Curated Fiction presents a new theory and methodology for developing, drafting and refining creative writing. At the intersection of literary studies and creative writing, this book develops a new theory for analysing how novelists use narrative point-of-view to direct readers’ trust.
The book defines the parameters and practice of one possible approach to the creative development of a work of long-form fiction. The value underpinning this approach will be drawn from the theories that inform it, such as Irene Kacandes’s work on Talk Fiction, Bakhtinian concepts of polyphony and Gerald Prince’s concept of the Disnarrated.
Offering critical analyses of existing literary works, such as Waterland and As I Lay Dying, Curated Fiction will afford examination of theory in practice, in differing literary forms and contexts before making practical connections with the craft of writing through the analysis of an original short story, 'Foxes'.
Acknowledgements
Chapter One: In Which I Vanish
Chapter Two: Of Ghosts and Things: Waterland as a Narrative Black Hole
Chapter Three: The Nature of the Goods: Absence as Provocation in Graham Swift’s Last Orders
Chapter Four: Strange Blood: The Anti-Language of As I Lay Dying
Chapter Five: The Secret Room: Artifice and Historical Angst in A Room Made of Leaves
Foxes
Chapter Six: Synthesis: An Analysis of ‘Foxes’
Chapter Seven: Curated Fiction in Practice
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Dr Cameron Hindrum lives, writes and works in lutruwita/Tasmania, the island state of Australia. He was awarded a Doctorate of Creative Arts (Writing), with double commendation, from the University of Wollongong in 2021. His first novel, The Blue Cathedral, was published in 2011 and revised and reissued in 2023; his second novel, The Sand, won the 2022 University of Tasmania Prize for best unpublished manuscript at the 2022 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Awards.
