Roll Out the Big Canon: A Subjective Academic Narrative

Following a brief survey of creative writing vs literary studies, and looking at both in relationships to social networking sites, in this paper, I consider the ways in which we assume that some personal writing is ‘creative’. In doing so, I question the use of literature as a model for creative writing. At the same time I canvass the necessity for wide reading as a basis for creative writing. I suggest that the subjective self is inadequate as a singular basis for creative writing and that the author is stirring from the deathbed not to attain the position of the ‘god’ but rather to provide leadership in a world obsessed with the subjective self as data. In doing so, I look at some the technology of the present assessing some electronic implications of the death of the author and the birth of the subjective self, at social networking and/as creative writing, and at warnings about the power of the culture industry. Finally, rather plaintively, I call for rolling back out the big canon itself. My theoretical framework of narrativity and the subjective academic narrative is shown as another paradox within this discussion.