Creativity and Contingency in Literary Writing - by Karin Kukkonen (Hardcover)

About the Book

Using author interviews and in-depth manuscript case studies, this book explores the process of creativity in literature and its dependence upon form, practice and contingency.

Book Synopsis

The first book to investigate, analyze and theorize the creative processes of literary writers, Creativity and Contingency in Literary Writing uses author interviews, manuscript genetics and textual evidence to explore creativity from the authorial perspective.

Studying an author's practice, literary form and contextual contingencies as elements that affect literary creativity, Karin Kukkoken develops theoretical models for examining the age-old problem of artistic creation and how it has been put to works by authors from the nineteenth century to the age of digital fiction, across a range of languages. With insights from the cognitive sciences, anthropology and philosophy of mind as well as literary studies, the book calls upon interviews with Siri Hustvedt, Marina Warner, Anne Weber, Camille Laurens, Gwenaëlle Aubry, Kate Pullinger, Gunnhild Øyehaug, Maria Stepanova and György Dragomán and studies the manuscripts of Charlotte Brontë, Cora Sandel, Elsa Morante and Italo Calvino.
Overcoming the traditional distinction between creative agent, process and creative product, Creativity and Contingency in Literary Writing is as accessible and illuminating as it is important to understandings of human creativity.

Review Quotes

"Creativity and Contingency in Literary Writing offers an engaging and insightful exploration of literary creativity, showing how authorial practice, literary form, and contingency combine in the making of literature. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in how great literature comes to life." --Ana Margarida Abrantes, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Portugal

"Read this book only if you are prepared to have your mind changed, for Karin Kukkonen turns a core idea of literary studies upside down. She shows that the form literary works take, far from being necessary, is riddled with contingency, a contingency essential to creativity." --Michel Chaouli, Author of Something Speaks to Me: Where Criticism Begins

"How much of what you create is due to your own intentions, and how much down to chance happenings and coincidences? In this ground-breaking treatment, Karin Kukonnen reveals the many ways human practices and the materiality of textenable us to curate (and sometimes actively provoke) chance itself. A thrilling journey, highly recommended to all those interested in mind, creativity, and literary practice." --Andy Clark, Author of The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality

"This book not only shows how authors experiment with the contingencies of the writing process itself, but also follows their practices over time. It provides insights into how an author's creativity responds to its material settings, and how a work is continuously shaped by the ways an author is working. This book offers new analytical tools with which to understand an author's individuality and takes a completely new approach to examining the relationship between manuscripts and writing practices." --Juliane Vogel, University of Konstanz, Germany

About the Author

Karin Kukkonen is Professor in Comparative Literature at the University of Oslo, Norway. She has published several monographs, including Probability Designs (2020). Having previously held positions in Finland and the UK, she now leads the interdisciplinary centre "LCE - Literature, Cognition and Emotions", where she established the LCE podcast which explores how literature shapes thoughts and feelings.