Conceptualizing and Writing the Exegesis: A Brief Introduction (Pre-Colloquium Level)

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Conceptualizing and Writing the Exegesis A
Brief Introduction (Pre-Colloquium Level)

• HDR Summer School 2016
• Dr Patrick West
• patrick.west_at_deakin.edu.au

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Presentation Abstract

• The exegesis has always been with us in different
  forms and under various names, yet it still
  puzzles many writers and HDR students. This
  workshop will provide an introduction to various
  models of the exegesis, detail the different ways
  in which the exegesis may be related to the
  creative product, discuss examiners expectations
  of the exegesis, and advise on how to guard
  against the most common pitfalls of exegesis
  writing. The exegesis is an exciting and
  constantly evolving mode of writing and my hope
  is that participants will come to see how they
  can work within the tradition of the exegesis
  while shaping it to suit their own creative and
  research purposes.

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Key Questions

• What is an exegesis?

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Key Questions

• What is an exegesis?
• What is the relationship of the exegesis to the
  creative product?

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Key Questions

• What is an exegesis?
• What is the relationship of the exegesis to the
  creative product?
• What is the relationship of the exegesis and the
  creative product to the research question?

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Key Questions

• What is an exegesis?
• What is the relationship of the exegesis to the
  creative product?
• What is the relationship of the exegesis and the
  creative product to the research question?
• What should an exegesis do and how should it do
  it?

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Key Questions

• What is an exegesis?
• What is the relationship of the exegesis to the
  creative product?
• What is the relationship of the exegesis and the
  creative product to the research question?
• What should an exegesis do and how should it do
  it?
• How can we take advantage of the exegesis as an
  evolving and creative mode of writing?

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The Definition of an HDR Exegesis

• The HDR exegesis (plural, exegeses) is a piece of
  moderately serious and detailed explanatory
  and/or investigative writing that comments on
  and/or seeks to explain the writers creative
  product and craft and/or process and, together
  with the creative product, forms an integral
  element of a thesis that addresses a research
  question or questions.
• Exegesisfrom the Greek verb exegemai meaning to
  lead, to relate in detail, to expound.
  (Biblical Exegesis by John H. Hayes Carl R.
  Holladay John Knox Press, 1982)
• Exegesis (An) exposition, esp. of Scripture a
  gloss, an explanatory note or discourse. (The
  New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary)

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The Exegesis by Another Name

• There is a long tradition of artists writing
  about their creative work without necessarily
  using the term exegesis.
• Examples include prefaces introductions
  forewords afterwords authors notes footnotes.
  
• Present-day understandings of the exegesis are
  very much in flux and open to new interpretation
  as they re-inflect this nest of examples.
• Nigel Krauth, The Preface as Exegesis TEXT 61,
  April 2002 http//www.textjournal.com.au/april02/k
  rauth.htm

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What the Exegesis is Not

• It is not a project statement or statement of
  intent
• it is written after the creative work not
  before.

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What the Exegesis is Not

• It is not a project statement or statement of
  intent
• it is written after the creative work not
  before.
• It is not a piece of literary or arts criticism
  or a review
• it is written by the creative writer or arts
  practitioner about their own work and takes
  advantage of that fact.

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What the Exegesis is Not

• It is not a project statement or statement of
  intent
• it is written after the creative work not
  before.
• It is not a piece of literary or arts criticism
  or a review
• it is written by the creative writer or arts
  practitioner about their own work and takes
  advantage of that fact.
• It is not a piece of creative writing in itself
• it is a piece of non-fiction writing (though
  sometimes, perhaps, it can be in the creative
  non-fiction mode or even, very rarely, it might
  resemble a piece of creative writing itself).

