[xmca] vygotsky in perspective: kategoria

[Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>]

Mike, I was wondering if these experiences can be tied together with a 
rather strange connection? May I thank *Deanya Lattimer*, a fairly new 
XMCA correspondent whose discipline is Rhetoric, for the attached 
article entitled "Kategoria and Apologeia" from the /Quarterly Journal 
of Speech/. It seems that the ancients catgorised speeches (as in 
oratory) into two basic genre, viz., accusatory and defensive, a.ka. 
kategoria and apologeia. "Apologeia" is a term fairly well known in 
common parlance, but if you are in the business of political speech 
writing and so on, kategoria is an even more important concept. By 
making an accusatory speech, either against person or policy, it is said 
that you *create *an image, while apologeia can only try to *modify *the 
image created by kategoria or accusatory speech (think of accusative 
case in grammar). Or in common parlance, when you throw mud, some always 
sticks. Once you have accused someone, you have created an image, and it 
down to the accused to try to clean off the mud. So it seems that this 
technique of making a point, by means of kategoria, or accusatory 
speech, is as old as civilisation itself. The interesting thing is that 
this is exactly how our friend who first drew our attention to 
"kategoria" works, by accusing everyone in sight of this or that atrocity!
Separately, another friend has provided me with a translation of of the 
/Soviet Dictionary of Philosophy/ of the 1950s, entry on kategoria, 
written by Spirkin, and although this definition basically goes just as 
we would all expect, following mainly Kant's line of interpretation of 
Category and Marxist criticis of it, it does recognise at the outset 
among the various meanings of "kategoria" in Rusian "accusation". So I 
suspect that the situation in Russian may not be a lot different from 
what it is in English.
Separately again, while it does indeed seem that Meyerhold's dictionary 
is lost to us, he has a complete works published in French translation, 
which I am currently looking into.

Andy

mike cole wrote:
> Seriously Anton? I was asked to review the book but had to decline for
> ethical reasons.
>
> I guess if this is as good as V&V  that checks me out of the game.  So far
> as I can tell, people like Jim Wertsch and I were SO wrong, that either we
> were unbelievably stupid (in which case, what nefarious things did we do to
> be allowed to do any interpreting at all!?) or
> we are just a bad lot. Or maybe both?
>
> As Peter says, it stops short of shooting!
> mike
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 9:13 AM, Anton Yasnitsky <the_yasya@yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>   
> > Thanks for posting this, Peter!
> >
> >
> > The book is an absolute and unconditional treasure, a mandatory reading for
> > anybody interested in Vygotskian issues, and, I truly believe, it  will soon
> > become a classic source, like van der Veer and Valsiner's (1991)
> > "Understanding Vygotsky".
> >
> >
> > For those interested, some excerpts are available online @
> > http://www.cambridge.org/aus/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9781107001862
> >
> > Anton
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu>
> > To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> > Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 11:29:06 AM
> > Subject: [xmca] FW: vygotsky in perspective
> >
> > I just got notice of a new book on LSV:
> >
> > Main Author:       Miller, Ronald, 1943-
> >
> > Title:             Vygotsky in perspective / Ronald Miller.
> >
> > Primary Material:  Book
> >
> > Subject(s):        Vygotskii, L. S. (Lev Semenovich), 1896-1934.
> >                    Psychologists Soviet Union.
> >                    Psychology Soviet Union History.
> >
> > Publisher:         Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press,
> >                       2011.
> >
> > Description:       xiii, 451 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
> >
> > Notes:             Includes bibliographical references and index.
> >                    "Lev Vygotsky has acquired the status of one of the
> > grand
> >                       masters in psychology. Following the English
> > translation
> >                       and publication of his Collected Works there has been
> > a
> >                       new wave of interest in Vygotsky accompanied by a
> >                       burgeoning of secondary literature. Ronald Miller
> > argues
> >                       that Vygotsky is increasingly being 'read' and
> >                       understood through secondary sources and that
> > scholars
> >                       have claimed Vygotsky as the foundational figure for
> >                       their own theories, eliminating his most distinctive
> >                       contributions and distorting his theories. Miller
> > peels
> >                       away the accumulated layers of commentary to provide
> > a
> >                       clearer understanding of how Vygotsky built and
> >                       developed his arguments. In an in-depth analysis of
> > the
> >                       last three chapters of Vygotsky's book Thinking and
> >                       Speech, Miller provides a critical interpretation of
> > the
> >                       core theoretical concepts that constitute Vygotsky's
> >                       cultural-historical theory, including the development
> > of
> >                       concepts, mediation, the zone of proximal
> > development,
> >                       conscious awareness, inner speech, word meaning and
> >                       consciousness"--
> >
> > Table of Contents: Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. A
> >                       thematic overview; 3. The development of concepts; 4.
> >                       The development of scientific concepts; 5. The
> >                       development of scientific concepts: critique; 6.
> > Thought
> >                       and word; 7. Michael Cole
> >                    artifact mediated action: setting the record straight;
> > 8.
> >                       James V. Wertsch
> >                    cultural tools and mediated action: getting it wrong; 9.
> >                       James V. Wertsch: mediation and the zone of proximal
> >                       development; 10. The essential commentators; 11.
> >                       Vygotsky: mediation.
> >
> > Location:          On Order for Stacks
> > Call Number:       No call number available
> >
> >
> > ================================================================================
> >
> >
> >
> > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> > University of Georgia Libraries
> > University of Georgia
> > Jackson St.
> > Athens, GA  30602
> >
> >
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>   

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Joint Editor MCA: 
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g932564744
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
MIA: http://www.marxists.org

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