Re: Play

Ana M. Shane (pshane who-is-at andromeda.rutgers.edu)
Thu, 27 Jun 1996 02:16:30 -0400

Hi Mike, Lisa, and others,

I guess, once you strat typing, it's like pop-corn: you can't stop!!

Anyway Mike said:

> Here is an interesting idea I encounted about play in Barrie
>Thorne's book, *Gender play*. As a primary definition of the word, play,
>Thorne, drawing upon the Oxford English Dictionary, I believe, gave
>activity, action, operation. That sounde a LOT to me just like Leontiev's
>three levels of analysis in activity theory. I believe that this is either
>a total coincidence, or there is some deep relationship between play
>and activity.
>mike cole

Do you remember Vygotsky's: "Play is not imagination in action, but the
other way around: imagination is play without action" - this is a paraphrase
not an actual quotation - from his article on Play in "Mind and Society"

By the way - Vygotsky also wrote in teh same article something I puzzle over
for years: He said: "I believe that play is not symbolic action in the
proper sense of the term, so it becomes essential to show the role of
motivation in play" (Mind in Society, p 94). As for "symbolic action in the
proper sense" I believe he meant **system of signs that generalize
reality... like algebra**.
I just puzzle over that, because, most of the time, even when we take the
motivation into account, we usually think of play as symbolic activity.

I am just throwing this thought into the arena...

Ana

_________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Ana Marjanovic-Shane

151 W. Tulpehocken St. Office of Mental Health and
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