74

Masters degrees in literary creation, which are beginning to be developed in France, are sometimes suspected of formatting writing. As a teacher on the Master’s programme of Paris University 8, and a writer, I want to offer, on the basis of this experience, a different analysis of their role. First, they make it possible to set up collective writing situations, facing students with very diverse literary sensibilities. They also have a structuring function, with constraints of handing in work and legitimization, which help students see their writing project through to completion and to allow themselves, socially, to do it. Thanks to such training new literary voices can emerge, coming from popular circles or minority positions, while allowing them to experiment with new forms of the craft of writing.