This is an extended writing exercise intended to get Introduction to Creative Writing students thinking about ways to approach discussion and criticisms of representation in literature and (ideally) to think about ways to reexamine the way we write about others in our own work.
First, I don’t require students to read much or any of Constantin Stanislavski’s An Actor Prepares, but I have a lot of fun talking about the first few chapters: Stanislavski’s explanation of surface-level details vs. interiority is the primary vehicle for discussion. Despite the fact that this is interdisciplinary work we’re talking about, only a rudimentary understanding of Stanislavski’s method is necessary in order to get started with this unit.
The basics are fine: according to Stanislavski, an actor should prepare for a role not by simply throwing on a mask and putting on a voice, but by studying with great care and respect the culture, nuances, and desires of the individual (fictional or not). Immersion is key. The problem Stanislavski proposes is that every performance on stage should feel real, but this is an impossibility when performances are driven by formula and repetition.
What Stanislavski suggests is that we can organically portray “the other” from performance to performance by injecting our own experiences into the full-bodied shell of this studied character; movements, inflections, reactions, are all ideally made organic as a result. In effect, the purpose of this unit of my class is to explore ways in which we can never fully embody characters who come from different walks of life from our own. It’s no secret that we write about ourselves when we write about others, but how can we use this to our advantage?
The assignment: I ask my students to study a historical figure for a week and write about their findings: not just the big stuff everyone knows about (politics, actions, speeches and achievements), but the smaller details about their chosen figure: Did they have a happy marriage? Were they religious? Did they have hobbies? Were they kind to insects? Did they eat fish? This is the sort of stuff I assume my students will use the most.
Students are then asked to write a short story based on their chosen figure from the first-person POV. The stories are workshopped with time given to discuss representation. Writers are then asked to construct a revision essay which reflects on three main points: the workshop experience (whether they agree/disagree with what was said in workshop), the number of details of this person’s life they were able to incorporate vs. their own experience (When did I incorporate my experience and why? Does my experience invalidate that of the character I’m writing?), and what words of advice they might pass along to future students in the classroom. These are to be shared with said future students, preferably after their own workshopping process.
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Garrett Ashley’s debut story collection, My Grandfather Ran Off to the Woods, is forthcoming from Press 53 in May 2024. His work has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Normal School, Sonora Review, Reed Magazine, and DIAGRAM, among others. He lives in Alabama and teaches creative writing at Tuskegee University.