Re: [xmca] "Psychology of Art" and "Literature and Revolution"

This is amazing, Anton.That poem is NOT in Tristia in the "Complete Poetry"
volume. (Or I cannot find it there). But what blew me away was the Russian
of the Swallow:

     ñ ÓÌÏ×Ï ÐÏÚÁÂÙÌß, ÞÔÏ Ñ ÈÏÔ*e*Ìß ÓËÁÚÁÔØ:
     óÌ*e*ÐÁÑ ÌÁÓÔÏÞËÁ ×ß ÞÅÒÔÏÇß Ô*e*ÎÅÊ ×ÅÒÎÅÔÓÑ

Literally, isn't this:

I forget the word I wanted to say,
And the blind swallow returns to the hall of shadows.
(I am not sure of the word, chertog, and do not have a Russian-English
dictionary to hand.

I spoke with Vladimir Zinchenko just now and have sent him your long
note, David. For sure the second phrase is "dead words stink" but I
need to get the whole fragment and figure out where it came from. Perhaps
Volodya can help us, and I will ask the seminarians tomorrow.

On 6/7/07, Anton Yasnitsky <the_yasya@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> --- Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am trying
> > to get the original Russian Mandelshtam "Yule"
> > source. I did get the
> > collected essays and also complete poems. no
> > "swallow" there.
>
> Oh, this one is pretty simple:
>
> http://www.lib.ru/POEZIQ/MANDELSHTAM/tristia.txt#68
>
> This is Swallow (Lastochka); just wondering, what
> is Mandelshtam's "Yule"? Can it be a reference to
> the Dusk of Liberty (Sumerki svobody)?
>
> > On 6/6/07, David Kellogg
> > <vaughndogblack@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear Mike:
> > >
> > > Thanks to you, and to your Moscow seminar.
> > I'm writing up some things on
> > > Mandelstam and Volsinov, and this will go
> > into the footnotes. So LSV did get
> > > away with it after all!
> > >
> > > I am waiting, breath baited, for you and
> > Tony Whitson to start
> > > "blogging" the "Psychology of Art" in this
> > space, because it's a book I've
> > > long longed to discuss.
> > >
> > > Here are some starting observations,
> > relevant (I think) to why LSV would
> > > want to go out on an art note in "Thinking
> > and Speech".
> > >
> > > a) In some ways, the argument in the first
> > chapter of "Psychology of
> > > Art" recapitulates "Literature and
> > Revolution" (L.D. Trotsky, 1923-24).
> > > This was not a particularly brave thing to do
> > at the time (Trotsky was still
> > > in the government, though just barely). But
> > it was, in retrospect, something
> > > of a hostage to fortune.
> > >
> > > b) Like Trotsky, he begins by destroying
> > the idea of art's complete
> > > independence from its social context.
> > Interestingly, though, he uses this
> > > quote from Plekhanov:
> > >
> > > "To understand the dance of Australian
> > native women, it suffices to know
> > > the role played in the tribal life of
> > Australian aborigines by women
> > > gathering wild-growing plants. To understand
> > the minute, however, it does
> > > not suffice to know the economy of eighteenth
> > century France. We are dealing
> > > here with a dance that expresses the
> > psychology of a non-productive
> > > class...Therefore the economic 'factor'
> > yields it's place and position to
> > > the psychological factor. We must remember,
> > however, that the emergence of
> > > nonproductive classes in human society is a
> > product of economic evolution."
> > > (p. 13).
> > >
> > > c) This quotation from Plekhanov is also a
> > hostage to fortune, albeit
> > > not quite so tragic as LSV's debt to Trotsky.
> > On the one hand, it helps him
> > > make a very convincing argument (which Marx's
> > comments on Hellenism also
> > > help him make) that art, while not entirely
> > separable from social context,
> > > is not reducible to that context either. Like
> > Trotsky, he will rely heavily
> > > on the Russian formalists to bolster this
> > view later on.
> > >
> > > It also helps him suggests something very
> > developmental--the EMERGENCE
> > > of non-productive art from productive art.
> > And finally, it orders them in a
> > > way most congenial to Vygotskyan psychology,
> > a "psychology of art"
> > > historically evolves from some kind of
> > "sociology of art".
> > >
> > > But on the other hand--it CLEARLY suggests
> > exactly the kind of thinking
> > > that he explicitly rejects here on p. 16 (I
> > apologize for the long
> > > quotations, but it will allow people who
> > haven't got the one or two hundred
> > > dollars that Alibris is asking for
> > "Psychology of Art" these days to follow
> > > along):
> > >
> > > "Today one one would dare assert that an
> > ancient bylina (a Russian
> > > popular epic) written from the words of an
> > Arkhangel'sk fisherman and a
> > > Pushkin poem carefully corrected and edited
> > by the poet, are the products of
> > > different creative processes. The facts
> > testify to exactly the opposite.
> > > Accurate investigation reveals that the
> > difference here is purely
> > > quantitative. the narrator of the bylina does
> > not recount it in exactly the
> > > same way in which he received it from his
> > predecessor.He introduces
> > > changes, cuts, additions, and he reshuffles
> > wodrs and parts.Thus he
> > > becomes the author of that particular version
> > using teh ready-made standards
> > > and cliches of popular poetry. Hence the
> > notion that popular poetry is
> > > poetry is unsophisticated in the sense that
> > it is created by an entire
> > > people and not by professionals (narrators,
> > troubadours, storytellers) of
> > > artistic creativity applying a traditional,
> > rich, and specialized technique
> > > to their craft and using it in exactly the
> > same
> > > way as the writers of later periods is
> > completely wrong. On the other
> > > hand, an author who puts down in writing the
> > product of his creativity is by
> > > no means the sole creator of his work.
> > Pushkin, for example, is not the
> > > individual author of his poems. He did not
> > invent the methods of writing
> > > verse and rhymes or of construing a subject
> > or theme in a specific way. Like
> > > the narrators of the byliny, he passes on the
> > immense heritage of literary
> > > tradition which to a great extent depends on
> > the evolution of language,
> > > verse wrtiing techniques, traditional
> > subjects, themese, images,
> > > compositional subjects, and so on."
> > >
> > > d) How to solve the apparent contradiction
> > between what this quotation
> > > says and what the Plekhanov quotation says?
> > It seems to me that these two
> > > statements ARE reconcilable, if we understand
> > that Vygotsky is setting up a
> > > dialectical "unit of analysis" fairly similar
> > to ones we see later in his
> > > pedological work.
> > >
> > > PLAY GENERALLY:
> > > action=meaning (rote repetition, babbling)
> > > action/meaning (role play and gesture)
> > > meaning/action (rule based games)
> > >
> > > RULE BASED GAMES:
> > > imaginary situation = rules (a game of
> > catch)
> > > imaginary situation/rules (a game of horsie
> > with a stick, children
> > > playing "house")
> > > rule/imaginary situation (a game of chess)
> > >
> > > The analogy may seem far-fetched, but we
> > find the same kind of method in
> > > his analysis of teaching in Educational
> > Psychology, which was written at
> > > almost the same time as Psychology of Art
> > (and is also explicitly indebted
> > > to Trotsky in several places, e.g. p. 347 and
> > p. 350).
> > >
> > > On p. 49 (and again on p. 187) LSV
> > discusses the "rickshaw driver" and
> > > the "tram driver", and the reversal of the
> > proportions of physical motor
> > > energy and directing, organization and
> > planning:
> > >
> > > LABOR
> > > physical labor = mental labor (hunting and
> > gathering?)
> > > physical labor/mental labor (rickshaw
> > pulling)
> > > mental labor/physical labor (tram driving).
> > >
> > > TEACHING
> > > content provision = environment management
> > (child's play)
> > > content provision/environmental management
> > (tutoring, "scaffolding",
> > > DIRECT teaching of concepts)
> > > environmental management/content provision
> > (public education)
> > >
> > > With these examples we can imagine a
> > research
> === message truncated ===
>
>
>
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Received on Thu Jun 7 11:54 PDT 2007