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Do You Need a Degree to Be a Writer?

March 17, 2020

This question is silly – ironically enough, you maybe found this post googling that very same thing… Do you need a degree to be a writer?

As I’ve often mentioned, the answer to any headline ending with a question mark is “no”. This is the case here, too. No, you don’t need a degree to be a writer (as I said, the question is so silly that I feel stupid just answering it).

However (here it comes)…

This isn’t the entire story, either. No, you don’t “need” a degree to be a writer, in the sense there have been many writers who didn’t have a college degree and produced some stunning works of art.

Yet, I’d be a liar not to admit my PhD has made me a better writer – though probably not quite for the reasons you might suspect.

In today’s post I’ll take a closer look at what getting a college degree (say, in creative writing or English literature) does for you as a fiction author. Is it better? Could it be worse?

Ultimately, the proper question isn’t whether you need a degree to be a writer, but whether going through a (relevant) degree makes you a better writer.

do you need a degree to be a writer — A college degree relevant to writing can open a hole in the wall. But you still need eyes to see

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The Sublime in Literature: Meaning and Significance

January 20, 2020

Criticism

academia, ambiguity, experiencing, Gothic, literature, sublime

The sublime in literature (and art in general) is a fascinating but complex concept. The difficulty in comprehending its ins and outs lies squarely in the fluidity of its definition.

Just as the Gothic itself – with which the sublime is heavily associated – that eludes clear-cut definitions, the sublime is not all that clear to put in a box. In a way, the sublime in literature is a way of experiencing. Yet in another way, the sublime is no more than a ghostly reflection – and so, it’s not really prescribing but rather describing.

In simple terms, the sublime in literature is every instance where we reach a threshold of ambiguity. Whenever we (vicariously, through the protagonist) experience the fuzzy passage between reason and emotion, between fear and awe, or between puzzlement and understanding, the sublime is there.

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Spatio-Temporal Ambiguities in John Richardson’s Wacousta

December 24, 2019

Criticism

academia, Canada, criticism, Gothic, symbolism, time

Note: the following article on spatio-temporal ambiguities in John Richardson’s Wacousta is a modified excerpt from the article “The ‘New World’ Gothic Monster: Spatio-Temporal Ambiguities, Male Bonding, and Nation in John Richardson’s Wacousta”, co-authored with Matti Savolainen. Savolainen, Matti & Mehtonen, Päivi (ed & intr.). Gothic Topographies – Language, Nation Building and Race. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2013

For a list of my other academic publications, see here.

Scholarly work on Canadian literature has drawn attention to the Canadian landscape, and rightfully so. With the vast icy emptiness of the north and the depressing isolation of its individual settlements, it functions as a peculiar Gothic villain.

Here, nature itself becomes a monster (Atwood 3, 19, 35, 88); an “Other”, that in its sublime characteristics inspires both terror and awe, and at the same time serves the purpose of self-definition by instigating the individual’s assessing their place in this new world. This process occurs on an unconscious level, and it is here that the Gothic, as a mode, can be detected at its greatest uniqueness.

Wacousta — Canadian wilderness achieves character status in John Richardson’s novel

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