Creative WritingCreative Writing

Course content 
The Minor in “Creative Writing” is aimed at Master’s students for whom the written word is a key dimension of their (envisaged) professional identity and who wish to expand their horizons in this regard and/or learn more about specific fields of writing. The spectrum ranges from literary-narrative to dramatic to journalistic approaches in both classic contexts such as art, theatre, music, film and design and new hybrid fields combining arts and the media. 

Key areas of competency include work on research, genres, materials and figures, analysis and self-questioning in aspects such as style, technique and craftsmanship, and more in-depth reflection on writing as a cultural technique in the digital present. In the Minor, students write texts or plays that are designed for potential publication. Communication formats and feedback rounds with people from the target contexts help students to further develop their own profiles and increase their chances of obtaining funding and/or publication. 

Skills
Students operate in the following competency areas (though it is possible and indeed desirable to set individual priorities):

Reading/interpretation: The modules revolve around reading and interpretation skills both in the sense of thinking about and analyzing texts in students’ own field (as an author and/or proofreader) and in the sense of criticism as an interpretation of works in all art forms.

Writing/creation: These modules revolve around writing as a craft, technique and strategy in the sense of “applied poetics” in all sub-fields of writing in the arts/writing as art.

Production/design: The modules revolve around texts (in both the narrower and the broader sense) that address readers/recipients as a materialized product within a market and a sub-sphere of the cultural public.

Admissions requirements
Applicants must be registered on a ZHdK Master’s degree programme and have a strong sensitivity for language and text in at least one sub-field of writing in the arts. This means that they must have reading experience and analytical skills, but also proven potential in the creation of sophisticated texts. The decision regarding admission to the minor is made on the basis of an aptitude test.

Language skills required.
You need the following languages to take this minor:
–  German: to be able to follow a discussion
–  German: to actively participate in a verbal exchange
–  German: to understand a text
–  German or English or French: to write a text

Special features of the course
The Minor “Creative Writing” is committed to the idea of dialogue-based, active learning in which “learners” can become “teachers” (and vice versa) at any time. This depends on the approaches of the participants, direct dialogue with lecturers and fellow students, and contact with specific professional people/publication contexts. 

It is a modular study programme that enables participants to navigate individually within a broad selection of courses and thus put together their own, tailored learning paths. 

The Minor may be undertaken consecutively. In the “Creative writing – basic” minor (15 credits), students develop and define their own profile. In the “Creative writing – advanced” minor (15 credits), this is fully realized and then evidenced in a minor project.

A number of modules are shared with the Cultural Publishing major and various other ZHdK programmes – including, specifically, the CAS/DAS Writing in Art and Culture.

Lecturers
Lukas Bärfuss, writer, playwright, theatre director and dramaturg
Stefan Brunner, creator and screenwriter, visiting lecturer on the ‘Cinematic Narration in Virtual Spaces’ minor
Delphine Chapuis Schmitz, artist, PhD in philosophy and lecturer (including on the Master’s programme in Transdisciplinary Studies in the Arts)
Stefan Jäger, director, screenwriter, producer and programme director for the Screenwriting Major
Jurczok 1001, spoken word artist, author, editor and musician
Franziska Nyffenegger, holder of a PhD in Cultural Studies, editor and lecturer (including on the Design programme and the BA in Art Education)
Aoife Rosenmeyer, art journalist and art critic
Gianna Rovere, curator, art critic
Barbara Sommer, dramaturg, screenwriter, Head of the major in “Cultural Publishing”, responsible for the “Creative Writing” minor and the CAS in “Writing in Art and Culture”
Julia Weber, writer and playwright
Cédric Weidmann, author, literary scholar and Director of the Aargau Literature House in Lenzburg

→ More about the Minor Creative Writing – basic (PDF download)
→ More about the Minor Creative Writing – advanced (PDF download)