The Known and Unknown Sea
- Submitting institution
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Swansea University / Prifysgol Abertawe
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 22243
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
-
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- Publisher
- Cillian Press
- ISBN
- 978-1-909776-02-9
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- March
- Year of publication
- 2014
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- Yes
- Additional information
- The Known and Unknown Sea (2014) draws upon aspects of Magic Realism, Surrealism, and the Freudian concept of ‘the dream work’ in order to explore ideas of childhood anxiety and traumatic loss. Borrowing a fictional frame from children’s fiction (the idea of mysterious tickets offering entrance to an otherworldly kingdom), and adopting a voice and aesthetic drawn from the idea of a child’s naïve painting and creation, the novel explores the idea of unconscious dreams as a projection of what a child longs to happen, and what a child fears might happen. I began by researching the narrative structure (Here/There, Home/Away) of children’s fiction, linking these to debates regarding ‘known and unknown’ categories of knowledge in Childhood studies. The work then drew upon Surrealist practices intended to bypass logic and reason, to create the final novel, stressing the intuitive and right-hand hemisphere brain functioning. This methodology thus drew upon both ideas of the irrational and the absurd, alongside an ‘adult/rational’ understanding of the material, a tension central to issues of both voice (the naïve or unreliable narrator) and form (the comforting frame of a children’s adventure). I have discussed the novel and its ideas in talks and interviews across the UK, and at the National Association of Writers in Education Conference in 2017. Readers have responded to the material in terms of their own dreams and their meanings, and this has led to a paper on Dream Fiction published in Writing in Education, as well as enriching subsequent talks at festivals, book clubs and writing groups, encouraging readers to create their own dream narratives.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
