Literary creativity and its shadow, the phenomenon popularly referred to as writer's block, have historically been accorded little attention by literary studies. In my thesis I seek to redress this oversight, illustrating my argument with reference to the creative life and works of Malcolm Lowry. I begin by arguing for a model of literary creativity that takes seriously the roles played by plans and intentions in motivating, sustaining and appropriately terminating literary creative action. I employ this model in order to provide a basis from which to clarify Lowry's own creative method. / I go on to rehearse and evaluate definitions and theories of writer's block from a variety of research paradigms. From these accounts I distill some important general features of writer's block. I argue that writer's block typically occurs as an intervention between stages of the literary creative process. / Finally, I return to detailed consideration of Lowry's creative method. I investigate three critical periods of writer's block in Lowry's later life and examine these interventions with reference to circumstantial, methodological and goal-based considerations. I conclude by drawing attention to the importance for literary studies of an accurate and comprehensive understanding of both literary creativity and writer's block.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.23243 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Sinclair, Struan |
| Contributors | Bristol, Michael D. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of English.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001473852, proquestno: MM07959, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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