The Development of Cognition, Emotion, Imagination and Creativity
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The Development of Cognition, Emotion, Imagination and Creativity As Made Visible through Adult-Child Joint Play: Perezhivanie through Playworlds A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Communication by Beth Ferholt Committee in Charge: Professor Michael Cole, Chair Professor Patrick Anderson Professor Bennetta Jules-Rosette Professor Paula Levin Professor Carol Padden 2009 Copyright Beth Ferholt, 2009 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Beth Ferholt is approved, and is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2009 iii This dissertation is dedicated to the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition and Mike Cole, to “Michael” and his students, and to my grandmother, Ruth Leopold, and her “Pinky the Bunny Rabbit.” iv “Few understand why it is imperative not only to have the effect of art take shape and excite the reader or spectator but also to explain art, and to explain it in such a way that the explanation does not kill the emotion.” -- L. S. Vygotsky (1971, p. 254) v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page...................................................................................................... iii Dedication............................................................................................................. iv Epigraph................................................................................................................ v Table of Contents................................................................................................... vi List of Figures....................................................................................................... viii List of Tables......................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements................................................................................................ x Vita......................................................................................................................... xii Abstract of the Dissertation.................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER ONE: Introduction: Perezhivanie, and a New Form of Play that Can Make Perezhivanie Visible.................................................................................... 1 Perezhivanie................................................................................................. 3 Play as a Site for Making Perezhivanie Visible........................................... 11 Playworlds as Postmodern Play................................................................... 13 Analysis of Perezhivanie in the Playworld of this Study............................. 30 CHAPTER TWO: A Synthetic-Analytic Methodology for the Study of Perezhivanie........................................................................................................... 40 Implementation of the Playworld: “Formative Intervention”....................... 41 Site................................................................................................................. 44 Participants..................................................................................................... 45 Implementation of the Playworld................................................................... 46 Ethnographic Data.......................................................................................... 52 Data Analysis................................................................................................. 54 Juxtaposition of the Material and Poetic Representations of the Playworld... 58 vi CHAPTER THREE: A Sketch of the Events in the U.S. Narnia Playworld........... 65 April............................................................................................................. 66 May, June, July........................................................................................... 68 August, September, October, November.................................................... 69 December, January..................................................................................... 76 Early February............................................................................................ 81 Late February.............................................................................................. 83 March, April................................................................................................ 93 May............................................................................................................. 105 June............................................................................................................. 126 CHAPTER FOUR: Stages of Perezhivanie: Michael’s Perezhivanie as the Children Discuss their Play about the Playworld.................................................... 136 What I Will Show through Analysis of the Phases and Stages of Perezhivanie................................................................................................ 138 The Phases and Stages of Perezhivanie...................................................... 141 The Stages of Perezhivanie as Manifested in the Event under Analysis.... 145 CHAPTER FIVE: Access to Perezhivanie through Processes of Representation That, Themselves, Include Perezhivanie.................................................................. 188 Milo’s Perezhivanie during Michael’s Transformation into the White Witch .......................................................................................................... 189 Beth’s Perezhivanie during Joint Analysis of this Playworld with Michael. 208 CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion: Challenging the Divide between Method and Object In Conventional Social Science by Superceding the Segregation of Emotion and Cognition................................................................................................................. 224 The Significance of Improving our Ability to Study the Dynamic Relations between Cognition, Emotion, Imagination and Creativity......... 225 Playworlds as a Privileged Site for the Study of Perezhivanie................... 227 Playworlds as Formative Interventions....................................................... 229 A New Synthetic-Analytic Methodology for the Empirical Study of Perezhivanie................................................................................................ 233 Analysis of the “Whole” Playworld: Chapter Three................................... 234 Analysis of Three Instances of Perezhivanie in Greater Detail.................. 240 Future Study of Perezhivanie through Playworlds, and Future Study and Improvement of this Synthetic Method....................................................... 244 Possible Future Uses of Playworlds............................................................ 246 Final Reflections.......................................................................................... 250 References................................................................................................................. 257 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: The crowded classroom near the end of the year and the children creating a mountain set piece................................................................................. 48 Figure 2.2: Vygotsky’s diagram of the melody of Bunin’s “Gentle Breath”......... 60 Figure 2.3: Schechner’s diagrams of the juxtaposition of temporal double sidedness with progressive stages that produces twice-behaved behavior............. 61 Figure 3.1: The wardrobe........................................................................................ 70 Figure 3.2: The mural............................................................................................. 80 Figure 3.3: The wardrobe just before it opens........................................................ 83 Figure 3.4: The location of the cave....................................................................... 88 Figure 3.5: Tea with Mr. Tumnus........................................................................... 90 Figure 3.6: The White Witch and a child, possibly Edwina, in the wardrobe......... 100 Figure 3.7: Milo and the robin................................................................................. 107 Figure 3.8: Three pictures of children’s experiences of being separated from Mr. Tumnus, who has been made into a stone statue and then imprisoned by the White Witch........................................................................................................... 108 Figure 3.9: Confronting the White Witch, attacking the White Witch and one of the four thrones before it is destroyed.................................................................... 123 Figure 3.10: A picture that was created at the very end of the year....................... 135 Figure 5.1: Film-play stills...................................................................................... 195 Figure 5.2: Vygotsky’s diagram of the melody of Bunin’s “Gentle Breath”......... 210 Figure 5.3: A portion of the map...........................................................................