Abstract

This theoretical work explores the creative process of the human imagination as well as the influence of social institutions and practices within the female experience of girls and women within US culture. Connections established between the creative process and cultural values contribute to the formation of a model of human liberation theory. ;The concept of liberation is explored and identified within the social norms, values and practices of this culture. The ideologies of critical pedagogy and feminist theory are examined as potential sites for actualizing human liberation. ;A narrative study analyzes the autobiographical reflections of six women identified as "creative". The language in their life and work elicits places of liberation and constraint. Thematic language describes elements of the creative imagination, personal agency, culture, and female socialization patterns and their impact on these women's lives. The narratives of the women interviewed reveal qualities comprising the creative process as emancipatory and empowering, while the cultural patterns and institutions influencing their concept of self and personal agency represent places of constraint. ;This work emphasizes the role of aesthetic sensibility as integral to human liberation. The conceptual models of creative fidelity and aesthetic sensibility , when combined with the development of personal agency, result in a hypothetical model of freedom situated in emergent "patterns of connection" . This paper concludes in the possibility of human freedom existing in an individual and collective transformation involving a re-valuing of sensory knowing midst a culture focused on technological knowing. Sensory knowing values the processes found in creative energy, relationship with the self, with others, and with the sacred. This metaphorical reconceptualization and reconstruction of values contains the possibility of transforming patterns of communication, communities, social institutions and personal relationships from forces of alienation into holistic and connective webs that cultivate freedom