In Quarter 2, 2023 this subject replaced by CART 6001 - Writers at Work. Literature has always involved playing with language and shaping words into specific forms. The European avant-gardes of the 1910s, 20s and 30s swept aside traditional forms and valued kinds of playing that many cultural institutions and aesthetic authorities of the times regarded as childish. This unit will examine the interactions of play and form in experimental writing. Taking the manifesto as a means for outlining the scope and parameters of experimentation, it will explore a variety of calls-to-action regarding writing and form, and reactions to these in a range of literary forms including short fiction, poetry, and the essay.