Creative Writing and Daydreaming

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Freud's belief that creative writing is a form of daydreaming, in which fantasies are given literary life. The paper explains how Freud showed creative writing to be a kind of wish fulfillment in which the writer imagines, or daydreams, a different world and then spins a literary exterior around that dream.

From the Paper:

"Understanding the source of inspiration of a creative writer--or any artists for that matter--has been one of the primary goals of literary critics, psychologists, and philosophers alike. Thus it should come as little surprise that Sigmund Freud approached the problem himself during his career as a psychologist in developing his theories of psychoanalysis. Freud (1907) tackles this problem in his oft-cited essay "Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming." Quite conversationally, Freud outlines the issue at hand: it is entirely unclear from what source the creative writer draws."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Brewster, S. 2002, 'Creative writers and day-dreaming', The Literary Encyclopedia, Available at http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5653
• Brophy, K. 2006, 'Repulsion and day-dreaming: Freud writing Freud', International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 132-144.
• Dawson, P. 2004, Creative Writing and the New Humanities, Routledge, Oxford, United Kingdom.
• Freud, S. 1908 [1985], 'Creative writers and day-dreaming', Art and Literature, trans. J. Strachey, ed. A. Dickson, Penguin Books Ltd., Great Britain.
• Luther, S. 1997, March, 'Coleridge, creative (day)dreaming, and "The Picture"', Dreaming, vol. 7, no. 1, Available at http://www.asdreams.org/journal/articles/7-1_luther.htm

More papers on Creative Writing and Daydreaming:

• Term Paper # 119936 : "Moving Toward a Pedagogy of Creative Writing"
• Creative Essay # 141806 : "Creative Writing Essay"
• Creative Essay # 524 : "Independence Day - A Piece of Creative Writing"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: