On Creativity and Originalityin Ve rse Discourses MILOSAV Ż. ĆARKIĆ (Belgrade) O.O. In verse discourses, as probably in2 no others, there is a large number of ste­ reotypes 1 ( canons, conventions, norms ) impo sed by a specific period of time, a specific genre, a specific literary movement (school), specific literature, the struc- The concept of stereotype. which is defined asa tri te. banał, fixed expression or act. is most often felt as if conveying a negative connotalion, and directly associa1ed with cliche (routine s1ylistic and structural ac1s which have łosi their anistic significance and expressiveness. but are stili used like a mechanical pattern: in linguis1ics, cliches include: idioms. all ossified phrases, sayings, proverbs (Petkovic 1995: 95) and platitudes (unchangeable, ready-made pauems which many ad­ here to blindly, a 1rite. banał phrase or such a way ofthinking and expression). Contrary Io such at­ titudes, there are other opinions a1 least as regards the scholarly style (Kouorova 1 998). 1t is 1he­ refore thai in this case, especially regarding literary-artis1ic style, the concept of stereotype conveys posi1ive conno1ations and is to a cenain extent equa1ed with canon (as a se1 of aesthetic rules, pauerns dominating poetic s1ructures). convention (deriving from the long-standing tradi­ tion of a melhod of literary creation offering its expressive potentials even to la1er anisls) and norm (as a prese1 rule or a set of rules commining the anis1 10 cenain li1erary methods. but not re­ s1raining poetic personali ty development. since a poe1ic work emerges either in compliance with a norm or in depanure from it. bul in any case dialectically surpasses 1he norm with its individuality and inimi1ability). In view of all this. the concepts of canon, convention, norm should hereinafter be understood as synonyms of the concept of stereotype. 2 «HopMbl o6wemrrepaT)'PHOro ll3b1Ka He Moryr HMeTb Henocpe.UCTBCHHOH CBllJH C TeMH oco6eHHOCTllMH XY.llOlKCCTBeHHOH pe'IH, KOTOpblC npHCYWH HflH CTHflHCTHKC OT.llCflbHOro npOHJBe.UCHHll, HflH HH.llHBHJzyanbHOH nHcarenbCKOH MaHepe a uenoM» (BHHOKYP 197-4: 267). 235 StylistykaXIII 3 ture of spoken language, personal choice • As a result, in the shaping of language materiał various kinds of stereotypes prod u ce certa in restrictions which the artists (poets) are to observe. However, within each stereotype there is enough space for the artist's (creator's) creativity and originality. It is then no wonder that the con­ cept ofcreativity and the concept of originality are separately dealt with by the psy­ chology of creativity. In part of psychological research dedicated to artistic cre­ ation, special attention is focused on the concept of creativity. With that in mind, many psychologists have attempted to formulate and define creativity (Barron 1968; Guliford 1957: 110-117, Ghiselin 1963: 30-43; Mac Kinnon 1963: 166-174; Rogers 1959; Simon 1967: 43-53; Torrance 1972: 203-218). Thus the American psychologist Taylor (Taylor 1959: 51-82), analysing over a hundred various defi­ nitions, arrived at the conclusion that creativity varied more in depth and scope than in diversity. He established five basie forms of creativity:expr essive, produc­ tive, inventive, innovative and emergent. Each type of creativity has a share in the act of creation which is also impossible to realise without originality. As a result, the psychology of creativity assigns a notable role to this concept (Barron 1955; K vascev 1 976). By originality is most oftenmeant a relatively rare and unusual be­ haviour forcertain conditions, and it is stressed that originality is essential, but not sufficient for creativity. As creativity is affected by many other factors, such as flexibility, creative fantasy, imaginative behaviour, tolerance to vagueness, open­ ness to experience, a fluency of ideas. I .O. A usual occurrence in verse creation, depending on the extent of creativity (even originality), are minor or major interventions on established stereotypes which4 occur in the form of precedent texts (Karaulov 1987: 54) of a certain cultu­ re , namely a non-compliance with the accepted norm, convention, canon. The poet can, within the established convention, adhering to its basie principles, express his artistic creativity. But he must, forexample, abide by certain rules ofthe writing ofverses and their composing into a poem. This implies that a poet should 3 As regards personal choice. the most distinctive have been the psychological ( intellectual. emo­ tional, spiritual) and social aspects of poetic personality. as well as the functional-stylistic and emotional-expressive aspects oflanguage use. then the speciticqualities oftext structure, the way it is experienced and understood. and the effect it has on the reader. 