Dissertation
Gone Home: A creative artefact and exegesis exploring a path to writing haibun in English
University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Doctor of Creative Arts, University of the Sunshine Coast
2015
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25907/00256
Abstract
By means of a creative artefact and exegesis this Doctorate of Creative Arts (Creative Writing) explores a young mother's response to the death of a town through a collection of cross genre material (the creative artefact) entitled 'Gone Home'. This creative artefact contains over forty diary entries in haibun form, more than thirty poems, numerous letters, lists, newspaper clippings, and four oral history transcripts. A number of the haibun have been published in literary journals and twenty of the poems are to be published by Ginninderra Press early in 2015. The haibun explore the day to day experiences of a young mother who comes to live in a mining town soon to be dug up for coal. The poems are lyric reflections by the same woman, thirty five years later, on that traumatic time for her and her community. The letters, lists and newspaper articles work to link the various literary components of the artefact, as well as provide factual information about the circumstances of the life and death of this town, a fictional construct of Yallourn, Victoria. The oral history transcripts contribute to the wider narrative and subtext of displacement of an entire community when a town is destroyed. The representation of Neatheton/Yallourn is based on my own memories of Yallourn in 1978 and research into the history of Yallourn in primary and secondary sources. The accompanying exegesis explores a path to writing haibun in English (in which the creative artefact is embedded), examines the evolution of haibun, from its origins in seventeenth century Japan, through its first manifestations in English in the mid twentieth century, to the status and nature of English Language haibun as a contemporary literary form. Following a practice-led research/research-led practice methodology I track my own haibun journey, learning from the exemplary text of Matsuo Basho, Oku no hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), as well as close studies of English Language haibun collections by US and UK writers, and Australia's Janice M. Bostok. I constantly revise my haibun drafts, analysing and refining them as I write the creative artefact. The final form for the diary entries of the young mother is a product of my research journey, and its exegetical record I believe contributes to the contemporary discourse of the future directions of English Language haibun.
Details
- Title
- Gone Home: A creative artefact and exegesis exploring a path to writing haibun in English
- Authors
- Susan Utting
- Contributors
- Gary Crew (Supervisor)
- Awarding institution
- University of the Sunshine Coast
- Degree awarded
- Doctor of Creative Arts
- Publisher
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
- DOI
- 10.25907/00256
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Creative Industries - Legacy
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99449820602621
- Output Type
- Dissertation
- Research Statement
- false
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