Methods of Walking and the Inscription of the Walk in Literary Creation:

Reflections from a Writing Project – A Creative Journal

Abstract

The rearrangement of fragmented land parcels to increase production and efficiency, a practice known as land consolidation (remembrement), was intensively implemented in France after the war and up until the 1980s, marking an important milestone in the history of many municipalities. How can we write a documentary account of place that takes these changes into consideration? How can we collect the traces left behind by this period? Can walking be a tool for literary investigation? Based on an ongoing creative writing experience, this article aims to document the implications of walking as part of the writing process, echoing and conversing with the literary works of Hélène Gaudy, Philippe Vasset, Patrick Varetz and Jean-Christophe Bailly. Within this context, walking is perceived as a multifaceted concept and will thus be approached as a plurality of methods, with a focus on surveying archives and writing in situ. Finally, beyond the usefulness of walking as an extra-textual writing method, this article revisits how the walk imposed its presence on the text, becoming inscribed into the spatial narrative itself.