Creativity and innovation in the poetic arts: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz as an example

Abstract

This article distinguishes between creativity and innovation, assumes the systemic approach in innovation studies and applies it to the poetic and literary innovations. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the great poet and writer of the Spanish viceroyalty in Mexico at the end of the 17th century, is the focus. Sor Juana linked the literary arts with the sciences and techniques of the Baroque era and obtained social, political and religious support that made her an enterprising and highly innovative woman. The resurgence of the figure of Sor Juana in the 20th century is also analyzed, thanks to writers such as Amado Nervo, Clara Campoamor and Octavio Paz, as well as Mexican and international researchers who have generated a great social, cultural and institutional innovation, the sorjuanism, whose main milestones are analyzed.