Subjectivity and Perezhivanie: Empirical and Methodological Challenges and Opportunities

This chapter explores possible ways of connecting subjectivity and perezhivanie on both an empirical and a theoretical/methodological level of analysis. It begins with elaborating two meanings of perezhivanie which exist in the original texts of Vygotsky—perezhivanie as a psychological phenomenon (P1) and perezhivanie as a concept in cultural-historical theory (P2). Perezhivanie as an empirical and observable psychological phenomenon might bring new ways of understanding of how subjectivity works since perezhivanie is a complex nexus of various psychological processes and should not be reduced to pure emotional experiencing. In certain sense, perezhivanie is an empirically observable manifestation of subjectivity. This makes an analysis of children’s concrete perezhivanie a powerful tool for studying how subjectivity works. It shows that a child’s subjectivity, the individual subjective configuration of the child, is no less powerful in defining the course of her individual unique developmental trajectory than the objective characteristics of her social environment. On the other hand, the concept of subjectivity might bring a new dimension into the empirical studies of perezhivanie. Perezhivanie as a concept within the cultural-historical theory (P2) is not an empirically observable phenomenon; it is a theoretical tool for analysis of the influence of social environment on the course of child development. New concepts of the micro-social situation of development and of dramatic perezhivanie are introduced, and an opportunity to investigate theoretical and methodological links between the concept of perezhivanie and subjectivity is discussed.