СЕССИЯ II. Л. С.

ВЫГОТСКИЙ И ПРОБЛЕМЫ ТВОРЧЕСТВА

В ПСИХОЛОГИИ
Модераторы: Диана Борисовна Богоявленская, руководитель Центра
междисциплинарных исследований творчества и одаренности
ПИ РАО, профессор МПГУ (г. Москва, Россия),
Виталий Владимирович Рубцов, президент VII Конгресса
ISCAR, Москва-2023 г. (г. Москва, Россия)

УДК 159.9
DOI: 10.53677/9785919160472_241_244

IS “THE ANGEL IN HISTORY” HEARING REVERSIBLE VOICES IN THE

CHRONOTOPE? VYGOTSKY’S PEREZHIVANIE, RICOEUR’S MIMESIS,
AND SPINOZA’S CONATUS
Y. Nishimoto, Professor of the Kyoto University of Education (Kyoto, Japan)
e-mail: [email protected]
Abstract. Reversible voices are of great importance for the reconstruction of his-
tory. Human voices emerge from their perezhivanie and cultivate themselves through
mimesis, and then crystallize into their conatus in their chronotopes of life. This presen-
tation argues that an architectonic (perezhivanie—mimesis—conatus) of the chrono-
tope can make a significant contribution to meaning-centered education.
Keywords: reversible voices, chronotope, perezhivanie, mimesis, conatus.

Nothing is absolutely dead: every meaning will have its homecoming festival.
The problem of great time. (Bakhtin, 1986, p. 170)

IS HISTORY REVERSIBLE? Physically speaking, the answer is “no”. But, psy-

chologically speaking, it becomes a tough question. Walter Benjamin entrusted this
task to “the angel in history” in Uber den Begriff der Geschichte (1939-40). The angel
in history is surviving against the strong wind (=evolution) from the Garden of Eden.
S/he dies hard because s/he is surely hearing reversible voices in history.
Please let me allow to refer to my specialty. The above-mentioned words (i. e.
history, reversible, and voices) are of great importance in education / pedagogy. For
example, the voice is the preeminent site where the mutual collaboration of minds and
bodies are actualized (Merleau-Ponty, 1994, pp. 174-199). Reversible voices of chil-
dren, students, and teachers are priceless. My hypothesis is that human voices emerge
from their perezhivanie and mimesis, and then crystallize into their conatus in their
chronotopes of life.
This paper discusses how pedagogical chronotope is organized and constructed in
the reality of education. The worldwide education absolutely requires a new paradigm
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because contemporary education is attempting to reform itself only by promoting
standardization approaches (e. g. 21st century generic skills, OECD’s key competen-
cies). This trend forces scholars and practitioners to regard education as a prescription
for various problems and challenges in the globalizing world. They become to think
that education should serve to solve those problems and challenges in the world (e. g.
Education 2030) and after all they degrade education to a lower position than economic
and political positions. They are obsessed with an idea that education is a means of
fulfilling something.
A counter-tide for an alternative vision of education is meaning-centered educa-
tion, where students and teachers engage in open meaning-making processes and self-
organizing educational practices (Kovbasyuk & Blessinger, 2013). Meaning-centered
education needs a chronotope. Although Bakhtin’s concept of chronotope refers to the
interwoven design of time-space in literary works, the author argues that chronotope
in the realm of education should be supersized and shed light on epistemology, theory
of act, and ontology. Holquist (2010) stresses that the chronotope is epistemological in
nature. Steinby (2013) argues that the chronotope is rather an ethical and axiological
category, which means the different possibilities of human action in a concrete situa-
tion. Furthermore, Stetsenko (2017) quotes Ukhtomsky:
from the point of view of chronotope, what exists is not some abstracted points
[in time], but alive and indelible, irrevocable from existence events [co-бытия in Rus-
sian, literally co-beings, or co-existences], … not abstract lines in space but “this-
worldly” lines by which the events of the distant past are connected to the events of the
given moment and through them, to the events of the disappearing in the distance fu-
ture. (pp. 188-189)
According to Stetsenko (2017), chronotope concerns both theory of act and on-
tology in the sense that “life (or being), as chronotope, is coterminous and coextensive
with human agentive actions/deeds at the intersection of collective and individual
agency entailing an integration of past and ongoing actions with yet-to-be-accom-
plished ones” (p. 189). The orchestration of the above-mentioned prior research makes
timbre of chronotope epistemological, agentive, and ontological.
The author, as a Vygotskian and Bakhtinian pedagogist, proposes three significant
terms, namely, perezhivanie, mimesis, and conatus, which emerges out of epistemol-
ogy, theory of act, and ontology respectively in the pedagogical chronotope. In con-
crete settings of meaning-centered education, the significance of perezhivanie cannot
be too emphasized. According to Vygotsky (1994), perezhivanie is a process which

