Creative thinking and insight problem-solving in Keats’ “When I have fears … ”

Abstract

According to cognitive psychologists, creativity is a special kind of problem-solving experience, which involves the activation of two opposite but complementary mental processes, convergent thinking and divergent thinking, as well as insight. Creativity as an insight problem experience is a mainly unexplored phenomenon which has attracted increasing scholarly interest in the last two decades ranging from cognitive psychology and sociology to cognitive linguistics and literary studies. This paper aims to enter into the contemporary debate on the topic by analysing a well-known Keatsian sonnet, “When I have fears … ”. The poem stands out for the degree of awareness it shows concerning the mental processing of creative thinking. It artistically models a successful insight problem experience in the domain of poetic writing. This analysis proceeds through an interdisciplinary perspective, which integrates close reading and cognitive psychology.