Creative Imagination in Joyce Cary's Trilogies
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis describes Joyce Cary's theories of creative imagination and how the characters in his two trilogies reflect those theories. To Cary, creative imagination is essential for society's improvement. He believes that everyone--not just artists and writers--can have creative imagination, and in his novels he shows the results of living with and without it. Joyce Cary was born in 1888, in Ireland. His mother died when he was nine, but his close-knit family gave him the security he needed to develop his creativity. As a boy he voraciously read adventure stories and led a gang. Throughout his life he dealt creatively with his problems. In public school, weak from previously poor health, he won his classmates' favor by telling them stories and forcing himself to master swimming, football, and boxing. At seventeen he went to Paris to study art. Unable to concentrate there he moved to Edinburgh, where he studied for two years before realizing that he lacked genius as a painter. Deciding to become a writer, he published a collection of poems, then went to Oxford, where he graduated in Law with the lowest possible passing score, because he was more interested in discussing philosophy and writing poetry than in reading law. Seeking book material, he joined the Montenegrin Red Cross in 1912, and served in the Balkan War. Back in England the next year, he joined the Nigerian Service, arriving in Nigeria shortly before the beginning of World War I. In Africa Cary's creative imagination flowered as he worked to help the natives build roads and bridges, and encouraged traders to enter his district. He also began many novels, which he could not complete for philosophical reasons. During a furlough in 1915 Cary married Gertie Ogilvie, and by 1919, when he left the service, they had two boys, and soon doubled that number. On selling three stories to the Saturday Evening Post Cary leased a house in Oxford, but the Post's editors came to think his work too literary, and he found …
abstract: This thesis describes Joyce Cary's theories of creative imagination and how the characters in his two trilogies reflect those theories. To Cary, creative imagination is essential for society's improvement. He believes that everyone--not just artists and writers--can have creative imagination, and in his novels he shows the results of living with and without it. Joyce Cary was born in 1888, in Ireland. His mother died when he was nine, but his close-knit family gave him the security he needed to develop his creativity. As a boy he voraciously read adventure stories and led a gang. Throughout his life he dealt creatively with his problems. In public school, weak from previously poor health, he won his classmates' favor by telling them stories and forcing himself to master swimming, football, and boxing. At seventeen he went to Paris to study art. Unable to concentrate there he moved to Edinburgh, where he studied for two years before realizing that he lacked genius as a painter. Deciding to become a writer, he published a collection of poems, then went to Oxford, where he graduated in Law with the lowest possible passing score, because he was more interested in discussing philosophy and writing poetry than in reading law. Seeking book material, he joined the Montenegrin Red Cross in 1912, and served in the Balkan War. Back in England the next year, he joined the Nigerian Service, arriving in Nigeria shortly before the beginning of World War I. In Africa Cary's creative imagination flowered as he worked to help the natives build roads and bridges, and encouraged traders to enter his district. He also began many novels, which he could not complete for philosophical reasons. During a furlough in 1915 Cary married Gertie Ogilvie, and by 1919, when he left the service, they had two boys, and soon doubled that number. On selling three stories to the Saturday Evening Post Cary leased a house in Oxford, but the Post's editors came to think his work too literary, and he found …
author: Christian, E.
language: English
keywords: Creative Writing, English Language and Literature, Poetry, Cary; Joyce; 1888-1957; English literature--20th century, Loma Linda University. English Program -- Dissertations
date published: 1979-06-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:52:52Z
provider: Loma Linda University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Loma Linda University