Re: [xmca] Vygotsky in the West

Thanks, Katarina,

this is really impressive, and I also enjoyed
your paper on Vygotsky's defectology and would
strongly recommend to it all interested who have
not seen it yet (see
http://communication.ucsd.edu/MCA/Paper/VygotskyDisabilityEJSNE2007.pdf
).

As to the original question about Jakobson's role
in the dissemination of Vygotsky's work in the
West (
http://communication.ucsd.edu/MCA/Mail/Current.Mail/0079.html
), we have some evidence of that in Jerome
Bruner's interview published by Cole & Levitin in
"The autobiography of Alexander Luria" (2006).
Bruner reports that whereas Luria was the main
agent of the first major publication of Vygotsky
in English in 1962, there were also two
"mediators": Eugenia Hanffmann and Roman
Jakobson. He also tells us about Jakobson's
"Russian rage" about the idea of Piaget writing a
Preface for the edition. As we know, he never
did, and the Preface written by Bruner was
actually published after all (with Piaget's
Comments on Chapter 2 and excerpts from Chapter 6
of Vygotsky’s Thought and Language; see
http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/comment/piaget.htm
). I guess, this can, hypothetically, serve as
some evidence of Jakobson's role in this first
publication, however, stronger documentary
evidence would still be needed. Also, I guess,
asking Jerome Bruner for more details on this
issue would not be a bad idea either.

--- Katarina Rodina <katarina.rodina@isp.uio.no>
wrote:

