ISCAR Congress, Sydney, 30 Sept - 3 October, 2014
Vygotsky’s theatre reviews and
his cultural-historical psychology
1 October 2014
Michael Michell
School of Education
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia
Overview
Background
• The research project
• Vygotsky textology
• The corpus
Analysis
• Key structure of the reviews
• Key themes of the reviews
Findings
Vygotsky textological studies
• Long-standing issues of accuracy and completeness in the translation and
publication of Vygotsky’s work (van der Veer & Yasnitsky, 2011)
• Dubna Psychological Journal commitment to collect and make available online
Vygotsky’s complete works and invite translation, analysis and commentary on
these texts from international scholars (Yasnitsky, 2012a).
• Publication of:
- new, unpublished material from the Vygotsky family archives e.g. early
drafts, memos, notebooks
- ‘forgotten’ material published during Vygotsky’s lifetime
• new insight into the development and trajectory of Vygotsky’s thinking -located the
origins of some of his later mature theories in his early texts (van der Veer &
Zavershneva, 2011; L. Vygotsky, 2010; Zavershneva, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c, 2012).
• “Vygotsky before Vygotsky”; "the Vygotsky we do not know" (Yasnitsky 2011, p.53)
The research project
Stage one, 2013-2014, Stage 2, 2014-2015
• a scanning and selective sampling of the corpus according to
initial criteria (perezhivanie, Stanislavski)
• translation from the Russian into English, initial content analysis
Initial questions:
1. What themes and preoccupations are evident in Vygotsky’s
theatre reviews? How do these relate to the literary and dramarelated psychological concepts of his late works?
2. To what extent are the ideas of the Stanislavsky drama school
evident in Vygotsky’s theatre reviews, in particular the role and
consciousness of the actor, and the concept of perezhivanie?
3. If there is evidence of appropriation of Stanislavky’s perezhivanie
in his theatre reviews, to what extent has Vygotsky changed or
transformed the concept for his own purposes?
Vygotsky’s theatre reviews
Overview of the corpus
Nash Ponedel’nik
(Our Monday) 1922
• 14 reviews
Nash Ponedel’nik
(Our Monday) 1923
• 35 reviews
Polesskaia Pravda
(The Truth of Polesia)1923
• 18 reviews
= 67 reviews in total
23 translated
Analysis: Typical review structure
Meaning potential of the original literary work
Genre, setting, plot, mood, characters, themes,
Theatrical traditions/styles/genre
‘essence’ of the literary work/play
Drama realisations
Staging, directors, direction,
Acting, actors, style, stereotypes
Meta-comments
‘Old theatre’ vs ‘new theatre’
‘Stereotypes’, ‘patterns and stamps’
Analysis: Vygotsky’s mission
• promoting national/provincial theatre
• developing a new Russian theatre
• educating audiences
Analysis: literary- drama translations
• ‘meaning potential’/semiotic affordances
of the genre
• the ‘essence’ of the play
• pedagogic purpose
Analysis: Spinoza – The Ethics
Postulate 6
Each thing, as far as it can by its own power, strives to
Persevere in its being.
Postulate 7
The striving by which each thing strives to persevere in
its being is nothing but the actual essence of the thing.
Dem.: From the given essence of each thing some things
necessarily follow (by IP36), and things are able [to
produce] nothing but what follows necessarily from
their determined nature (by IP29). So the power of each
thing, or the striving by which it (either alone or with others)
does anything, or strives to do anything – that is (by P6),
the power or the striving, by which it strives to persevere in
its being, is nothing but the given or actual, essence of the
thing itself, qed.
Of the Origin and Nature of the Affects, Curley (ed.),1994, p.159
Analysis: Spinoza – The Ethics
Preface Book II/209
Finally, by perfection in general I shall, as I have said,
understand reality, that is, the essence of each thing
insofar as it exists and produces an effect, having no
regard to its duration. For no singular thing can be
called more perfect for having persevered in existing
for a longer time. Indeed, the duration of things cannot
be determined from their essence, since the essence
of things involves no certain and determinate time of
Existing. But any thing whatever, whether it is more
perfect or less, will always be able to persevere in
existing by the same force by which it begins to exist;
so they are all equal in this regard.
Of the Powers of the Affects, Curley (ed.),1994, p.200
Analysis: old and new theatre
• neo-realism, spiritual naturalism
• old and new theatre traditions
• new theatrical language
Analaysis:Tolstoy’s perezhivanie (experiencing)
To call up in oneself a feeling once experienced
and, having called it up, to convey it by means of
movements, lines, colours, sounds, images
expressed in words, so that others express the
same feeling – in this consists the activity of art.
Art is that human activity which consists in one
man’s consciously conveying to others, by
certain external signs, the feelings he has
experienced, and in others being infected by
those feelings and also experiencing them.
Leo Tolstoy,1995,What is Art? p39-40
Analysis: Stanislavsky’s living theatre
The main difference involves the object of
attention. The technician is concerned about the
public and the audience. He wants to convince
them, not the actor who stands speaking with him
on stage. For the actor who is in the process [….]
of experiencing [the role], the object of attention
is himself and what surrounds him on stage.
Such an actor convinces the person to whom he
is speaking. He does not pay [conscious]
attention to the audience, but plays for himself.
SS V Part 1 1993, p.444
Experiencing helps the actor to fulfill his basic goal, which is the creation of the life
of the human spirit in a role and the communication of that life onstage in an
artistic form. As you can see, our prime task is not only to portray the life of a role
externally but above all to create the inner life of the character and of the whole
play, bringing our own individual feelings to it, endowing it with all the features of
our own personality. p19
Analysis: Stanislavsky’s living theatre
One should not act an image ... Carry out all
your planned actions correctly, penetrate into
and sense all the thoughts contained in your
role while you are on the stage, analyse your
attitude ... and as a result of all that you will
achieve an image. Don’t force yourself into
any schematic form on the stage.
(Stanislavski & Rumyantsev, 2013, p.105)
Analysis: Stanislavkian living theatre
• perezhivanie and actor/audience psychology
• living vs portraying the part
• ‘patterns and stamps’
• the Stanislavskian binary
Findings: Vygotsky’s Stanislavskian template
‘playing the role’
versus
portraying emotions
fake, empty theatrical artificiality
puppets, marionettes, pulling strings
masks, rehearsal before the main performance
patterns and stamps, image, stereotypes
‘living on the stage’
living emotions
real, spiritual naturalism, neorealism
live on the stage
living a drama
life of a soul
Findings: Vygotsky’s theatre reviews
• deep knowledge of Russian and nonRussian literature and drama
• no traces of Marx or Marxian dialectic
• Stanislavskian framework dominant
• Spinozan influences
• cultural-historical perspective
• theatre psychology
• nascent psychology of affects