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Three Models of the Exegesis

• 1.) Context model rehearses the historical,
  social and/or disciplinary context(s) within
  which the student developed the creative or
  production component of her or his thesis.
  Binary relationship exegesis privileged
• 2.) Commentary model an explication of, or
  comment on, the creative production. Binary
  relationship creative work privileged
• 3.) Research-Question model In this model both
  the exegetical and the creative component of the
  research thesis hinges on a research question
  posed, refined and reposed by the student across
  the several stages of a research program. Both
  the written and the creative component of the
  thesis are conceptualised as independent answers
  to the same research question No binary
  exegesis and creative work address the same
  research-question differently and equally
• Barbara H. Milech Ann Schilo, Exit Jesus
  Relating the Exegesis and Creative/Production
  Components of a Research Thesis TEXT Special
  Issue 3, April 2004 http//www.textjournal.com.au/
  speciss/issue3/milechschilo.htm

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Many Models of the Exegesis

• 1.) Research-Question Model.
• 2.) Context Model.
• 3.) Commentary Model.
• 4.) Literary Criticism or Art Critical Model.
• 5.) Professional Model.
• 6.) Artists Statement Model.
• 7.) The Exegesis By Other Names Model (Preface,
  Introduction, Authors Note, Etc.)
• Our focus today is on model 1.)

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The Relationship of the Exegesis to the Research
Question or Questions

• The exegesis and the creative product jointly
  address one or usually at least two research
  questions using the affordances (possibilities of
  relationship) that each part possesses.

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The Relationship of the Exegesis to the Research
Question or Questions

• The exegesis and the creative product jointly
  address one or usually at least two research
  questions using the affordances (possibilities of
  relationship) that each part possesses.
• The HDR candidate in the creative arts needs to
  be able to answer this question what does my
  creative product allow me to say about my
  research question that I wouldnt otherwise have
  been able to say?

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The Relationship of the Exegesis to the Research
Question or Questions

• The exegesis and the creative product jointly
  address one or usually at least two research
  questions using the affordances (possibilities of
  relationship) that each part possesses.
• The HDR candidate in the creative arts needs to
  be able to answer this question what does my
  creative product allow me to say about my
  research question that I wouldnt otherwise have
  been able to say?
• The exegesis says things the creative product
  cant say, and vice versa. They speak and mean
  differently. They have different voices.

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide A)

• Theses in the creative arts should address a
  research question that would be recognizable, in
  its form, to researchers in the Humanities or
  Social Sciences as enabling an original
  contribution to knowledge (craft based or
  otherwise) building on previous research.

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide A)

• Theses in the creative arts should address a
  research question that would be recognizable, in
  its form, to researchers in the Humanities or
  Social Sciences as enabling an original
  contribution to knowledge (craft based or
  otherwise) building on previous research.
• All theses in the creative arts inevitably answer
  at least one research question (some question of
  craft) precisely because they employ craft as
  their research in the creation of the creative
  product.

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide A)

• Theses in the creative arts should address a
  research question that would be recognizable, in
  its form, to researchers in the Humanities or
  Social Sciences as enabling an original
  contribution to knowledge (craft based or
  otherwise) building on previous research.
• All theses in the creative arts inevitably answer
  at least one research question (some question of
  craft) precisely because they employ craft as
  their research in the creation of the creative
  product.
• Creative artists can learn more about their own
  craft (knowledge transferable to themselves) by
  observing how craft is used in any given thesis
  to address a research question of whatever sort.

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide B)

• HDR students in the creative arts have an
  important choice to make in their choice of a
  principal research question.

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide B)

• HDR students in the creative arts have an
  important choice to make in their choice of a
  principal research question.
• If they choose a principal research question
  focused on craft then they have only one
  principal research question to answer.

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide B)

• HDR students in the creative arts have an
  important choice to make in their choice of a
  principal research question.
• If they choose a principal research question
  focused on craft then they have only one
  principal research question to answer.
• If they choose a principal research question
  unrelated to craft then they will necessarily be
  answering two principal questions (the first of
  non-craft and the second of craft).

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide B)

• HDR students in the creative arts have an
  important choice to make in their choice of a
  principal research question.
• If they choose a principal research question
  focused on craft then they have only one
  principal research question to answer.
• If they choose a principal research question
  unrelated to craft then they will necessarily be
  answering two principal questions (the first of
  non-craft and the second of craft).
• A craft-focused principal research question may
  be either explicit or implicit.

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide C)

• Principal and secondary research questions are
  related as aim is related to methodology.

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide C)

• Principal and secondary research questions are
  related as aim is related to methodology.
• The secondary research question is the
  methodological question you need to answer along
  the way to answering your principal research
  question.

