What are you quining about? Making new by speaking twice in the creative writing HDR thesis

‘Quining’ is a term used by Hofstadter (1979) to describe the operation Quine (1976) performs when he crafts his own version of the Epimendes paradox. To ‘quine’ a phrase is to make a sentence by writing that phrase twice with one instance in quotation marks. Quine’s (1976, p. 7) paradox is: ‘“Yields falsehood when appended to its own quotation” yields falsehood when appended to its own quotation.’ Quotation marks facilitate two discursive levels within a quined phrase. There is a use-mention distinction; language and meta-language; and framed and embedded discourse. These stacked discursive levels interact to produce new meanings. Krauth (2002) describes the exegesis as a ‘framing device’ for its creative artefact. He also describes the creative writing higher degree by research (HDR) thesis as a work that ‘speaks twice’: once in the creative artefact and again in the exegesis or vice versa. Quining can provide insight into how the creative writing HDR thesis speaks twice without repeating itself. Creative writing HDR theses generate research not despite but because they traverse the same territory at different discursive levels. Like a quined phrase, creative writing theses, particularly those with braided or hybrid forms, produce meta-discourse that transforms additive repetition into synergies of meaning.