at the time.  I 
>had sought to create an unsavoury character and evidently succeeded too 
>well.  That incident got me thinking however about the degree to which the 
>writing workshop is or is not coterminous with the free marketplace of 
>ideas.  I've always assumed that censorship of creative writing = bad, but 
>perhaps it can get more complicated in the workshop context?  I mean what 
>do you do if you have one gay student and one student whose work 
>continually demeans gays, even if it is in the guise of fiction?  How does 
>the first ammendment fit into all this?  As a conducor of workshops, have 
>you had any experiences along these lines?  Has some form of censorship 
>ever seemed to be in order in a workshop situation?  Does your university 
>have any specific policies regarding these sorts of concerns ( i.e. a 
>"hostile learning environment" clause)?  Do these policies ever come into 
>conflict with the first ammendment, the open marketplace, or your own 
>convictions about art?
>
>I'd greatly appreciate anything you might have to contribute.  I will of 
>course keep your identity (and the university's) anonymous.  We could even 
>fill out the proper human subjects interview forms if it makes you more 
>comfortable.
>
>Many many thanks in advance,
>
>Sincerely,
>
>M. Thomas Gammarino
><mailto:gammarino at gmail.com>gammarino at gmail.com
>

Mike Atienza
Student Services
Departments of Dance, Music & Theatre
ARTS 130
University of California, Riverside
900 University Avenue
Riverside, CA 92521
(951) 827-3343
(951) 827-4651 FAX

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