Abstract
This chapter outlines the deep contextual background to research into creativity arguing that across the globe there have been different ways of conceiving of creativity. Not all cultures see the bringing of novelty into being in the same way that the West does and not all cultures value it the same way. In this chapter, we look closely at the South Asian experience before concentrating on Taoist and Confucian understandings in East Asia. Then we zero in on early thinking in the West around the notions of the muse and inspiration before looking at the development of the ideas on genius and the problems these entail. We argue that, despite the differing cultural discourses about creativity, there are some commonalities in these differences suggesting to us the possibility of finding a view of creativity that could be universal in its application.
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Notes
- 1.
All Bible quotes are sourced from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version (Committee of the Council of Religious Education, 1971). This is an American revision of the Tyndale/King James version published in 1611.
- 2.
This view of the artist as outside mainstream social behaviour is still maintained through society’s permissive tolerance of artists’ drug use, alcoholism, misogyny, adultery, fetishism, reclusiveness, violence and other destructive behaviours.
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McIntyre, P., Fulton, J., Paton, E., Kerrigan, S., Meany, M. (2018). Deep Background to the Project. In: Educating for Creativity within Higher Education. Creativity, Education and the Arts. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90674-4_2
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