Gandolfo, Enza (2008) Feminist Fictionmaking. New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, 5 (2). pp. 140-149. ISSN 1479-0726

Abstract

This paper is an exploration of the process of feminist fiction writing; what I have termed fictionmaking, to deliberately situate fiction writing as a form of cultural production and social construction that can and should be interrogate. This approach by necessity challenges some of the myths about the creative process including romantic notions that posit creativity as individual, give rise to the sacredness of the text and situate the writer as either conduit or genius. This interrogation is important to me as a feminist committed to being politically accountable and as a novelist writing to challenge our perceptions and create a deeper understanding of ourselves and each other. It is my contention that all feminist fiction writers have a political ‘intention’ and though the intention of the writer cannot be said to construct the meaning of the work, it is a crucial aspect of the fabric that forms the work. In this paper, I use my own experience of writing, Swimming, a feminist novel (currently unpublished) as a basis for a self-reflective, critical approach aimed at illuminating the feminist fictionmaking process.

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