242
integrates the relation of person and environment. “The emotional experience (pe-
rezhivanie) arising from any situation or from any aspect of his environment, deter-
mines what kind of influence this situation or this environment will have on the child”
(pp. 339-340). Perezhivanie can be an indivisible unity of personality. The author il-
lustrates a metaphor of a coin. The top of a coin is assumed to be meaning (эначение)
and the back is considered to be sense (смысл), and the coin has a thickness (This
thickness is important!). The very thickness can be perezhivanie. Meaning (эначение)
can be refracted and converted and crystalized into personalized sense (смысл) through
perezhivanie. Thus, Vygotsky’s terminology, вращивание is embodied in the process
of perezhivanie as a refracting prism. The outer external meaning is transformed into
the inner personalized sense and the sense in turn ingrows and eventually makes the
microcosm of consciousness.
The process mentioned above is dynamic and even aesthetic from the point of
view of mimesis. According to Ricoeur, “mimesis does not mean the duplication of
reality; mimesis is not a copy; mimesis is poiesis, that is construction, creation” (Rob-
bins, 2003, p. 145). What is created by mimesis is also personalized sense.
Perezhivanie and mimesis together inspire Spinoza’s conatus (стремление)—
power or effort toward self-preservation (Spinoza clearly stated in Ethics: “Affectus,
qui passio est, desinit esse passio simulatque eius claram et distinctam formamus
ideam.” Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear
and precise picture of it.).
There is a strong and profound conatus principle. Dahlbeck (2017) explains: “the
conatus principle entails that all finite modes strive to increase their power to exist and
in doing so to secure a greater part of the overall power of substance. … Remember
that for Spinoza, to exist is to be explainable. The striving to persevere in being is
therefore a striving to become more self-determined, more self-explained and more
real” (pp. 10-11).
A fundamental basis of pedagogy (education) can be this self-recognized conatus
which is inspired by a mimetic dialogism between a student and a teacher. The author
argues that an architectonic (perezhivanie—mimesis—conatus) of chronotope can
make a significant contribution to meaning-centered education.
Lastly but not least, the author makes it a rule to rehearse a voice when he en-
counters some professional or educational difficulties. The voice is:
“Yuichi, language cannot be taught.”
The person who gave the voice present is Elena Kravtsova. Her voice creates the
author’s “inner spring”. (Kudryavtsev & Rubtsov, 2020)

243
 References
1. Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Translated by Vern
W. McGee, Edited by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. University of Texas Press.
2. Dahlbeck, J. (2017). Spinoza and Education: Freedom, Understanding and Em-
powerment. Routledge.
3. Holquist, M. (2010). The Fugue of Chronotope. In Bemong, N. et al. (eds.),
Bakhtin’s Theory of the Literary Chronotope: Reflections, Applications, Perspectives.
Academia Press.
4. Kovbasyuk, O & Blessinger, P. (2013). Meaning-centered Education: Interna-
tional Perspectives and Explorations in Higher Education. Routledge.
5. Kudryavtsev, V. T. & Rubtsov, V. V. (2020). “Inner spring” of Elena Kravtsova:
A word about a scientist and a friend. Cultural-historical Psychology, 16 (3), 83-86.
6. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1994). Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by C.
Smith. Routledge.
7. Robbins, D. (2003). Vygotsky’s and A. A. Leontiev’s Semiotics and Psycho-
linguistics: Applications for Education, Second Language Acquisition, and Theories
of Language. Praeger.
8. Steinby, L. (2013). Bakhtin’s Concept of the Chronotope: The Viewpoint of an
Acting Subject. In Steinby, L. & Klapuri, T. (eds.), Bakhtin and His Others: (Inter)sub-
jectivity, Chronotope, Dialogism. Anthem Press.
9. Stetsenko, A. (2017). The Transformative Mind: Expanding Vygotsky’s Ap-
proach to Development and Education. Cambridge University Press.
10. Vygotsky, L. S. (1994). The Problem of the Environment. In van der Veer, R.
& Valsiner, J.(eds.), The Vygotsky Reader. Blackwell.

УДК 159.9
DOI: 10.53677/9785919160472_244_250
ОДАРЕННЫЕ ЛЮДИ КАК СОЦИАЛЬНЫЕ «OUTLIERS» В
НАСТОЯЩЕЕ ВРЕМЯ: УСТОЙЧИВОСТЬ И СПОСОБЫ АДАПТАЦИИ
Л.Н. Люцко, доктор (Ph.D) психологических наук, доцент, департамент
психологии и образования, Открытый университет Католинии,
(г. Барселона, Испания)
e-mail: [email protected]
Аннотация. Данный доклад охватывает тему одаренности (творчество) как
результат изменения и развития личности, особенно после моментов жизненного
кризиса, отражает текущее состояние тематики и предлагает более глубокое
осмысление существующих проблем, чтобы помочь этим людям найти более
устойчивый способ их адаптации к жизни в современном обществе. Одаренные
люди часто ассоциируются с социальными «выбросами» в определенное время
историко-культурной эпохи, к которой они принадлежат. Если некоторые ода-
ренные люди родились таковыми, какие они есть (редкие случаи), мы встречаем

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