What’s ‘critical’ in creative writing PhDs?

The PhD in creative writing, like other practice-oriented advanced degrees, suffers from academic scepticism and even disdain. Unlike other practice-focused degrees, it claims the label concerning philosophy, and with it a standard of contributing to knowledge. This paper responds to a challenge to make explicit what types of knowledge the hybrid model of the degree – with its expectation of a book-length piece of creative work and a long essay – creates. It does so through examining accounts of the detrimental effects of the lack of clarity and the remedies students and supervisors have identified. It analyses the expectations that universities in Britain set and a personal account of undertaking such a project, before relating accounts of the practice in one such university and the problems that arose there. While prior accounts have considered workarounds, this paper suggests we focus on what knowledge such work creates, how it is created, and to whose knowledge it contributes. Practitioners can thus see ways to decide whether to make more explicit what types of knowledge the degree can create and decide whether a different label might better describe the nature of the degree they choose to offer.