Metaphoric creativity as embodied performance in social interaction

This chapter describes a qualitative study of real-life creative processes in the context of social interactions in a kindergarten and a therapy session. The focus of the study is metaphoric creativity as embodied performance in social interaction. This entails a focus on physical metaphorical actions embedded in the dynamics of social interaction rather than novel linguistic metaphors. On a theoretical level, the study is informed by a vantage point in an ecological-enactive approach to cognition and a languaging stance in relation to linguistics. This combined theoretical standpoint allows for an analytical focus on how conventional metaphoric expression can be recontextualized in creative ways by physically enacting or performing aspects of the metaphorical or metonymic meaning rather than just using language to convey this. This points to the creative potential in shifting back and forth between words and physical actions, from verbally describing something via figurative language to physically enacting metaphors or metonymies in engaging in the different activities of social interaction. In this way, the study contributes to research on metaphor and creativity by showing that metaphoric creativity can also be studied as embodied performances, not chiefly relying on words.