The primary aim of the research inquiry was to explore a psychic space that accommodates a writer’s ‘divergent thinking’ and to ask whether a comparison with ‘hypnagogia’ – a state amplified in the ‘wake-a-thons’ in the U.S. in the 1950s and 60s – might inform our understanding of the creative process. The research study was practice-based and interdisciplinary. This thesis takes the form of a novel and accompanying rationale. The novel, ‘Walking After Midnight’, is a conspiracy thriller set in north America in the 1970s. In it, the protagonist breaks out of a clinic where she has been subjected to a series of psychological experiments. We follow her attempts to avoid capture, her gradual recollection of events in the clinic and consequent vengeance on those who incarcerated her. The rationale consists of a commentary on the formative development of two potential novels: the one the author assumed he was writing and the one he actually wrote. It also includes an analysis of a series of EEG experiments in which the author participated and an exploration of the notion of ‘walking dreamily’ which represents a territory where consciousness and unconscious are balanced in a manner that best engenders creativity. The study proposes a model in which the author straddles two perspectives – omniscience and subjectivity – and that the creation of a narrative can be seen as an act of ‘remote viewing’ in which the protagonist explores the narrative possibilities on the author’s behalf.
Date of Award | 26 Mar 2021 |
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Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution | |
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Supervisor | Jude Davies (Supervisor), Judith Heneghan (Supervisor) & Rhiannon Jones (Supervisor) |
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- Hypnagogia
- Divergent Thinking
- Creativity
- Conscious
- Unconscious
- Remote Viewing
- Narrative
The Observer and the Observed: Exploring forms of observation and self-observation in a novel and commentary
Jackson, M. (Author). 26 Mar 2021
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis