Re: [xmca] Paulhan, Volosinov, Mandelstam

> ...perhaps Anton has already
> answered all this.

No, Mike, not yet, but I'll try to do it now.

> Two questions:
>
> a) Does the original 1934 Soviet version of
"Thinking and Speech"
> contain the references to Mandelstam and
Gumilov? Does the 1956
edition?
>

I don't have either of these editions, so I might
only guess. However, I happen to have the 1999
edition by Labirint Publishers. P. Tulviste
criticises the 1982 Pedagogika edition for its
omission of important details, such as Vygotsky's
1934 original paragraph about Sapir that starts
with "V sfere instiktivnogo soznaniya (see
Tulviste, 1987,
http://www.voppsy.ru/issues/1987/872/872170.htm
). Interestingly enough, my Labirint Publishers
1999 edition of Myshlenie i rech' preserved this
very quotation, which makes me think it was
repulished from the 1934 edition).

And my guess--supported, in fact, by the text of
this 1999 would be that Vygotsky did not refer
either to Mandelstam (first arrested on the night
of May 13-14, 1934; see e.g.
http://www.gifik.narod.ru/mandelstam.html ) or
Gumilev (executed in August, 1921;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Gumilyov ).

> But Vygotsky DOES cite Mandelstam at the very
beginning of the final
> chapter, in the epigraph from Mandelstam's
"swallow", to which Vygotsky
> appends Mandelstam's actual name (at least in
the Minick and Kozulin
> translations).

This is not quite correct. I failed to find any
reference to either Mandelshtam or Gumlev in the
text of the Minick translation, which, as a
matter of fact, is very close to the original.
See
http://books.google.com/books?id=u8UTfKFWb5UC&pg=PA284&ots=Vz1rwD4L6_&dq=Vygotsky+Stygian&sig=pJ2SihXaIZKNh7aOGkUgYjVSuIw
&
http://books.google.com/books?id=uGp6U1WqFi4C&pg=PA109&ots=DOEULnx7jf&dq=Vygotsky+Stygian&sig=xBhmSGY9FKwN4jpIRWYgqxf7Rdc

On the other hand, Kozulin's 1986 version of the
paragraph in question is very different from the
original, and this is Kozulin who "appends
Mandelstam's actual name" rather than Vygotsky.

So, both are referred to as the "poet" and
"another poet". Quite cryptic... Interestingly
enough, Mandelshtam's phrase is misquoted.
Whereas in the published Vygotsky's text this was
"mysl' ostajotsya ... 'tumanom, zvonom i
siyaniem' ", ('mist, bell and radiance' in
Minick's translation) the original Mandel'shtam's
phrasing in his 'Swallow' is 'tumanom, zvonom i
ziyaniem'. The original "ziyanie" as opposed to
"siyanie", according to lingvo.yandex.ru
dictionary, is "gaping, yawning" or even "hiatus"
(
http://lingvo.yandex.ru/en?text=%D0%B7%D0%B8%D1%8F%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5
) (cf. "siyanie" as "radiance").

The reason for that might be that the author
deliberately corrupted the quote so that it would
to be harder for the cesor to identify its
authorship, whereas sapienti sat. Alternatively,
this might be an ordinary typo or, perhaps, was
added by a stenographer--in case Vygotsky
disctated the text.

> b) If not, when did it appear and how?

Not sure that I understand what the "it" in the
question referes to, anyway... The answer to this
qyestion--the way I understand it--is that the
references to these two authors NEVER appeared in
the text of Vygotsky, only in comments and
editors' footnotes. Kozulin's translation is
definitely the case when the original text AND
the comments are presented as a coherent text.
Which, to me personally, is not quite legitimate
thing to do. Anyway, tastes differ...

--- Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:

> I do not have the relevant texts to answer your
> questions, David, and hope
> someone does. Having been email restricted for
> 3 weeks it will take time for
> me to get back into the discussion. I will seek
> to find help from Russian
> colleagues, but perhaps Anton has already
> answered all this.
> mike
>

      Get news delivered with the All new Yahoo! Mail. Enjoy RSS feeds right on your Mail page. Start today at http://mrd.mail.yahoo.com/try_beta?.intl=ca
_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
Received on Fri Jun 1 08:49 PDT 2007