Research

In seeking to develop a trauma-informed creative writing pedagogy, we consider the following questions:

1. How might creative writing techniques enable early career researchers/academics working in the field of gender-based violence/sexual violence, to explore new literary techniques to build resilience and to consider their research subjects from different perspectives?

• How might their self-reflections, expressed as narrative, support their wellbeing?
• What writing techniques are most and least effective to support wellbeing?

2. How might researchers develop an aesthetics of writing about violence that engages readers and avoids ‘societal flinch’?

• What might the development of symbolic language such as the use of sensory writing, metaphor, similes, lyricism contribute to this new vocabulary?
• Are there genre forms which are more appropriate for writing about this subject?
• What are the ethical boundaries that need to be set to protect victim-survivors?

3. How might we share this conversation with victim-survivors about writing strategies?

• Are there particular media that are better suited to survivor community engagement?