Writing as a Force of Destruction

Abstract

When or in which circumstances is creative writing a method of inquiry? I’m striving to answer this question from a writer’s perspective by creating a space of reflection with two theoretical texts which are important for my thinking and writing – »From Science to Literature« by Roland Barthes and »The Creative Process« by James Baldwin – and excerpts of my yet unpublished manuscript, which circles around different forms of assault (and can be read as autoethnography). What I do is, firstly, giving an overview over those aspects and arguments in the debate of artistic research which are especially relevant for creative writers and, secondly, show and elaborate on the difference between a writing with language and writing within language. I suggest, alluding to Luce Irigaray, to think of the beginning of writing as a silence, an omitted utterance, as a pure presence or potential, to allow the second word to be aware of all the concealed mechanisms which have to be questioned.