Abstract

Creative writing is often to be seen as a pleasurable experience, an enjoyable journey through the realms of one’s creativity. However, it is difficult to argue that this pleasure, no matter how intense, is deprived of work. The idea that creative writing requires some work has been validated by its introduction in university programs. Iowa University was the first one to introduce the first creative writing university program for credits in 1940, featuring Paul Engle’s creative writing workshop. Hence, the very process of creative writing relies on the articulation of these principles of pleasure and work. So, when it comes to literary creation and the appropriation of its process, how can we define what pleasure consists in, and more specifically, what type of work is involved? One might wonder if a system or a learning pattern can be derived from the combination of these two principles such as a functional organization of pleasure. When does work overshadow the pleasure of creating the text? Can pleasure emerge from a system? This paper will look into the emergence of a system ruling literary creation as well as disrupting it in so far as it only enables the apprentice writer to wonder further, upon and beyond pre-established grounds and boundaries.