Artistic Creativity: Individual and the Community (Remarks on Tagore’s notion of the ‘Surplus’ in Man)

Abstract

This chapter explores Tagore’s notion of “the surplus” in human beings. “The surplus,” for Tagore, is the emotional energy that exceeds what is necessary for self-preservation, and it is what motivates creative expression in art. Tagore analyses artistic creativity as the expression of an individual, but also as an internalization of what is external to this person. Through art, the artist attains a sense of interconnection with the world that facilitates transcendence of self-interest and attunement with the whole. Although creativity on this analysis is aimed at achieving connection with the larger world, Miri critically observes that Tagore’s analysis is focused entirely on the individual’s artistic activity. Like most modern aesthetic theorists, Tagore ignores the collective artistic activity of communities, such as that which is typical among Indian tribal peoples. Tagore’s theory is inadequate for accommodating this kind of shared creativity, but Miri suggests the possibility of extending the notion of the surplus to communities as well as individuals, a theoretical possibility that Tagore himself did not consider.