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide C)

• Principal and secondary research questions are
  related as aim is related to methodology.
• The secondary research question is the
  methodological question you need to answer along
  the way to answering your principal research
  question.
• This secondary or methodological research
  question is always a form of what do I have to
  do in my creative product to answer my principal
  research question?

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide C)

• Principal and secondary research questions are
  related as aim is related to methodology.
• The secondary research question is the
  methodological question you need to answer along
  the way to answering your principal research
  question.
• This secondary or methodological research
  question is always a form of what do I have to
  do in my creative product to answer my principal
  research question?
• If your principal research question is already
  about craft then your secondary research question
  logically draws closer to your principal research
  question.

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One or Two Research Questions (Slide C)

• Principal and secondary research questions are
  related as aim is related to methodology.
• The secondary research question is the
  methodological question you need to answer along
  the way to answering your principal research
  question.
• This secondary or methodological research
  question is always a form of what do I have to
  do in my creative product to answer my principal
  research question?
• If your principal research question is already
  about craft then your secondary research question
  logically draws closer to your principal research
  question.
• If your principal research question is not about
  craft then your secondary research question also
  operates as a second principal research question.
  

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The One or Two Answers of the Exegesis

• In drawing out what the creative product offers
  by way of an answer to the principal research
  question, the exegesis necessarily reflects on
  the craft and/or process of the creative product.
  

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The One or Two Answers of the Exegesis

• In drawing out what the creative product offers
  by way of an answer to the principal research
  question, the exegesis necessarily reflects on
  the craft and/or process of the creative product.
  
• Craft is always in consideration either as a
  means to answering a non-craft research question
  or as the sole research question (as in, a
  research question about craft theory or the study
  of craft).

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The One or Two Answers of the Exegesis

• In drawing out what the creative product offers
  by way of an answer to the principal research
  question, the exegesis necessarily reflects on
  the craft and/or process of the creative product.
  
• Craft is always in consideration either as a
  means to answering a non-craft research question
  or as the sole research question (as in, a
  research question about craft theory or the study
  of craft).
• Either way, an explicit or implicit principal
  research question of craft is always present.

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The One or Two Answers of the Exegesis

• In drawing out what the creative product offers
  by way of an answer to the principal research
  question, the exegesis necessarily reflects on
  the craft and/or process of the creative product.
  
• Craft is always in consideration either as a
  means to answering a non-craft research question
  or as the sole research question (as in, a
  research question about craft theory or the study
  of craft).
• Either way, an explicit or implicit principal
  research question of craft is always present.
• Other artists can always learn about their own
  craft from your thesis no matter the focus of
  your principal research question. The creative
  product packaged by the thesis draws attention to
  itself as a creative product apart from anything
  else.

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Product or Process?

• Traditional literary or creative-arts criticism
  focuses on (final) product and tends to bracket
  off the craft and/or process leading to the
  product.

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Product or Process?

• Traditional literary or creative-arts criticism
  focuses on (final) product and tends to bracket
  off the craft and/or process leading to the
  product.
• The writer of the exegesis does not have
  God-given insight into the meaning of his/her
  work, but he/she does have some sort of
  privileged insight into the products craft
  and/or process.

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Product or Process?

• Traditional literary or creative-arts criticism
  focuses on (final) product and tends to bracket
  off the craft and/or process leading to the
  product.
• The writer of the exegesis does not have
  God-given insight into the meaning of his/her
  work, but he/she does have some sort of
  privileged insight into the products craft
  and/or process.
• The writer of the exegesis is well advised to see
  the so-called final product of his/her craft
  and/or process as only another stage of craft or
  process.

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Product or Process?

• Traditional literary or creative-arts criticism
  focuses on (final) product and tends to bracket
  off the craft and/or process leading to the
  product.
• The writer of the exegesis does not have
  God-given insight into the meaning of his/her
  work, but he/she does have some sort of
  privileged insight into the products craft
  and/or process.
• The writer of the exegesis is well advised to see
  the so-called final product of his/her craft
  and/or process as only another stage of craft or
  process.
• Craft and/or process is a space of trying things
  out and considering the results. Product is
  always in process. The final product is not
  the end of craft and/or process.

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Product or Process?

