Towards a "non-didactic didacticism" of the sociopolitical: assemblages and the event in surface tension and shame Perazzo, Cathryn and West, Patrick L. 2015, Towards a "non-didactic didacticism" of the sociopolitical: assemblages and the event in surface tension and shame, Axon: creative explorations, no. 9, Spring, pp. 1-15. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads perazzo-towardsanondidactic-2015.pdf Published version application/pdf 9.20MB 39 Title Towards a "non-didactic didacticism" of the sociopolitical: assemblages and the event in surface tension and shame Author(s) Perazzo, Cathryn West, Patrick L. orcid.org/0000-0003-4957-4294 Journal name Axon: creative explorations Issue number 9 Season Spring Start page 1 End page 15 Total pages 15 Publisher University of Canberra Place of publication Canberra, A.C.T. Publication date 2015-11 ISSN 1838-8973 Keyword(s) assemblage event novel short story sociopolitical Summary To write sociopolitical fiction is to be caught in an odd double bind. The term itself, ‘sociopolitical’ (hyphenated or not), implies an ‘assemblage’, and the terms it combines—‘the social’ and ‘the political’—each suggest complex, worldly assemblages. However, the more the writer attempts to express the assembled complexity of the sociopolitical domain, the more he/she feels a tug in the other direction: towards the version of ideas that might best explain the sociopolitical world and motivate political action. This article engages with the aesthetic and political challenges that arise in writing within a genre in which, to some extent at least, a moral content is desired by readers as an explanation for sociopolitical issues, only to be resisted when, as it often does, it becomes didactic. Co-author Cathryn Perazzo’s sociopolitical novel-in-progress, Surface Tension, is, we suggest, a laboratory of an assemblage in action. In it, we test and elaborate our hypothesis of the ‘assembled idea’ or ‘assembled morality’ of the sociopolitical novel. We conclude with a look at a published short story, ‘Shameʼ, by co-author Patrick West, which similarly deals with the sociopolitical, with how ‘non-didactic didacticisms’ might be germinated, and, most explicitly, with the ‘event’, following Deleuze’s use of this term. Language eng Field of Research 200525 Literary Theory Socio Economic Objective 970120 Expanding Knowledge in Language, Communication and Culture HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2015, University of Canberra Free to Read? Yes Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30080031 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Arts and Education School of Communication and Creative Arts Open Access Collection Related Links Link Description Connect to Elements publication management system Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au. Versions Version Filter Type Thu, 03 Dec 2015, 12:04:23 EST Fri, 04 Dec 2015, 04:00:43 EST Fri, 04 Dec 2015, 07:47:21 EST Wed, 09 Dec 2015, 05:13:02 EST Mon, 21 Dec 2015, 13:50:43 EST Thu, 21 Jan 2016, 12:42:29 EST Wed, 07 Sep 2016, 10:51:45 EST Wed, 06 Dec 2017, 06:49:27 EST Fri, 07 Sep 2018, 17:40:20 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 0 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 536 Abstract Views, 39 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Thu, 03 Dec 2015, 12:04:23 EST