Heidegger, Creativity, and what Poets do: On Living in a Silent Shack for Three Months and not Going Mad

摘要

This article reflects on a three-month solitary writing retreat, and contains a poetics based on Heidegger's essay, 'The Origin of the Work of Art'. I investigate Heidegger's distinction between the world's framing essence, poetic dichtung, and the manifestation of dichtung in poetic language, what the philosopher names poesie. I arrive at a range of insights through reflecting on my season in an isolated shack, deep in the Australian Alps; Heidegger's essay helps clarify some of the creative processes at work while there. This cross-disciplinary article identifies how creativity and theories of creativity can connect and interrelate, and explores how theories like Heidegger's can benefit creative thinkers and writers.