Reconceptualising Creativity

Abstract

What would a model of creativity that is neither completely agent centred, like the genius model, nor overly privileges the bio-psychological or socio-cultural structures that are seen to determine an individual’s action look like? Whereas social theorists of art attempt to de-emphasise the individual and emphasise societal patterns (e.g. Kavolis 1972) or valorise co-operative and collective effort in creativity (e.g. Becker 1982), others with a biological, psychological or psychoanalytic base to their work have attempted to investigate creativity through a focus on individuals (e.g. Galton 1892, Lombroso 1891, Freud 1959, Guildford 1950, 1970). In addition, some theorists concerned with looking beyond the determinisms of an either individualist or structural approach (e.g. Barthes 1977, Foucault 1977) have called for a reconceptualisation of the way the initiators of the creative process are perceived. It is argued here that the most adequate reconceptualisation of creativity may lie not in any one of these single positions but in the confluence of a number of them.