ABSTRACT
Pushkin's practice of drawing in the margins and among the words of his poetic compositions is a remarkable example of a give and take process between graphic and linguistic signs. I recently acquired Sergei Eisenstein's book, Uber Kunst und Kunstler (Of Art and Artists) (1977) in which there is an essay on Pushkin. Eager for more clues on Pushkin's creative procedures it was bewildering to find that the first reference to him appeared on the penultimate line of the essay and the second reference on the concluding line, which read Beginnen wir deshalb mit Pushkin ('Therefore let us begin with Pushkin'). The reader may have the impression in the next few pages that this author is playing the same puzzling game as Eisenstein when it comes to expectations concerning creativity and international education, but the relevance of 'semiotics' (or the study of signs) to international education will only make sense after a brief overview of the intellectual developments that have produced 'semiotics'. This will be followed by an approach to semiotic 'readings' which contribute to a new perception of cultural diversity encompassed by the concept of 'creative understanding' and a dynamic approach to cultural traditions which combines a concern for both transformation and preservation. This is then related to the concept of a new 'episteme' which the author suggests is immanent in some aspects of the International Baccalaureate (IB). The consequences of the new episteme, and its corollary post-modernism, on the concept of creativity is explored in terms of a creative paradigm based on the operation of creative tropes. The link between creative understanding and the new creative paradigm is related to the concept of Homo Faber (man the maker), which is one of the interactive areas of the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP). Finally the prevailing concept of self-expression as the goal of creative activity is juxtaposed to a new paradigm of creativity.
