From Aesthetics to Psychology: Notes on Vygotsky's Psychology of Art

Vygotsky's investigations on art in the early part of his career prepared the way for his discovery of the semiotic‐historical dimension of psychological development. The Psychology of Art was a pioneer work in the field of art psychology, exploring issues such as the role of emotion in art, the nature of aesthetic experience, the semiotic nature of psychological processes, and the foundations of a Marxist psychology and a Marxist aesthetics. Central to the elaboration of Vygotsky's ideas was his dialogue with, and criticism of, Russian formalism. In this respect, his ideas on art psychology have many points of contact with the criticism of the formal method in literary studies by Bakhtin.