L.S. Vygotsky and the Theater

The article presents the analysis of L.S. Vygotsky's works dedicated to the theater arts and is organized according Vygotsky's different life and work stages. Meanwhile special attention is paid to the Gomel period during which a large number of reviews were written by Vygotsky and published in “Nash ponedel'nik” and “Polesskaia pravda” newspapers. Biographical facts are widely used in this analysis and help to clarify Vygotsky's interest in art. It is shown that even at the beginning of his oeuvre, he was interested not only in a range of problems in art, but also psychological problems related to art perception and creativeness. Vygotsky's usage of structural concept ideas about the peculiar properties of literary text composition are also explored. Vygotsky analyzes the socio-psychological mechanisms of theatrical art effect. Furthermore, those areas which are widely used by Vygotsky in determining the characteristics of cast reincarnation are examined. Special emphasis is placed on the different elements of the actor techniques (speech, movement, emotional expression, acting personality and etc.). Materials are widely used in this study and help identify the socio-cultural context that defined Vygotsky's values at different stages of his work, related to his drama criticism and his formation as a professional psychologist.     

The Ontological and Cultural Genesis of Forms of Memorization: Replication of the Experiments of A.N. Leontiev

Information is presented from a replication of the experiments of A.N. Leontiev (1928), and the ontological and cultural genesis of direct and mediated memorization is traced. It was confirmed that each form of memorization develops with a different degree of productivity and in different ways. No confirmation was found for A.N. Leontiev’s postulate that the ontogenesis of memorization is subject to the “parallelogram principle.” The relationship between forms of memorization and the time and nature of mnemic activity is shown. A pronounced decrease was found in the productivity of memorization processes among present-day schoolchildren and undergraduates as compared with the schoolchildren and undergraduates tested by A.N. Leontiev.     

Comments on L.S. Vygotsky's Theater Review on E.V. Gel'tser's Performance

This article presents detailed comments on L.S. Vygotsky's review of the famous Russian ballerina E.V. Gel'tser's performance during her Gomel tour in the autumn of 1922. We present a reconstruction of the cultural context, which is quite essential for understanding multiple aspects of the content of Vygotsky's review. We stress the importance of the distinction between artificial and natural movements introduced by Vygotsky's when considering the uniqueness of expressive movement in choreography.

The uniqueness of cathartic experience, which became a central theme in Vygotsky's research monograph The Psychology of Art (1925), is examined in this review using the analysis of classical dance perception. We establish the methodological importance of Vygotsky's account of the opposition between classical and so-called untaught, natural dance (I. Duncan and M. Fokine), which in turn makes it possible to designate the fundamental difference between “spiritual” [dukhovnyi] and “mental/emotional” [dushevnyi] experience.     

Using a board game to teach protein synthesis to high school students

The present work aimed to investigate the contribution of the board game ‘Synthesizing Proteins’ to the understanding of protein synthesis by high school students, based on the socio-interactionist theory of Vygotsky. Fifteen students (six from a public school and nine from a private school) participated in the research, which had three stages: diagnosis and pre-interview, game execution, and post-interview, with collection of written and audiovisual data. The data were organised and interpreted according to a qualitative content analysis, in which we evaluated the predominant concepts, the conceptual gains and type of interactions promoted by the game in the understanding of target themes. The results indicated that the game contributed to the improvement (or construction) of a protein synthesis model by the students, providing a symbolic representation of the process through interactions guided by the rules of the game (in the game, students played the roles of molecules, and simulated mechanisms and processes). These interactions, especially of cooperative and competitive nature, may promote a meaningful, prospective learning.     

Experiencing of Music as the Basis of the Effectiveness of Music Therapy

In transposing the discussion of L.S. Vygotsky’s ideas to the cross-cultural area of science, the authors summarize the contexts and positions regarding the contribution of the Russian psychological school to the substantiation of musical therapeutic theory and practice. The analysis by Dr. Mastnak of European and American academic periodicals in psychology and music therapy showed that Western science does not have access to all of the content and achievements of Russian and Russian-language psychology. Reading Vygotsky’s works from a musical therapeutic perspective and, in addition, in a cross-cultural interpretation, the authors discuss the abundance of the psychological scientist’s methodological ideas that could provide a theoretical substantiation of effective music therapy.