Vygotsky's perspective on the development of imagination and creativity

Abstract

From the three translated papers of Vygotsky which directly addressed creativity, one can extract the outlines of a viable theory explaining the development of creativity. Vygotsky claimed that creative imagination is the distinguishing feature between the world of culture and the world of nature, and the basis of all mature mental activity. He found the origins of creative imagination in early manifestations of play, and explained that it goes through a process of integration and evolution following the development of concepts and reasoning during adolescence. It develops into mature creative imagination only in adulthood The argument in the present article is that Vygotsky's explanation can resolve contradictions that exist in the empirical findings on the development of creativity during adolescence. In addition to a general theoretical examination of Vygotsky's perspective on creativity, the theory's relevance to developmental issues in creativity is critically examined, and its relationship to existing knowledge about development of creativity is discussed.

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