Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future 3030641740, 9783030641740

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Maria C.D.P. Lyra Brady Wagoner Alicia Barreiro  Editors

Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future

Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future

Maria C.D.P. Lyra  •  Brady Wagoner Alicia Barreiro Editors

Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future

Editors Maria C.D.P. Lyra Departamento de Psicologia Universidade Federal de Pernambuco Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil Alicia Barreiro Cognitive Psychology and Learning Latin American Faculty of Social Science Buenos Aires, Argentina

Brady Wagoner Communication & Psychology, Centre for Cultural Psychology Aalborg University Aalborg, Denmark

ISBN 978-3-030-64174-0    ISBN 978-3-030-64175-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

Context from Which This Book Emerged This book results from a workshop by the same title that was held in May 2016 on a beach close to the city of Recife (Gaibú, in Pernambuco state, Northeast Brazil). We aimed to promote a forum of exchanges that can result in collaborative studies on psychology and sociocultural processes from a developmental-cultural psychology perspective emphasizing contributions from Latin American researchers. This tradition of discussion dates back to July 1993 when a first meeting was held (organized by Maria Lyra, Alan Fogel, and Jaan Valsiner) also at a beach close to Recife in Serrambi Beach. This particular first meeting focused on the process of development as occurring in an irreversible time, particularly dealing with developmental-­ social processes (Fogel, Lyra, & Valsiner, 1997). Since 1993, three other workshops were organized in the same place, Serrambi Beach, by Lyra in collaboration with Jaan Valsiner, Cynthia Lightfoot, and Michael Chandler. The core idea of those events is to stay 3–4 days together discussing about developmental-sociocultural psychology themes in formal and informal meetings, therefore promoting not only to the scholars but also to the invited students an environment of real dialogues shifting from traditional places (like USA and Europe) conceived as “scientific sources of new ideas.” The smell and wind coming from the seashore and the informality of light clothing, shorts, and bare feet contribute in promoting an atmosphere of intimacy and friendship. The 2016 workshop was organized by Maria Lyra and Brady Wagoner with the participation of 11 master and doctoral students and 3 professors from the Centre for Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University, Denmark; 10 doctoral students and 5 professors from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil; 2 professors from the University of Brasília, Brazil; 2 professors from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil; and 1 professor from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The workshop was supported by the Centre for Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University, Denmark; by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Brazil; and by the Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE), Brazil. v

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The theme chosen – memory and imagination – draws on the recent renewal of interest in the process of imagination (Cornejo, 2017; Tateo, 2015; Zittoun & Gillespie, 2017) and new ways of modeling memory as an adaptive reconstruction, focused on meaning-making processes of persons situated in a social-cultural environment (Bartlett, 1932; Brockmeier, 2018; Wagoner, 2017, 2018; Wagoner, Brescó & Awad, 2017). The dynamics between memory and imagination processes highlight goal-oriented developmental trajectories as in the movement from the past to the future (Valsiner, 2014). Therefore, this focus on temporal transitions of active persons in sociocultural environments necessarily foregrounds the question: How do we understand the relationship between persons and culture? To know is diverse and unique. As wet process, tenderness is essential —MLyra

Recife, Brazil  Maria C.D.P. Lyra Aalborg, Denmark  Brady Wagoner

References Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Brockmeier, J. (2018). From memory as archive to remembering as conversation. In B. Wagoner (Ed.), Handbook of culture and memory (pp. 41–64). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cornejo, C. (1917). From fantasy to imagination: A cultural history and a moral for psychology. In: B. Wagoner, I. B. Luna, S. H. Awad (Eds.), The psychology of imagination: History, theory research horizons (pp. 3–44). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Fogel, A., Lyra, M.C.D.P. & Valsiner, J. (Eds.) (1997). Dynamics and indeterminism in developmental and social processes. Hillsdale, MI: Lawrence Erlbaum. Tateo, L. (2015). Just an illusion? Imagination as higher mental function. Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy, 5(6), 1–6. Valsiner, J. (2014). An invitation to cultural psychology. London, UK: Sage Publications. Wagoner, B. (2017). The constructive mind: Bartlett’s psychology in reconstruction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/psychology/cognition/constructive-mind-bartletts-psychology-reconstruction?format=HB&i sbn=9781107008885 Wagoner, B. (2018). Handbook of culture and memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wagoner, B., Brescó, I., Awad, S. H. (2017). The psychology of imagination: History, theory and new research horizons. Charlotte, NC: Info Age. Zittoun, T. & Gillespie, A. (2017). Imagination in human and cultural development. London, UK: Routledge.

