Like various applications of psychoanalytic criticism found in English departments, creative writing pedagogy signifies different concepts to different practitioners. For some, creative writing is merely a pleasant diversion from more analytical courses. For others, creative writing courses help students understand literary devices with better clarity and interest. Still others link the creative functions of all types of written expression together; the act of expression becomes the focus of what is creative.

To creative writing teachers, psychoanalysis represents many things as well. To the many who remain resistant to “theory,” psychoanalysis is merely another distraction