The dissolution of the self in unsettled times: Postmodernism and the creative process

How does culture affect creative behavior? This question forms the backgrou nd for this essay, which investigates commonalities between creative proces ses and features of an impending "postmodern" age. Specifically, recurring themes in discussions of the creative process - the combining, ordering, an d integration of disintegrated elements - appear also to be standard featur es of postmodern consciousness. This essay draws from contemporary fiction- writing; popular culture; and postmodern psychology, which views the self a s a work-in-progress, to demonstrate these affinities. Postmodern conscious ness, it is argued, heralds an era of renewed creativity partly because the fractured view of the self it promotes, with its emphasis on paradox and i rony, appears well equipped to encourage creative expression.