• Traditional literary or creative-arts criticism
  focuses on (final) product and tends to bracket
  off the craft and/or process leading to the
  product.
• The writer of the exegesis does not have
  God-given insight into the meaning of his/her
  work, but he/she does have some sort of
  privileged insight into the products craft
  and/or process.
• The writer of the exegesis is well advised to see
  the so-called final product of his/her craft
  and/or process as only another stage of craft or
  process.
• Craft and/or process is a space of trying things
  out and considering the results. Product is
  always in process. The final product is not
  the end of craft and/or process.
• The exegesis is an opportunity to write about
  product as both an end point and a starting point
  of craft and/or process.

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What to Talk About in the Exegesis

• In answering the thesis research questions, the
  exegesis must talk about the creative product and
  its process and/or craft, and more.
• The exegesis should also bring in new material
  relevant to the thesis research questions, but it
  must put such material into a dialogue with the
  creative product and its process and/or craft.
• From the dialogue of the creative product
  (including its process and/or craft) with other
  material such as theory or previous contributions
  to knowledge (including other creative products)
  an original contribution to knowledge emerges.

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Example 1 Principal Research Question (Non-Craft
Based)

• Principal Research Question (PRQ) What are the
  political possibilities of democracy in an age of
  Western democratic hegemony? (Which could be the
  question of a traditional HDR thesis in the
  Humanities or Social Sciences.)

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Example 1 Principal Research Question (Non-Craft
Based)

• Principal Research Question (PRQ) What are the
  political possibilities of democracy in an age of
  Western democratic hegemony? (Which could be the
  question of a traditional HDR thesis in the
  Humanities or Social Sciences.)
• PRQ transferred to creative product (lets say, a
  novel) as Secondary Research or methodology
  Question (SRQ) What technical issues are
  involved in using character as an instance of
  group democracy in a novel? (This question
  allows us to answer PRQ by prompting a
  methodology.)

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Example 1 Principal Research Question (Non-Craft
Based)

• Principal Research Question (PRQ) What are the
  political possibilities of democracy in an age of
  Western democratic hegemony? (Which could be the
  question of a traditional HDR thesis in the
  Humanities or Social Sciences.)
• PRQ transferred to creative product (lets say, a
  novel) as Secondary Research or methodology
  Question (SRQ) What technical issues are
  involved in using character as an instance of
  group democracy in a novel? (This question
  allows us to answer PRQ by prompting a
  methodology.)
• Now, the SRQ becomes the additional principal
  research question (craft based) through the
  answer it provides to an implicit question of
  craft What new practices of characterization
  emerge from the attempt to answer the principal
  research question? (Useful to any novelist.)

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Example 1 Principal Research Question (Non-Craft
Based)

• Principal Research Question (PRQ) What are the
  political possibilities of democracy in an age of
  Western democratic hegemony? (Which could be the
  question of a traditional HDR thesis in the
  Humanities or Social Sciences.)
• PRQ transferred to creative product (lets say, a
  novel) as Secondary Research or methodology
  Question (SRQ) What technical issues are
  involved in using character as an instance of
  group democracy in a novel? (This question
  allows us to answer PRQ by prompting a
  methodology.)
• Now, the SRQ becomes the additional principal
  research question (craft based) through the
  answer it provides to an implicit question of
  craft What new practices of characterization
  emerge from the attempt to answer the principal
  research question? (Useful to any novelist.)
• So, a non-craft based PRQ generates an answer to
  a craft question only implicitly asked and two
  PRQs emerge.

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Example 2 Principal Research Question (Craft
Based)

• Principal Research Question (PRQ) How can we
  create a new theory of characterization for the
  novel? (Which has the traditional structure of a
  thesis question in its attempt to make an
  original contribution to knowledge.)

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Example 2 Principal Research Question (Craft
Based)

• Principal Research Question (PRQ) How can we
  create a new theory of characterization for the
  novel? (Which has the traditional structure of a
  thesis question in its attempt to make an
  original contribution to knowledge.)
• PRQ transferred to creative product (in this
  case, a novel) as Secondary Research or
  methodology Question (SRQ) What novelistic
  approach provides the best environment or hope
  for a new theory of characterization? (This
  question stays close to the PRQ because the PRQ
  is already about craft and methodology and craft
  are closely related.)

