Transitions and Transformations--Exploring Creativity in Everyday and Literary Language: An AHRC Seminar Series Held at the Open University, Milton Keynes, March--September 2007

The theme of this issue of EDM--Language, Literary and Creativity--was prompted by a recent seminar series on the topic at the Open University, to which members of NATE were invited. To introduce the theme of this issue we report below on the content of the series and suggest some implications for English teaching in schools. This inter-disciplinary seminar series--bringing together research in literature, linguistics, and education, and embracing aspects of cultural studies--set out to explore the borderline between literary studies and linguistics by focusing on the concept of creativity in language, which potentially unites the two disciplines. The convenors of the series--Ron Carter (Nottingham University), Rob Pope (Oxford Brookes University) and Joan Swann (The Open University)--all work on this borderline, and have all recently published influential books about creativity and language (Carter, 2004; Pope, 2005; Maybin & Swann, 2006) which explore the way in which creativity manifests itself in everyday language as well as in literary language.