Zoe Charalambous - Writing Fantasy and the Identity of the Writer A Psychosocial Writer’s Workbook

Both creativity and culture are areas that have experienced a rapid growth in interest in recent years. Moreover, there is a growing interest today in understanding creativity as a socio-cultural phenomenon and culture as a transformative, dynamic process. Creativity has traditionally been considered an exceptional quality that only a few people (truly) possess, a cognitive or personality trait residing inside the mind of the creative individual. Conversely, culture has often been seen as outside the person and described as a set of things such as norms, beliefs, values, objects, and so on. The current literature shows a trend towards a different understanding, which recognises the psycho-socio-cultural nature of creative expression and the creative quality of appropriating and participating in culture. Our new, interdisciplinary series Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture intends to advance our knowledge of both creativity and cultural studies from the forefront of theory and research within the emerging cultural psychology of creativity, and the intersection between psychology, anthropology, sociology, education, business, and cultural studies. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture is accepting proposals for monographs, Palgrave Pivots and edited collections that bring together creativity and culture. The series has a broader focus than simply the cultural approach to creativity, and is unified by a basic set of premises about creativity and cultural phenomena.

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14640

Cover illustration: kkong / Alamy Stock Photo

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

There is that kind of miracle that can happen in a moment, and that Other kind that takes ten years. This book contains all of this magical energy thanks to very many people in my life.

I wholeheartedly thank Grace Jackson at Palgrave Macmillan for believing in my work and supporting me with helpful reviews that led me to conceive the idea of this book. I also wish to thank Joanna ONeill at Palgrave for her valuable support and professional guidance.

I thank the anonymous women of Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA) of Harilaou, Thessaloniki, Greece, whose writings inspired me to embark upon the journey of my PhD.

I thank Moira Egan whose Practice of Poetry has given birth to my own making of letters, my own moira: destiny in Greek. Moira you began the fantasy that started it all.

Claudia Lapping is in more than one way the Other writer of this workbook. Thank you, Claudia. You are the mentor of Writing Fantasy.

I will be forever indebted to Tamara Bibby as she threw me in the deep waters of teaching and I swam. I shall be forever thankful to you Tamara for your straightforward and honest feedback. My heartfelt thanks go to Tatiani Rapatzikou at Aristotle University for her continued support.

Dominique Hecq, unknowingly in the past, has been my soul mate in this journey of Lacan and Creative Writing. I thank you Dominique for recognizing my work time and again and for confirming that this work should be published.

I express my deepest gratitude to Tatiani Rapatzikou who has been a most valued supporter of my work and above all a friend.

I am indebted to Theodore Filaretos who has affected the journey of this book without knowing in so many ways. For this reason, I will be forever grateful to all of my colleagues at the English Department at Anatolia College. They have helped me simplify my knowledge and accessibly communicate it. They, too, have created a part of this book. Thank you all.

Thank you to all my friends who do not quite understand what this book is about but appreciate the value it has for me. Thank you to my friends who asked me what this book is about and let me speak about my fantasy.

Thank you to my parents, Effie and Stavros, for their endless support and faith in my abilities, and thank you also to my new family, Maria, Dimitris and Tasos, for their unwavering support.

Write what you love: for this phrase and so much more I shall be forever thankful to you, my dear little brother Giannis.

Last, but certainly not least, comes Avgoustos: I thank you for making the fantasy of my life true and with it this workbook.