> "the object of an activity is its true motive."(Leont'ev)
>and you look for the motive and problem space drawing a sub-
>jectivity into contact with it...you have to say, wait, is this a unified
>subject, all-agent? What if one's object is a subordinated subject (one has
>objectified another, made it/her/him into a target for action, the gaze,
>consumption...) you start to get lost in terminology pretty quickly.
i can't help myself, i am drawn to this again and again. Leont'ev
is describing the "oject" as the source of the motivation for engaging in
the activity.
A psychoanaltic read would agree, but would speak of this in terms of
desire and identity, that the "object" is a relation between a desire and
an
activity, an interaction (usually conflicted = multiple subjective
performance positions) of identitification, much like L&W describe learning
as an ontological phenom.
Leonte'ev's position _lacks_ an accounting, perhaps, of desire and motivation,
and the performance aspect, the way we "fake" our way.
wanting to understand motivation, and this is based on work Mary Bryson
has done, might be more focussed in activities which people choose to do,
objects that we choose to engage with, looking at choice as socially
filtered through the activity as historical/social and cultural.
Can Leonte'ev be understood in concepts of object-relations/activity and desire?
diane
When she walks,
the revolution's coming.
In her hips, there's revolution.
When she talks, I hear revolution.
In her kiss, I taste the revolution.
(poem by Kathleen Hanna: Riot Grrl)
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diane celia hodges
university of british columbia
centre for the study of curriculum and knowledge
vancouver, british columbia, canada