인문영재교육과 상상력

Education of Humanities for the Gifted and Talented and the Imagination: Focusing on Saint-Exupéry's Terre des Hommes(Wind, Sand and Stars)

Recently in Korea, the education of humanities for the gifted and talented has become a matter of concern and interest. The purpose of this study is to examine three phases of the imagination as a motive of creative thinking―formal imagination, material imagination and dynamic imagination. The three phases are referring to the theory of Gaston Bachelard whose most important work is on poetics and on the philosophy of science. This study will analyze several concepts on 'Man' that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry presented through his experience and imagination in Terre des Hommes(Wind, Sand and Stars). Antoine de Saint-Exupéry(29 June 1900-31 July 1944) was a French writer and aviator. He is most famous for his novella The Little Prince, and is also well known for his books about aviation adventures, including Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars. He was a successful commercial pilot pre-war, joining the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) on the outbreak of war, flying reconnaissance missions until the armistice with Germany. Following a spell writing in the United States, he joined the Free French Forces. He went missing on a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean in July 1944. Terre des Hommes (Land of Men) is a memoir by Antoine de Saint Exupéry published in 1939. This work is probably an excellent example of the embodiment of dynamic imagination. The pilot and philosopher recounts several episodes from his years flying treacherous mail routes across the Sahara and the Andes. The central incident details the 1935 plane crash he survived in the Libyan Sahara Desert, between Benghazi and Cairo. Saint Exupéry, and his navigator André Prévot, are left almost without water and food, as chances of finding an oasis or help from the air gradually decrease. The book illustrates the author's view of the world and his opinions of what makes life worth living. His ideas and concepts such as métier(duty), relation, communication, community, self-realization and 'l'Homme'('the Man') form his macroscopic and cosmic vision which could be helpful for an educational system that cultivates creative men.