Play with Gray and Intertextual Writing Workshop at AGA

11am-1pm on 18th June

Led by Niamh Gordon and Sorcha Dallas

Alasdair Gray’s writing is famously intertextual, though he grew bored of describing it as so. His texts are filled with references to others, both specific and oblique. They also explicitly play with the self-consciousness writers often feel about how they approach and use source material. In his 1992 novel Poor Things Victoria describes McCandless’s account as a “morbid fantasy…filched from…The Coming Race, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Trilby, Rider Haggard’s She, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes and, alas, Alice Through the Looking-Glass; He has even plagiarised […] G.B. Shaw’s Pygmalion and […] Herbert George Wells” (Poor Things p273). In this workshop, you will be encouraged to “filch” and “plagiarise” from existing texts both purposefully and playfully.

The workshop will begin with a short talk about intertextuality, Alasdair Gray’s writing, and The Alasdair Gray Archive. We will then move onto a series of writing exercises designed to encourage you to play with texts which already exist, repurposing their language, structure or style as material for new writing. We will do this through a variety of approaches, including découpé (cut-up technique) and erasure poetry. You’ll leave having completed at least two or three pieces of new writing, and hopefully feeling emboldened to go forth and “filch” and “plagiarise” from other texts to your hearts’ delight.

• The workshop will last for two hours with a short comfort break in the middle.
  You do not need to know anything about intertextuality or Alasdair Gray to enjoy this workshop. Writers and non-writers alike are welcome.
• Please bring a notepad and pen with you.
• 20 places, book via emailing info@thealasdairgrayarchive.org
• For more info on intertextuality in Poor Things please see AGA’s guide.