Victor Criticism: Writing Without Mastery

• In Event: Tales and Texts: Approaches to Qualitative Work

Abstract

While the drive to mastery led to technological advances, it also fueled the establishment of colonialism, white supremacy, capitalism, and unsustainable relationships with the planet. Though each of these merit further inspection, this proposal focuses on research-writing and how the drive to mastery constrains research. However, fictocriticism, as a writing practice, can suspend the drive to mastery. Drawing on work that troubles the hierarchy of mastery and the stability of archives, this proposal uses examples of fictocriticism to demonstrate the suspension of mastery. In a world enflamed with the consequences of a myopic drive to mastery, fictocriticism interrupts mastery, engaging the speculative and practicing new ways of conducting research and relating to readers.

Author

• Seth A. McCall, Teachers College, Columbia University