Suicide girls : pedagogy and praxis in the on-line writing workshop

Abstract

On-line writing workshops provide educational spaces within which aspiring writers can learn their craft. In order to understand the dialogic mechanisms behind that learning, this thesis examines ways in which one workshop, the Internet Writing Workshop (IWW), functions as a Freireian culture circle.

The exegesis identifies several key characteristics that defined Paulo Freire's concept of the culture circle. It compares these characteristics with the structure and practice of interaction within the IWW. It unpacks some of Freire's ideas about dialogue as a means of achieving critical consciousness, and compares them to current learning theory and the ways in which dialogue takes place within the IWW community.

The exegesis also examines some of the political axioms behind Freire's pedagogy, and examines ways in which the IWW community might be viewed as emancipatory or liberatory.

I examine these areas in light of the development of a novel, Suicide Girls. The second draft of this novel was influenced and informed by my participant-observation of the IWW. This working draft of the novel is provided as a process document to demonstrate findings made in the exegesis and is annotated to reflect relevant process and development issues.