(UN)MASKING AUTHENTICITY: CREATIVE WRITING AND THE MASK

In the realms of literature and creative writing, there is a unique legitimacy conferred upon works which are seen as ‘authentic’. This results in a hierarchical organisation of styles and genres which exists external and prior to any individual text. This paper explores the claim to authenticity of ‘realist’ literary fiction in Australia and attempts to challenge that hierarchy from the perspective of Nietzsche’s work on the concept of the mask. Central to this argument is an analysis of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle and its awareness of the relationship between truth and illusion.