Anthropology · Vol. 4, No. 1 · 2020 · pp. 9–14 · e-ISSN 2473-4772

Gender, Creativity and Insanity: From an Anthropologist’s Notebook

Meenakshie Verma

Department of Social Anthropology, Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, IndiaIndia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17140/antpoj-4-120 · Published 2020-01-27 · Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 · © 2020 The Author(s)

Also available as PDF (figures and tables appear in the PDF).

Abstract

This essay has emerged through my research engagements with life history as a research method in anthropology. It is based on the life events of a woman artist. The past few decades have brought an explosion of cultural criticisms and also explorations of women’s creative expressions across cultures. Some of the queries addressed are, how do external forces shape the creativity of female artists. Also, how do creative women respond to such forces? Creative women, then, have a unique relationship to their cultural contexts, as well as to the creative genre to which they respond. This essay also delves into myths related to insanity and women. It discusses creativity, as a mode of engagement with rigid social structures.

Keywords: Life history; Women; Creativity; Body psyche; Insanity; Myths; Anthropology

Acknowledgments

For reasons of privacy names and identity markers have been changed with an agreement with all the people mentioned in this essay. It is part of the ethnographic work done for my PhD dissertation, EHESS.2004-2010.

Notes

• Castres is a commune and capital in the Tarn department and Midi Pyrénées region in Southern France. It is located 49 km east of Toulouse.

• The Goya museum is an art museum located in Castres. It is named after the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. It has the largest collection of Spanish paintings with works by Goya, Zurbarain, Bartoloméo Isteban Murillo, Ribera etc. The museum was originally established in 1840. It is particularly known for a collection of Baroque style of paintings. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church. th • Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) was a 17 century well known Spanish painter. He was best known for religion themed

works. Murillo had also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children (Mother & child).

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