Creative Reflection

Question 1

introduction

Answer 1

In my imaginative piece ‘Renewal’, I explore the distinctive personal challenge of overcoming grief through the power of writing and creative self-expression, and its ability to detach individuals from trauma. I achieve this through adopting the persona of a mother grieving the passing of her son, and the beauty she finds in cherishing her son’s memories, instead of rewriting them.

Question 2

gwen harwood

Answer 2

• diptych structure that creates a visual and structural parallel to the stages of grief
• juxtapose the warping of her son’s memory to the real image reappearing
• parental love and the passage of time, narrative voice and rhetorical qs, emotional complexity

Inspired by Gwen Harwood’s poem Father and Child, I adopted a diptych structure to create a visual and structural parallel to the stages of grief. I used this structure to juxtapose the warping of her son’s memory “I can’t catch a glimpse of you… your distorted voice” to his “real image reappear(ing)”. Further, I drew on Harwood’s exploration of the interplay between the themes of parental love and the passage of time through the use of a first-person narrative voice and rhetorical questions: “Does every word I write breathe life into you?”, emphasising the emotional complexity of the persona’s grief

Question 3

nam le

Answer 3

• explore the lived trauma on literary work
• transitory state
• reflective tone

Inspired by Nam Le’s metafictive narrative Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice, I explored the impact of lived trauma on literary work. Similar to how Le’s “world could be shattered by a small stone dropped like a single syllable” I wanted to convey the difficulty in moving on through use of a reflective tone and a transitory phase. Like Le’s “finishing the scotch… my story was due at midday”, the persona also wakes up “to the cold of the early morning” and “slump(s) into the chair again, pen in hand”.

Question 4

kim cheng boey

Answer 4

• inspired by his use of motif
• used the motif of ink, extended metaphor to represent the mother’s rewriting of her son’s memories and his image
• symbolises the mother’s way of coping with her trauma of her son’s death
• allusions to colour
• visual and tactile imagery
• mother’s act of writing portrays her symbolic lifeline to her son
• personified him through his outstretched hand
• metaphorically represents his influence in bringing her back to the present

I used the mother’s act of writing as an extended metaphor to portray her symbolic lifeline to her son and her attempt to preserve his memory. Her initially forced control of the writing: “I slap your hand away and grip the pen harder” traps her in the depths of grief, and her attempts to preserve her son’s “perfect image” further resubmerges her “into the suffocation”. Further, I personified her son’s memory through his outstretched hand “your fingers interlace mine” and the repeated use of “you”, metaphorically representing his influence in bringing her back to the present.

Question 5

conclusion

Answer 5

By presenting her experiences in a narrative structure, I encouraged the audience to form their own conclusion about the meaning of ‘Renewal’ as a concept, and the beauty in living on in the memories of others.