Lev Vygotsky on Joy and Sorrow (Comments on the Article «Thoughts and Moods»)

This publication focuses on one of the three early articles by Lev Vygotsky which deal with the issues of perception of modernity in the context of religious and historical events of the Jewish people. It is the second article in his historical and religious triptych and represents the young Vygotsky's reflections on the specifics of the Jewish Hanukkah holiday in two contexts: historical and the context of contemporary events. These comments on the article solve several tasks. First of all, they are aimed at reconstructing those socio-economic events that determined the life of Russia during the First World War. Also, the comments are intended to help the modern reader to understand more deeply the content of the published text and the originality of the personal and semantic position of the young Vygotsky. The comments are aimed at reconstructing the knowledge of religious and artistic texts necessary for understanding the article, as well as the discussions that are characteristic of the Jewish cultural tradition. The analysis of compositional and stylistic features of Vygotsky’s article and of its inner dialogical nature also plays an important part. The comments conclude with an outline of certain issues which would later reappear in Vygotsky’s psychological research.

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