Contents

1 Memory and Imagination as Meaning-­Making Processes: Developmental Trajectories of Culture in Mind ����������������������������������    1 Maria C.D.P. Lyra, Brady Wagoner, and Alicia Barreiro 1.1 Outline of the Book��������������������������������������������������������������������������    5 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    8 Part I Imagining and Remembering in Cultural Settings 2 The Dynamics Between Remembering and Imagining in School Transitions: A Study on Fictional Narratives ����������������������   13 Graciana Vieira de Azevedo, Maria Cláudia Santos Lopes-de-­Oliveira, and Giuseppina Marsico 2.1 Introduction��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   13 2.2 Adolescence: Developmental Process and the Transition to the 6th Grade��������������������������������������������������������������������������������   14 2.3 Imagination in Reconstructing Past Experiences to Create the Future������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   16 2.4 Memory and Imagination in the Life Course������������������������������������   17 2.5 Memory and Imagination as Mental Functions��������������������������������   19 2.6 Affective Dimensions of Psychological Phenomena������������������������   21 2.7 Methodology ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   22 2.8 Empirical Data and Analysis������������������������������������������������������������   23 2.8.1 Sara’s Story ��������������������������������������������������������������������������   23 2.8.2 Carol’s First Day at School ��������������������������������������������������   23 2.8.3 Synthesis of the Meaningful Aspects of the Narrative����������   24 2.8.4 The Centrality of the Feeling of Fear Along Sara’s Narrative��������������������������������������������������������������������������������   25 2.9 Conclusion����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   27 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   28

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3 Imagining and Remembering in an Educational Context: An Exploratory Study�����������������������������������������������������������������������������   31 Karina Moutinho, Taciana Feitosa de Melo Breckenfeld, and Candy E. M. Laurendon 3.1 Imagination: A Fundamental Higher Psychological Function����������   32 3.1.1 Imagination and the Dynamics of Directionality and Resistance����������������������������������������������������������������������   33 3.2 Memory and Remembering��������������������������������������������������������������   36 3.3 An Analytical Road: Rosa’s Case ����������������������������������������������������   39 3.4 Final Comments��������������������������������������������������������������������������������   43 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   44 4 The Microgenetic Analysis of Remembering and Imagining in the Process of Learning Scientific Concepts��������������������������������������   47 João R. R. Tenório da Silva, Maria C.D.P. Lyra, and Brady Wagoner 4.1 Introduction��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   47 4.2 Learning as Meaning-Making����������������������������������������������������������   48 4.3 Memory and Remembering��������������������������������������������������������������   50 4.4 Imagination and Its Relation to Memory and Learning��������������������   52 4.5 Method and Data Analysis����������������������������������������������������������������   55 4.6 Data Analysis and Discussion����������������������������������������������������������   56 4.7 Conclusions��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   65 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   68 5 Remembering and Forgetting: A Crossroad Between Personal and Collective Experience ����������������������������������������������������������������������   71 Alicia Barreiro and Inga K. Endsleff 5.1 Introduction��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   71 5.2 Social Representing and Symbolic Construction of the Environment������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   73 5.3 Environment, Personal Experience, and Remembering��������������������   74 5.4 Remembering Through the Environment: Some Empirical Examples����������������������������������������������������������������   78 5.5 Conclusion����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   83 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   84 6 The Aesthetic Experience as a Central Pathway in Understanding Memory and Imagination – The Case of Quilombo Barro Branco����   89 Marina Assis Pinheiro, Jandson Ferreira da Silva, and Luca Tateo 6.1 Introduction��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   89 6.2 The Aesthetic Experience: Philosophical Considerations����������������   91 6.3 Towards a Psychology Based on Aesthetic Experience��������������������   92 6.4 Memory and Imagination������������������������������������������������������������������   96 6.5 From Vico to the Sociocultural Imagination������������������������������������   97 6.6 The Quilombo Culture����������������������������������������������������������������������   98