> Hi Erik, Mike, David,
>
> This is an interesting question, perhaps
> revealing a well kept academic
> secret. I think that historical reseach on
> Vygotsky is of great
> importance, and will shortly comment on the
> impact of Roman Jakobson and
> Vygotsky on Luria’s phonological interest in
> the 1920-30, as well as the
> development of neuro-linguistics. Jakobson
> influenced Vygotsky’s and
> Luria’s concept of neuropsychology qua
> cultural-historical and theoretical
> basis for speech pathology, especially in
> Luria’s research on aphasia. R.
> O. Jacobson (1963/1985) in “Linguistic Types of
> Aphasia” emphasized the
> essential role of linguistics in the study of
> aphasia, giving a linguistic
> interpretation of Luria’s classifications of
> aphasia.
>
> The first neuropsychological research was
> carried out by Vygotsky and
> Luria in the 1920s. This research was a
> continuation of Vygotsky’s
> research in general psychology. Vygotsky
> focused on the systematic
> deviations in psychological processes,
> occurring because of damage to the
> cerebral cortex. Luria’s student T. V. Akhutina
> (2002:5-6) states that
> Luria’s interest for aphasia goes back to the
> 1930s. Vygotsky stimulated
> Luria’s interest for phonology and linguistics,
> including the writings of
> Roman Jakobson. Luria became acquainted with
> Jakobson in 1929 (in the US).
> Jakobson gave lectures on speech pathology and
> linguistic interpretation
> of aphasiological taxonomy in London (1963/4).
> These lectures became,
> according to Akhutina (2002), milestones in the
> development of psycho- and
> neuro-linguistics.
>
> Jakobson’s interest for Vygotsky was linked to
> Luria’s research in the
> field of clinical neurolinguistics and dynamic
> aphasia (Luria’s own
> classification). In his work “Osnovnye problemy
> neyrolingvistiki” (1975),
> Luria presents Jakobson as an outstanding
> contemporary linguist. Jakobson
> shared Vygotsky’s and Luria’s views on
> diagnostics and methodology, and
> criticized the dominant quantitative and
> statistical approach to speech
> pathology. The influence of Vygotsky’s
> non-arithmetic approach to
> disability on Jakobson’s work was, therefore,
> significant (see Vygotsky
> 1993, in my paper in the xmca-archive, 2006).
>
> In addition, I would like to emphasize the fact
> that Vygotsky’s emphasis
> on the significance of research on the
> dysontogenesis of Higher Mental
> Functions for the understanding of ontogeny
> (published in Vygotsky’s last
> lecture, 1,5 months before his death as
> “Problems of the development and
> dissolution of higher mental functions”, 28.04.
> 1934) was fundamental to
> Jakobson’s and Luria’s neurolinguistic
> research.
>
> Jakobson often referred to cultural-historical
> research on inner speech
> (Vygotsky, Luria [1962], Zhinkin [1958],
> Sokolov [1959]) in his
> neurolinguistic writings. Thus, there is reason
> to believe that Jakobson
> not only knew and was interested in Vygotsky’s
> work, but that he
> influenced Luria’s research on aphasia and
> based his own writings (in
> cooperation with Luria) on neurolinguistics and
> Vygotsky’s
> cultural-historical position in relation to
> HMF.
>
> Jakobson as a neurolinguist was, therefore,
> probably one of the first who
> promoted the basic concepts of Vygotsky’s
> theories in the West, first and
> foremost in connection with the publication of
> Vygotsky’s work ”Myshlenie
> i rech”.
>
> References:
> Akhutina,T.V.(2002). Predislovie k nastoyashemu
> izdaniyu. In Luria, A.R.
> (2002). Pis`mo I rech. Neurolingvisticheskie
> issledovaniya.Moskva.
> «Akademia», 3-9.
> Jacobson, R.O. (1963/1985). Linguistic Types of
> Aphasia. – In Jakobson, R.
> Selected Writings. Vol.II (Word and Language).
> The Hague-Paris, p.307-319
> Jacobson,R.O.(1963/1985). Linguistic Types of
> Aphasia. In Jakobsons, R.
> Selected Writings, Moscow-Progress, 287-300.
> Zhinkin, N.I. (1958). Mekhanizmy rechi. Ìoskva.
> Akad.ped.nauk, RSFSR (
> Russian)
> Luria, A.R. (1962). Vyschie korkovye funkzii
> cheloveka i ikh narusheniya
> pri lokal`nykh porazheniyakh mozga. Moskva.
> Izdatelstvo MGU ( Russian) .
> Sokolov, À.N.(1959). Issledovanya po probleme
> rechevykh mekhanizmov
> myschleniya. In «Psychologiceskaya nauka v
> SSSR» tom 1.
> Moskva.Akad.ped.nauk RSFSR, 488-515.
>
>
> Best
> Katarina R.
>
>
> On Sun, April 15, 2007 20:08, Mike Cole wrote:
> > Hi Erik.
> >
> > Odd coincidence that we are working on
> getting a translation of Ivanov's
> > book on semiotics in the
> > USSR translated just now.
> >
> > I wonder if Jackobson played a role in
> getting Thought and Language
> > publisihed in 1962? He and Bruner,
> > who wrote, the preface, knew each other well.
> And he was well known to
> > Luria.
> >
> > But whether he himself wrote about Vygotsky I
> have no idea. Where did you
> > encounter this idea?
> > mike
> >
> > On 4/15/07, Eirik Knutsson
> <eirikeng@student.hf.uio.no> wrote:
> >>
> >> Dr. Vyacheslav Ivanov seems to suggest that
> Roman Jakobson was one of
> >> the
> >> first to introduce Vygotsky's work in the
> West. Does anybody know?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> _______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
>
>
> --
> Katarina A. Rodina
> MSc-Speech & Language Therapy/Logoped,MNLL
> PhD-Research Fellow,
> Department of Special Needs Education
> University of Oslo
> P.O.Box 1140 Blindern,NO-0318 Oslo, Norway
> Phone: +47 22 85 81 38/Fax: +47 22 85 80 21
> E-mail: katarina.rodina@isp.uio.no
>
> Head of Russo-Norwegian Academic Cooperation,
> Herzen State Pedagogical University
> St.Petersburg, Russia
> http://www.herzen.spb.ru
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Mon Apr 16 09:28 PDT 2007