Gender, Creativity and Insanity: From an Anthropologist’s Notebook
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17140/ANTPOJ-4-120Keywords:
Life history, Women, Creativity, Body psyche, Insanity, Myths, AnthropologyAbstract
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.
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