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Example 2 Principal Research Question (Craft
Based)

• Principal Research Question (PRQ) How can we
  create a new theory of characterization for the
  novel? (Which has the traditional structure of a
  thesis question in its attempt to make an
  original contribution to knowledge.)
• PRQ transferred to creative product (in this
  case, a novel) as Secondary Research or
  methodology Question (SRQ) What novelistic
  approach provides the best environment or hope
  for a new theory of characterization? (This
  question stays close to the PRQ because the PRQ
  is already about craft and methodology and craft
  are closely related.)
• Now, the SRQ and the PRQ tend to merge as the
  implicit question of craft has already been
  stated explicitly as the original PRQ.

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Example 2 Principal Research Question (Craft
Based)

• Principal Research Question (PRQ) How can we
  create a new theory of characterization for the
  novel? (Which has the traditional structure of a
  thesis question in its attempt to make an
  original contribution to knowledge.)
• PRQ transferred to creative product (in this
  case, a novel) as Secondary Research or
  methodology Question (SRQ) What novelistic
  approach provides the best environment or hope
  for a new theory of characterization? (This
  question stays close to the PRQ because the PRQ
  is already about craft and methodology and craft
  are closely related.)
• Now, the SRQ and the PRQ tend to merge as the
  implicit question of craft has already been
  stated explicitly as the original PRQ.
• Note to examples 1 2 usually there will be
  two PRQs at most (one explicit and one implicit),
  but there can be several SRQs or methodology
  questions.

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So You Can Say to People.

• That by producing an exegesis and a novel (poetry
  collection, theatre production, feature film,
  installation ) for your PhD you are,
• 1.) Potentially, depending on your type of
  question, bringing the resources of the creative
  arts to bear on a research question previously
  only addressed through conventional Humanities or
  Social Sciences approaches,
• 2.) Inevitably, by virtue of producing a work of
  art, saying something new about craft that will
  be of value to other novelists (poets,
  scriptwriters, directors, installation artists,
  etc.)
• Depending on its first choice of PRQ, therefore,
  a higher degree in the creative arts makes at
  least one, and possibly two, original
  contributions to knowledge.
• Or, to put it another way, an original
  methodology is the necessary and sufficient
  condition of a higher degree in the creative
  arts, and the basis upon which one or two
  original contributions to knowledge can be made.

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Creative Work Plus Exegesis Model at Deakin

• Theses in the creative arts (visual arts, media
  arts, performing arts and creative and
  professional writing) may be presented in one of
  two forms a conventional written thesis, or a
  thesis comprising creative work and a supporting
  written exegesis. In the creative work plus
  exegesis model, both components are examined.
  Together they need to demonstrate a substantial
  original contribution to knowledge. The purpose
  of the exegesis is to elucidate the creative
  work's themes and/or place it in a disciplinary
  context and/or explore the creative processes
  involved. In the latter case, it may provide
  guidance to the examiner regarding the sequence
  of development in the creative work.
• See, Thesis Structure, Options (Deakin Uni.)
  http//www.deakin.edu.au/students/research-degrees
  -doctoral-and-masters/thesis-structure-options

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Relationship of Exegesis to Creative Work

• Exegesis and creative work should be of equal
  importance to the total thesis as a substantial
  original contribution to knowledge.
• Though related, the exegesis and the creative
  work should be coherent and read well separately
  (eventually, one or both may be published
  separately, especially the creative work).
• The relationship of exegesis and creative work
  should be plainly and frequently stated,
  including in the thesis abstract, as a
  relationship orientated to one or more research
  questions.

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Exegesis Technical Requirements, Abstracts and
Titles

• The exegesis should be between 20 and 50 of the
  thesis word count, for example
• 100,000 word PhD exegesis of 20-50,000 words.
• 50,000 word Masters exegesis of 10-25,000
  words.
• The exegesis generally comes after the creative
  product in order.
• Confirm most appropriate word lengths and
  specific requirements for your discipline with
  your supervisor.
• The thesis abstract and, if possible, the three
  titles should make explicit the relationship of
  the creative work and the exegesis in your
  particular thesis.
• You need (1) an overall title and subtitle for
  the thesis, (2) a title for the creative work,
  and (3) a title for the exegesis (headed
  Exegesis).
• It is important to distinguish the overall thesis
  as creative work plus exegesis from the creative
  work contained within the thesis.

