Digressions and the Human Imagination

Digressions and the Human Imagination makes a significant contribution to our anthropological knowledge about human creativity. The creative force of the human imagination is widely considered as a key ingredient in understanding how social and cultural transformations occur. And yet, what we know about the nature of creative processes is surprisingly limited. Taking their cue from literary studies, the contributors to this volume explore digression as human creativity's main impulse. They offer a series of experimental explorations of digression in different arenas of social life - literature, conversations, myths, humour, art, and wayfinding. In their examination of the relationship between creativity and digressive processes, the contributions challenge and eventually collapse conventional distinctions between 'artistic' and 'scientific' imaginaries. This book articulates with clarity the freedom and joy of wandering off in new directions, but also the potentially transgressive and even revolutionary character that digression has when it is put to work through the creativity of the human imagination. It will be relevant for anthropologists and other scholars from across the humanities and social sciences with an interest in creativity.

Morten Nielsen is a social anthropologist working on socially sustainable urban development. And stand-up comedy. Since November 2018, he has been based at the National Museum of Denmark as Research Professor and Head of the Research Center for Social Urban Modelling (SUMO). Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Southern Africa (Mozambique), Latin America (Brazil), the US (New York City), the UK (Scotland), and Denmark, he has published on such issues as urban development, state formation, vernacular architecture, time and temporality, human creativity, and stand-up comedy.

Introduction; Part 1. METHODOLOGY; 1. "Mind-Wandering and Mushrooming in Russian Art and Literature"; 2. "Learning how to Digress in Clown Training Workshops"; 3. "...and Six Digressive Leaps: Methodology"; Part 2. TIME; 4. "... a digressive conversation about digression in creative writing"; 5. "Digression Doubled: Stand-Up Comedy as Transformative Trickery"; 6. "...and Six Digressive Leaps: Time"; Part 3. CONNECTIONS; 7. "Mythic Digressions in Science"; 8. "Comedic Comparisons: Absurd Juxtapositions and the Value of Digressive Truths"; 9. "...and Six Digressive Leaps: Connections" Part 4. INTERIORITY; 10. "Myrkur as Mother North: Feminist Digressions in Black Metal Culture"; 11. "Beating Around the Bush: Digression while Wayfinding the Kalahari Desert"; 12. "...and Six Digressive Leaps: Interiority" Part 5. AESTHETICS 13. "Life-Affirming: The Digressive Practice of Art Appreciation"; 14. "Fischart ... Sancho ... Beckett ... Joyce; or, An Essay in Praise of Babble"; 15. "...and Six Digressive Leaps: Aesthetics"; 6. TRACES; 16. "Naboland. Unplanned Journeys of Discovery"; 17. "Universal Basic Income and the Colonization of Mars: tracing the effects of policy ideas that are yet to be implemented"; 18. "...and Six Digressive Leaps: Traces"