Gender, Creativity and Insanity: From an Anthropologist’s Notebook (original) (raw)

Women, Creativity, and the KÜnstlerroman

Nineteenth-century studies, 2004

Neither female female Künstlerroman creativity is nor an un-the female Künstlerroman is an unusual area of inquiry among nineteenthcentury scholars; as these new books show, however, the field is far from exhausted. All three add notably to our knowledge of nineteenth-century women writers concerned with the development of the female artist.

MoMoWo women's creativity since the modern movement (1918-2018) : toward a new perception and reception

2018

MoMoWo Siymposium 2018-Women's Creativity since the Modern Movement (1918-2018). Toward a New Perception and Reception MoMoWo Symposium 2018 Programme and Abstracts of the International Conference Politecnico di Torino, Campus Lingotto | 13th–16th June 2018, Torino, Italy / Franchini, Caterina; Garda, EMILIA MARIA. ELETTRONICO. (2018), pp. 1-260. Original MoMoWo Siymposium 2018-Women's Creativity since the Modern Movement (1918-2018). Toward a New Perception and Reception

ART AND INSANITY: THE OBSCURE SIDE OF CREATIVITY

One of the oldest debates in psychology concerns the relationship between creativity and madness. The prima facie evidences in the history indicate that creativity often comes with a certain price tag, the price tag being mental disorders or mental illness. The extent of the mental illness in the stipulated scenarios depends on person to person. However, the putative dichotomous coexistence of the two has time and again solicited umpteen numbers of questions and their subsequent studies. Although the concept of mad geniuses is based more on Hollywood movies than on scientific research, there is indeed some evidence of the counterproductive or the undesirable features associated with creativity. Throughout history, numerous artists have been found battling mental illness and leading scientists examining the link between creativity and mental illness. This paper aims to dig into this deeper, by reviewing and analyzing, in a brief manner, the studies that have taken place on the concept and trace back the lives of some of the most eminent artists that have ever existed. EARLY RESEARCHES: According to an early theory given be Cesare Lombroso, an Italian criminologist, the cause of 'Genius' was a constitutional defect, a defect that commonly showed itself as insanity, either in the genius or in his family. 1 Working from another direction, another researcher (Jamison), in 1989 took a sample of 47 famous living British Writers and Artists. They were people who had won major awards such as the Booker Prize, or were distinguished members of the Royal Academy of Arts. She found that 38% of them had received treatment for affective disorder (antidepressant, lithium and/or hospitalisation). The 'insanity' theory by Lombrosso was supported by several later studies, however, other studies seemed to be deviated from Lombroso's point of view and supported an

Creativity, Society, and the Hidden Subtext of Gender: Toward a New Contextualized Approach

"Conventional categories of creativity are being deconstructed after the so-called postmodern debate. This article takes this process deeper, to what we will show is the hidden subtext of gender underlying how creativity has been socially constructed. It also proposes a more contextualized approach to creativity that takes into account both its individual and social dimensions and how this relates to what Eisler (1987) has called a partnership rather than dominator model of society."

Creativity, Society, and Gender: Contextualizing and Redefining Creativity

Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, 2016

Creativity is currently being redefined in more inclusive and complex ways. This article examines old and new ways of viewing creativity, focusing especially on how historically creativity has been considered a male preserve and the need for a more inclusive definition that includes areas such as “everyday creativity.” It places definitions of creativity in their social and historical context, showing how a society’s orientation to a partnership model or a dominator model affects what and who is considered creative. It proposes an un-gendered definition of creativity, highlights the need for this broader definition to meet the enormous contemporary challenges we face, and distinguishes between innovativeness and creativity.

Still a man's art world: The gendered experiences of women artists

Journal of Research on Women and Gender, 2016

The social organization of art and artistic reputation are imperative to one's success as an artist but how does the current art world allow for women? Self-employed women pursuing artistic careers in the U.S. encounter gendered barriers both in the education/work world and from the family. I analyze interviews with 21 women artists, noting how as women became and began working as artists, they had to balance and negotiate constraints in these areas. Thus, gendered expectations appear in both personal and professional sectors of women's lives as they pursue artistic careers in contemporary society.

(2010) Charting Cartographies of Resistance: Line of Flight in Women Artists’ Narratives.

In this paper I chart lines of flight in women artist's narratives. In focusing on the complex interrelations between the social milieus of education and art, what I suggest is that they should be analysed as an assemblage where power relations and forces of desire are constantly at play in creating conditions of possibility for women to resist, imagine themselves becoming other and for new possibilities in their lives to be actualised. As a novel approach to social ontology the theory of assemblages offers an analytics of social complexity that accounts for open configurations, continuous connections and unstable hierarchies, structures and axes of difference. In reconsidering resistance as immanent in dispositifs of power and assemblages of desire, what I finally argue is that women artists' narratives contribute to the constitution of minor knowledges and create archives of radical futurity. Keywords: art education; assemblage theories; lines of flight; minor knowledges; narratives; resistance

“You Are a Mother Forever, but an Artist for Good, As Well”: Creative Work in the Context of Intensive-Extensive Mothering

2017

This feminist research analyzes the balance of gender roles among contemporary female artists after they become mothers and start combining their art making and maternal practices. Using in-depth interviews and observations we study how women are inscribed into the gendered institution of motherhood and how they find ways to resolve the conflict between the roles. Our focus is on how professional artistic practices of female artists after childbirth coexist with practices of intensive-extensive mothering while also problematizing the gender role balance of the mother artist. The successful combination of these roles directly influences the future careers of female artists and whether they can sustain their work in the arts in general. In Russian , extended summary in English .

“Just Fooling Around: Madness, Folly, and Artistic Creativity.”

Ever since at least Plato a connection between the artist and madness has been made. However, in recent centuries this has focused especially on psychological disorders. While such studies are not unimportant, overemphasis on this can lead to a one-sided, rather dark view of a self-absorbed artistic “genius.” Ultimately this distracts from the real subject of art, which is the diverse beauty of the world around us. This paper will argue that a better way to think of the artist is not in terms of madness but in terms of foolishness. The artist’s closest analog is not the mad person but the fool. In fact, the artist is not merely like a fool but the artist is a fool. The paper is divided in three parts. First, three different thinkers who all discuss the artist as mad are considered, Jacques Maritain, Plato, and Schopenhauer. For all three, the association of creativity with literal madness is only an analogy and the two have no direct connection, rather the artist participates in what Plato calls “divine madness.” The second part proposes that there is a general form of madness in modern society, which is the opposite of this divine madness, the result of the subjective turn toward the self in philosophy and psychology that leads to an obsession with the self. The third part considers how viewing the artist as a fool provides a response to this particular madness, a response that goes beyond simply returning to Plato’s divine madness as a dialectical alternative.

" You Are A Mother Forever, but An Artist For Good, As Well " : Creative Work in the Context of Intensive-extensive Mothering" (summary)

This feminist research has its aim to analyze the balance of gender roles of contemporary female artists who become mothers and start combining art making and maternal practices. Using methods of in-depth interviews and observations we study how women are inscribed into gender institute of motherhood, and how they find the possibilities to resolve the conflict of roles. In our focus - professional artistic practices of a female artist after childbirth, their co-existence with practices of intensive-extended mothering as well as problematization of gender role balance – of the mother and the artist. Its successful combination directly influences future careers of female Artist and her sustainability in the arts in general. Key words: intensive-extended mothering, artist-mother’s balance of gender roles, sociology of art, feminism, cultural production