LAUSR

ABSTRACT Teresa Dovey once advocated that writers inhabit genres and forms and ideological positions as hermit crabs inhabit shells. In this paper, I position the writer as ‘hermit crab’ suggesting a position of displacement that is generative. From this position, a palimpsestic approach to writing can work as a liberating force, enabling an author to move between genres, forms and ideological positions, resulting in fruitful experimentation, innovation and new knowledge. As a writer of books across a range of genres, I have been inspired by J.M. Coetzee and Umberto Eco, both of whom, I propose, use this (Barthesian) atopic process to interrogate, innovate and stimulate their writing praxis.