Free standard shipping on all orders
  • Visa
  • Master Card
  • American Express
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay
  • JCB

Digressions and the Human Imagination: Tracing the Indirectness of Cultural Creativity book cover

1st Edition

Digressions and the Human Imagination Tracing the Indirectness of Cultural Creativity

Edited By Morten Nielsen Copyright 2025
240 Pages 22 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

240 Pages 22 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

240 Pages 22 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Digressions and the Human Imagination makes a significant contribution to our anthropological knowledge about human creativity. The creative force of the human imagination is widely considered as a key ingredient in understanding how social and cultural transformations occur. And yet, what we know about the nature of creative processes is surprisingly limited. Taking their cue from literary... Read more

1. “Introduction: One Failure…”.
By Morten Nielsen

Part I. METHODOLOGY
2. “Mind-Wandering and Mushrooming in Russian Art and Literature”
By Birgitte Beck Pristed

3. “Learning how to Digress in Clown Training Workshops”
By Noa Vaisman in collaboration with Ofer Ravid

4. “…and Six Digressive Leaps: Methodology”
By Morten Nielsen

Part II. TIME
5. “… a digressive conversation about digression in creative writing”
By Sofie Kragh-Müller and Ida Marie Hede

6. “Digression Doubled: Stand-Up Comedy as Transformative Trickery”
By Marianna Keisalo

7. “…and Six Digressive Leaps: Time”
By Morten Nielsen

Part III. CONNECTIONS
8. “Mythic Digressions in Science”
By Gregory Schrempp

9. “Comedic Comparisons: Absurd Juxtapositions and the Value of Digressive Truths”
By Rane Willerslev & Morten Nielsen

10. “…and Six Digressive Leaps: Connections”
By Morten Nielsen

Part IV. INTERIORITY
11. “Myrkur as Mother North: Feminist Digressions in Black Metal Culture”
By Mathias Nordvig

12. “Beating Around the Bush: Digression as Wayfinding and Coming to Know the Kalahari Desert”
By Pierre du Plessis

13. “…and Six Digressive Leaps: Interiority”
By Morten Nielsen

Part V. AESTHETICS
14. “Life-Affirming: The Digressive Practice of Art Appreciation”
By Nigel Rapport

15. “Fischart … Sancho … Beckett … Joyce; or, An Essay in Praise of Babble”
By Samuel Frederick

16. “…and Six Digressive Leaps: Aesthetics”
By Morten Nielsen

Part VI. TRACES
17. “Naboland. Unplanned Journeys of Discovery”
By Reinhard Behrens

18. “Universal Basic Income and the Colonization of Mars: Tracing the effects of policy ideas that are yet to be implemented”
By Nina Holm Vohnsen

19. “…and Six Digressive Leaps: Traces”
By Morten Nielsen

Biography

Morten Nielsen is a social anthropologist working on socially sustainable urban development. And stand-up comedy. Since November 2018, he has been based at the National Museum of Denmark as Research Professor and Head of the Research Center for Social Urban Modelling (SUMO). Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Southern Africa (Mozambique), Latin America (Brazil), the US (New York City), the UK (Scotland), and Denmark, he has published on such issues as urban development, state formation, vernacular architecture, time and temporality, human creativity, and stand-up comedy.

Add to Cart