[Xmca-l] Re: New Year's Perezhivanie

Wed Jan 4 10:13:49 PST 2017

It is often hard to contain the many strands in an XMCA discussion, but
never more so than when we discuss this topic.

In Reggio Emilia's early childhood pedagogy it could be called a spaghetti
mess.

I am thinking about three strands of pasta, now:

>From Marc -- My current research concern is trying to find
*ways to study* and understand how this mediation occurs and how these
semiotic mediators are transformed and distributed.

>From Chris -- Part of this might also be a question of
what it means to describe and represent one's own perezhivanie
figuratively/narratively (whether to others, or to oneself), as opposed to
living that perezhivanie. *Especially if the attempt to capture/represent*
*one's own perezhivanie is, perhaps, also central to the living of it?*

And our US Narnia playworld study, where this capturing/representing(/living)
took place with Maurice Sendak's illustrations of perezhivanie.

Two of the stages ("making mischief of one kind ... and another" and
"saying I'LL EAT YOU UP!) of perezhivanie look a lot like the image Mike
sent ... we have called them stage 0, Fixed Boundaries, which means that in
order to start the process of perezhivanie the moving forward that is life
has to pause (despair) and also be recognized (with almost joyful anger and
abandon before declaring oneself) (I have to check but I am pretty sure
this was originally from Crime and Punishment via Vasilyuk).

The difference between experiencing as struggle and the meaning that
mediates experiencing as struggle is certainly a key questions.  But how to
access/study this question is still a problem.  Again I turn to children --
and although the following example is still very emotionally powerful for
me, I think it is particularly useful here -- for others as well as myself.

Last night my family and I had to run out of our apartment because there
was a large fire in the building next door that the firepeople could not
contain for an hour or so.  My five year old had trouble going to sleep, as
we all did, after the blaze was extinguished and we were allowed to go
home.  He said he had read a book about volcanos at school and lava was
live fire, and the book and the real fire had scared him, so the book had
come true, so he wanted to cut up the book.

I don't mean to bypass the other strands but this is what came to mind.
Beth

On Wed, Jan 4, 2017 at 8:41 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
wrote:

> That surely has a touch of catharsis to it, Beth, thanks for sharing!
> Alfredo
> ________________________________________
> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> on behalf of Beth Ferholt <bferholt@gmail.com>
> Sent: 03 January 2017 16:50
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Cc: mike cole
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: New Year's Perezhivanie
>
> Several people did tell me, independently, that the great end of the John
> Oliver segment on 2016, where different NYers curse 2016 on the street,
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ6WPo-oW5Q, helped them to overcome
> feelings of despair at the end of last year.  So maybe it is related to
> perezhivanie.  But maybe just to one part of the process. Beth
>
> On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 6:45 PM, <lpscholar2@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Mike,
> > When you use the phrase (by this poltical hammering) then i would suggest
> > this political  activity is not capturing the full  meaning of
> perezhivanie.
> > My reason for saying this must first refer to page 5 of the article where
> > perezhivanie’s meaning is approached through the
> > meaningfulness-meaninglessness opposition and the back and forth within
> > this struggle.
> > The image of the hammer as presented has its source in the
> meaning-forming
> > motive proceeding in a direction towards realization of her
> meaning-forming
> > political motives. Only within this aspect of the opposition will the
> > situation in the image HAVE meaning and BE meaningful.
> > Vasilyuk however  adds the other aspect : If things are proceeding
> > OTHERWISE the situation becomes meaningless (LP – and then we enter the
> > crisis of meaninglessness – the otherwise - where words no longer mediate
> > the situation).
> >
> > This nature of perezhivanie Vasilyuk metaphorically describes as learning
> > ( as ENTERING INTO) this type of meaning that is NOT formal, scientific
> > conceptual knowledge. It is a place of moods and shifting experiences.
> >
> > So in my reading of perezhivanie there is this tension between (entering
> > into) volitional acts and the alternative aspect of perizihavanie as
> > overwhelming crisis of  (meaninglessness) which must be mediated and the
> > mediators transformed.
> >
> > Turning back to page 2  and the situation where Macduff must feel his
> > situation as a man when his entire family are killed. No practical
> activity
> > can bring his family back. Another type of work is needed (and necessary)
> > which Macduff calls (feeling the situation as a man). THIS WORK Vasilyuk
> > calls perezhivanie.
> >
> > So, my way of reading the image of the hammer smashing 2016 highlights
> the
> > aspect of (entering into) a meaningful motive as (political activity)
> that
> > is represented but what is not is the alternative,  represented in the
> > crisis of meaninglessness that is the other aspect of perezhivanie.
> > Marc Clara speaks of the mediator that transforms this crisis of
> > experiencing, but i am not sure the  the image of the girl and hammer
> > portrays the aspect of perezhivanie as involving a transformative
> mediator
> > existing between meaningfulness and meaninglessness?
> > That time when words and practical activity fail and the person is facing
> > existential dread when (feeling as a man) that all hope has left the
> world.
> > That moment is the moment in which Clara opened and (entered into) her
> > article exploring the two notions of perizhivanie using the same word.
> > At the heart of this matter is the existential dread of  meaninglessness
> > unique for each person and our ways of answering as alternative waysthat
> > give a deep sense of meaningfulness.
> > It is here that there is overlap with last month’s article where Zukerman
> > addressed the unique existential aspect entering into cultural historical
> > (human paths)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Sent from my Windows 10 phone
> >
> > From: mike cole
> > Sent: January 2, 2017 12:06 PM
> > To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: New Year's Perezhivanie
> >
> > The pieces of brick thrown up by this political hammering have not yet
> > fallen and made the devastation personally experienced by the
> nation/world.
> >
> > Still, genuinely, we can wish all of us 7.3 billion well in the new year.
> >
> > So what do you think chuck, is this a good representation of
> perezhivanie?
> > :-)
> > Mike
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 11:24 AM Charles Bazerman <
> > bazerman@education.ucsb.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > So you think 2017 has any hope of being any better?
> > >
> > > Chuck
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > >
> > > From: mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu>
> > >
> > > Date: Monday, January 2, 2017 11:01 am
> > >
> > > Subject: [Xmca-l]  New Year's Perezhivanie
> > >
> > > To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > With the New Year, as our Russian colleagues put it!
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > This image forwarded from a friend more or less sums up my experience
> > >
> > > > of
> > >
> > > > the past year. Thought you might find it interesting too.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Vis a vis the discussion of perezhivanie: Does this image provide us
> > with
> > >
> > > > used (re-presented) behavioral evidence of a person undergoing
> > > perezhivanie?
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Looking forward to the discussion.
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Feliz año nuevo!
> > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > > Mike
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Beth Ferholt
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Early Childhood and Art Education
> Brooklyn College, City University of New York
> 2900 Bedford Avenue
> Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889
>
> Email: bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
> Phone: (718) 951-5205
> Fax: (718) 951-4816
>
>

-- 
Beth Ferholt
Assistant Professor
Department of Early Childhood and Art Education
Brooklyn College, City University of New York
2900 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889

Email: bferholt@brooklyn.cuny.edu
Phone: (718) 951-5205
Fax: (718) 951-4816
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