52
Titles Example from One PhD

• You need (1) an overall title and subtitle for
  the thesis, (2) a title for the creative work,
  and (3) a title for the exegesis (headed
  Exegesis).
• 1.) A Sibling Romance The Sound of Romance
  Reimagined
• 2.) Novel A Sibling Romance A Story of Sisters
  and Sensuality
• 3.) Exegesis The Acoustic Body Towards a
  Reconfiguration of the Senses in the Romantic
  Novel

53
The Structure and Voice of the Exegesis

• To the extent that the exegesis addresses a
  research question alongside the creative work in
  non-fictional form (usually), the construction of
  an exegesis may adopt the voice of an academic
  persona and be modeled on the academic essay.
• The structure employed may then be close to that
  of the traditional academic essay structure
  Description Analysis Critique.
• Other exegesis voices and structures are
  possible.
• What keeps the voices of the creative work and
  the exegesis apart is that the voice of the
  exegesis, though it may adopt any voice (even, at
  the limit of imitation, the same voice used in
  the creative work) always needs to be at some
  level an exegetical voice.
• An exegetical voice can look behind the scenes of
  the creative workit is (in our academic context)
  the voice of the maker after he/she has finished
  making, if only provisionally.

54
Possible Pitfalls with the Exegesis

• Treating it like a conventional exercise in
  (literary or other) theory or criticism The
  exegesis is in no sense a separate exercise in
  art theoretical discourse, which would be
  undertaken only in the case of a theoretical
  thesis DEAKIN UNIVERSITYADVICE TO EXAMINERS OF
  HIGHER DEGREES BY RESEARCH DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
  AND MASTERS DEGREES IN THE PERFORMING ARTS
  http//www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/00
  06/326958/Doctor-of-Philosophy-and-Masters-Degrees
  -in-the-Performing-Arts.pdf
• Forgetting that the exegesis is one third of
  three parts creative product exegesis research
  question.
• Forgetting that your examiner will be both
  academic and creative-arts practitioner, thus
  reading or engaging with two hats on.
• Complaining about having to do it, either inside
  or outside of the writing.

55
Examiners Expectations of the Exegesis

• That the candidate takes it seriously and without
  complaining about having to do it.
• That the connection of the exegesis and the
  creative work is clearly stated early on and
  often recalled throughout the text.
• That it is never indulgent but always aims at a
  substantial original contribution to knowledge
  as part of the response of the overall thesis to
  the one research question.
• That it exhibits the same care in its production
  as went into the creative work.

56
Further Reading

• Nigel Krauth, Evolution of the Exegesis The
  Radical Trajectory of the Creative Writing
  Doctorate in Australia TEXT 151, April 2011
  http//www.textjournal.com.au/april11/krauth.htm
• West, Patrick. Is Near To . . . and is . . .
  Distant From Exegetical Manoeuvres in Janet
  Frames The Carpathians. The And Is Papers
  Proceedings of the 12th Conference of the AAWP.
  Eds. Jen Webb and Jordan Williams. Canberra The
  Australian Association of Writing Programs, 2007,
  ISBN 978-174-088-2736, http//www.aawp.dreamhoster
  s.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/West.pdf
• The novel The Carpathians and the novella Towards
  Another Summer by Janet Frame. Both these texts
  play games with notions of the creative or
  interior exegesis.
• The short story Becalmed in the Antilles by
  Italo Calvino in the short-story collection
  Numbers in the Dark. An odd little exegetical
  moment comes at the end of this story, buried in
  the middle of the collection.

57
Critical Distance In and After Literary Criticism
for the Exegesis

• A survey of distances to galaxies has revealed
  something that at first seemed
• implausible a galaxy that appears to be both
  relatively close and seven billion light
• years away ... the paradox is interpreted as
  being caused by the focusing of light from
• a distant quasar (starlike object) by the gravity
  of an intervening galaxy. (Janet Frame, The
  Carpathians 1989 7)

58
The Gravity Star?