Critical or Creative? The Creature Writes to Victor Frankenstein

ABSTRACT This essay considers the relative merits of critical writing and writing in role as a means of enabling and assessing students’ responses to literary texts. Drawing largely on the author’s experience of teaching Frankenstein, it argues that the distinction between critical and creative writing is not as absolute as is sometimes supposed, and that so-called ‘creative’ tasks can be a very effective way of generating critical insight. It explores the significant limitations and limiting potential of the critical essay as a form, and argues that creative tasks such as writing in role afford far greater opportunities for school students to write fully and successfully as themselves. It links the longevity and pervasiveness of the critical essay as a mode of assessment within the English school system to its ‘exam-friendliness’, and makes the case for an alternative and more equitable approach that would allow for young people to be judged on their true potential as thinkers and writers.