Making the absent present: Disability, textual erasure and (not) writing sex

This research explores the writing of sex in contemporary fiction, focusing on textual erasure and silences as modes of eliding sexual experience and activities. Using these gaps as ludic provocations and writing from my positionality as a disabled woman with lived experience of multiple sclerosis, I will employ creative-critical practices such as pastiche/parody to write sexback in and make present what was formerly absent. The resulting short story cycle and thesis will disrupt normative conventions for writing sex, making present certain kinds of sexual and bodily activity to extend understandings of the linguistic, epistemological and social possibilities of language.

The research will produce an original contribution to knowledge by developing a) original creative works which intrinsically contribute to the short story corpus, b) experiments in 5 narrative strategies for writing sex in prose fiction, c) a disability aesthetics for prose fiction. Further impacts of the PhD will include the development of a pedagogy for sex-writing, inclusive of a resource bank of texts which can be used in writing workshops.