The Pillowman and the Creative Writing Classroom: Who Controls the Narrative?

Abstract

Who owns a story? This question is held under an interrogative flashlight in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman (2003), a play set in a totalitarian police state where the protagonist, a writer named Katurian Katurian Katurian, finds himself in custody after a series of grisly child murders in his stories begin unfolding in real life. As a creative writing teacher, the play’s questions about the role of the author, especially as it intersects political and activist spheres and power dynamics within the classroom, are aspects I analyze through a braid of personal reflection, criticism, and pedagogical thinking.