The Aesthetics of Lev Vygotsky: A Sociocultural Approach to Theater

At the crossroads of theater, art, and psychology, Lev Vygotsky's compelling theory of aesthetics helped shape the intellectual currents of Russian Modernism. This new book combines our understanding of Vygotsky's scientific and artistic legacies, bridging the divide between human consciousness and the transformative power of art. The Aesthetics of Lev Vygotsky: A Sociocultural Approach to Theater introduces the concept of Vygotsky’s aesthetics, offering an unprecedented exploration of Lev Vygotsky’s early writings on art, literature, and theater. Long overshadowed by his later work in psychology, these formative texts reveal a compelling theory of art’s psychological function, shaped by the artistic and intellectual currents of Russian Modernism. By rereading Vygotsky’s aesthetic writings in dialogue with this context and with his mature psychological theories, this book challenges the divide often drawn between his scientific and artistic legacies, illustrating how Vygotsky’s thinking oscillates fluidly between disciplines, bridging the study of human consciousness with the transformative power of art. Through this interdisciplinary lens, Vygotsky’s aesthetics emerges as a distinct and timely framework; one that speaks not only to scholars of theater and psychology, but to anyone interested in how art helps us understand what it means to be human.