What Role Does Commitment Play Among Writers With Different Levels of Creativity?

Abstract

Commitment involves how a person invests resources in a work role over long periods of time. Creativity is a novel, appropriate variation that is embraced by a field of gatekeepers and transforms the symbolic domain. This qualitative analysis (Cohen's kappas of .62, .86, .68 across three coders) addresses the different roles that commitment plays in the careers of 36 writers, depending on what level of creative influence the literary field has attributed to the writer's work. The sample was segmented into genre conformers who played by established literary rules (M = 0.15, SD = 0.18), experimentalists whose innovations have not yet caught on widely (M = 0.80, SD = 0.17), and domain transformers who changed the canon (M = 1.32, SD = 0.27). For genre conformers, commitment compensates. They invest technique in the craft of writing to improve their social standing among other writers, editors, and critics within the field. For experimentalists, commitment defies. They translate their selves into words by twisting traditions and supports to yield new meanings, which gains them an emotional rush plus increased control over their self-expression. For domain transformers, commitment impassions. They trust some beloved aspect of literature, such as a character or poetic form, to convert new minds to the latent possibilities of the domain.

This work was conducted at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and funded by the American Association of University Women, the Spencer Foundation, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Thank you to The Paris Review and to all of the writers for sharing their thoughts and feelings publicly.

Notes

Note. Underlined writers were selected for the analysis. Prof Votes = number of professors who included the writer in their 20 most creatively influential writers list. Prof Category = 3 if Prof Votes is at least 25% of votes in the professor poll; 2 if number is at least 10% of votes; 1 if number is at least one vote; 0 if no votes in the professor poll. Nobel = 1 if writer won the Nobel Prize for a creative reason. Creative Award = 1 if writer won at least one major field award for a creative reason (including the Nobel). Bio = 1 if writer's biographical entry particularly emphasized a creative or innovative contribution to the literary domain. Syllabi = 1 if writer's work was included on one of the high school syllabi sampled. Weighted = writer's score based on weighted sampling criteria using the formula: Score = 0.35 × Bio +0.3 × Prof Category +0.25 × Creative Award +0.1 × Syllabi.