Writing

Question 1

What is writing?

Answer 1

…an ongoing practice through which we gather materials and ideas while opening up new trajectories of thought
…something which can take form in many different styles and genres
It doesn’t exist in the abstract.

Question 2

How do Derrida, Foucault and Haraway understand writing?

Answer 2

Derrida - there is no such thing as a blank page, it is always already populated and haunted by ideas

Foucault -writing shaped by the discursive formations in which it takes place

Haraway - writing as a form of politics if it opens up a new way of thinking about the world

Question 3

How is writing a nonrepresentational practice?

Answer 3

Writing always fails to capture the world because the world is always excessive of representation
Words are not static snapshots but are performative and affective
We are moved by words (like images)
Writing is a bodily practice – it is an embodied skill that requires training
Writing is shaped by the situated lives of writers (and of audiences!)

Question 4

How is writing a technology of the self? (Foucault, 1981)

Answer 4

A way in which we construct ourselves and narrate our lives e.g. diary, social media posts.
Writing as experimenting with oneself.

Question 5

What do the geographies of writing involve?

Answer 5

Takes place in different locations
Gathers material from different sites
Operates at different scales
Different temporalities
Increasingly complex – different platforms