L.S. Vygotsky’s Critique: Between Aesthetics, Publitsistika and Psychology

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Abstract

This paper discusses L.S. Vygotsky’s early activity as a critic through an analysis of texts in which the author himself reflects on the task of the critic. Fragments from the essay on Hamlet, Psychology of art and theatrical reviews of the Gomel period (1922—23) are analyzed to provide an overview of how his understanding of the role of the critic has evolved and changed in time. By moving from the reader’s critique to the objective analytic method, Vygotsky has placed the critic in a position of social and educational engagement, a public figure committed to raise the level of the arts and the audience’s capacity optimize the aesthetic experience. His stance to the critical work is also analyzed within the context of Russian critical traditions, particularly some ideas of Boris Eikhenbaum and the Formal School of literary studies. Finally, the critical activity is seen alongside an extensive list of attributes that has been linked to Vygotsky (scientist, methodologist, philosopher etc.) as an equally important and complementary facet of a person fully committed to social transformation.

General Information

Keywords: Psychology of art, Critic, Publitsistika, Aesthetics, L.S. Vygotsky

Journal rubric: Theory and Methodology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2019150403

Funding. This paper presents some of the results of a Doctoral thesis and an ongoing post-doctoral research. The doctoral research was funded by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), and the post-doctoral is funded by São Paulo Research Foundation (Fapesp 2015/17830-1).

For citation: Marques P.N. L.S. Vygotsky’s Critique: Between Aesthetics, Publitsistika and Psychology. Kul'turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2019. Vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 25–34. DOI: 10.17759/chp.2019150403.

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Information About the Authors

Priscila N. Marques, PhD, post-doctoral fellow, University of São Paulo, Sao Paolo, Brazil, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7111-6372, e-mail: priscilanm@gmail.com

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