4 Karaulov uses the concept of precedent texts. among other things. in the sense ofgenerally known texts ofindividual authors ofa certain language community. which a poet as an artistic (creative) personality uses in the form ofstereotypes, complying with their panems. thus showing his fami­ liarity with the spiritual culture (preserved in the language). as well as his belonging to that cultu­ re. 236 On Creativity and Origina/ity inMl1J1OCAB Verse Discourses)I(_ YAPKHn bear in mind the basie stocks of formative schemas (stereotypes) as a basis on which the structure of poetic creations em erg es and from which arises the morpho­ logy of individual literary genres. If, in creating a poetic work (either a single poem or a who le collection of verses), the poet employs the principles of classic versifi­ cation (quantitative, syllabic, syllabic-tonal), he can depart from those principles in individual elements, but cannot go that far as to disintegrate or negate them. Thus a creator, without denying the established norms, conventions, canons, de­ pending on the depth and width ofoperational ventures marked by artistic potency, succeeds in actualising an old form,activating an ossifiedstructure, in introducing a new set of chan ges in to the very system of stereotypical means ofexpression, cre­ ating somewhat different interna!relations between the elements used, and in reali­ sing their additional functions. Only then can one tell that the author has achieved a certain degree of creativity, and in tum a certain degree of originality and individu­ ality. 1.1. Even though there are many stereotypical (traditional, canonised) forms which should be discussed with reason, on this occasion we shall direct our atten­ tion to the form of metrical rhymed verse and the sonnet form.The reason is sim­ ple: these two forms imply observance of strict (stereotypical) rules manifested in the choice of meter, verse type, stanza, the way of rhym ing, the standard form of a poem. From the historie point of view, the occurrence of such, tectonically strict compositions, compared to previous ones (with 5fairly freestructures and forms), is a result of the authors' creativity and originality . A consistent observance oftradi­ tional (stereotypical) poetic forms,established in a certain period oftime, at a later stage of verse forms development, would not only indicate the emergence of struc­ tural and forma I isomorphism, but also the creation oftotal rhythm ie mono tony. As a result, with the passage ofti me, the stereotypical form(ofverses and poems ali­ ke) lost much ofits topicality, as well as informative potentia!. Consequently, every creative author introduced, in the existent form, part of his individuality and origi­ nality, as "the most informative is what is the most original, and in tum the wor­ thiest" (Petković 1990: 37). ltwas one of the reasons why there were, minor or ma­ jor, departures from the stereotypical form, whereby a shift took place from the easier (automatic) to the more difficult (non-automatic) form. All this was happe- 5 ··The principle oforiginality in literature goes hand in hand with the prevalence of the personal-in­ dividual creative principle. In European literature both these principles were increasingly gaining in imponance following classicism. and took full precedence at the time of the literary avant-gar­ de" (Petković 1990: 37-38). 237 StylistykaXIII ning only at individual poetic structure levels, which in tum brought about changes in syn-function, as it altered the relation of one element to other elements in a sys­ tem. Thus the stereotypical form was marred, without any threat to its existentiali­ ty. However, through historie development, the standard (stereotypical) forms evolved, by frequentinterventions, into other forms, later also to become stereoty­ pical. Stanzas were, as a result, freed from strict architectural formsand translated into strophoid, and then astrophic structures. 1.2. A similar thing took place on the piane of verse forms. Metrical verse, for­ med by the repetition of certain elements within constant, stereotyped, methods, was firstbrought into a condition of slight, then of complete disintegration. That was how its new forms tookshape, which in the historical continuity of verse deve­ lopment moved from the structure of released to the structure of free verse (Gaspa­ rov 1989). Although free verse preserved the basie elements ofmetrical verse (the verse rhythm and graphically incomplete lines), in certain elements it carne serio­ usly close to prose. The fact of incompliance with strict principles, required by the metrical verse form, led to an interna!dynamization of the verse string through the creation of a large number of new tona I and rhythm ie values. Interventions within canonised verse structures were generally restricted to the shiftingof the caesura, the omitting of ictusses, the transferring of stresses from strong to weak verse ti­ mes. Such methods did not disintegrate the existent rhythm, as the basie rhythm ie inertia (trochaic or iambic) was6 kept. 1.3. Since the Middle Ages , rhyme was developing in many European literatu­ res into one of the main features of verse expression. Thus, as one of the constant elements of the outer metrical verse rhythm, it gained stability at the time of ba­ roque.