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6.7 The Discourse on the Brazilian Negro����������������������������������������������   99 6.8 The Construction of a Tradition��������������������������������������������������������  102 6.9 The Quilombo Barro Branco������������������������������������������������������������  102 6.10 Discussion ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  103 6.11 (In)Conclusions or Final Considerations������������������������������������������  105 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  105 Part II Self-Development and Identity Construction 7 Constructing Continuity After Ruptures: The Role of “Anticipatory Recognition” in Children’s Self-Development����������  109 Mónica Roncancio-Moreno and Elsa de Mattos 7.1 Self-development in Sociocultural Theories and Dialogical Self Theory����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  110 7.2 The Notion of “Anticipatory Recognition”��������������������������������������  113 7.3 Co-construction of a Developmental Trajectory Through “Anticipatory Recognition”: Empirical Evidence����������������������������  114 7.3.1 Method����������������������������������������������������������������������������������  114 7.3.2 Case Example: Giselle’s Case in Three Phases��������������������  115 7.3.3 Phase 1: Strong Tensions, Uncertain Future ������������������������  115 7.3.4 Phase 2: The Emergence of New Meanings in the Self��������  118 7.3.5 Phase 3: Anticipatory Recognition Consolidate ������������������  120 7.4 Concluding Remarks������������������������������������������������������������������������  122 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  123 8 Dynamics Between Past, Present, and Future: The Role of Constructive Imagination in a Musician-Teacher’s Life Trajectory������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  127 Angela Uchoa Branco and Tatiana Alves Tatiana Melo Valério 8.1 Memory and Life Trajectory Narratives ������������������������������������������  129 8.2 Imagination: Reconstructing the Past and Anticipating the Future������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  130 8.3 Ruptures and Transitions Along Life Trajectories����������������������������  131 8.4 Felipe’s Cultural Context������������������������������������������������������������������  132 8.5 Analysis of Felipe’ Life Trajectory��������������������������������������������������  133 8.6 The Catalyst Role of Special Social Others��������������������������������������  134 8.6.1 Alberto����������������������������������������������������������������������������������  134 8.6.2 Paulo ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  135 8.6.3 Others������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  136 8.7 The Military: Major Bifurcation Point Leading to a Rupture����������  137 8.8 The Interplay Between Rupture, Transitions and Shadow Trajectories ������������������������������������������������������������������  138 8.9 Self-Positionings: “I-Musician,” “I-Teacher,” “I as a Musician-­Teacher”����������������������������������������������������������������  141 8.9.1 I-Self Position as a Musician������������������������������������������������  141 8.9.2 I-Self Position as a Teacher��������������������������������������������������  142

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8.9.3 Merging of Positionings: The Self as a Musician-Teacher ��  143 8.10 The Imagined Future������������������������������������������������������������������������  145 8.11 Conclusion����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  145 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  146 9 Being in the World: The ACT of Making and Striking Out Personal Self-­Constructions������������������������������������������������������������  149 Elisa Krause-Kjær 9.1 Introducing the Complexity of Constructions – An Example of Carnival Constructions ����������������������������������������������������������������  149 9.2 The Land of Musicians – Terra de Músicos��������������������������������������  150 9.3 The Study of Being a Musician – The Flux Between Being and Not Being a Musician������������������������������������������������������  151 9.4 From a Blank Sheet of Paper to an Emotional Musician������������������  153 9.5 What If Self-Identity Is Threatened by Oneself?������������������������������  156 9.6 The Moving Body ����������������������������������������������������������������������������  161 9.7 To Self-Construct or to Be Constructed by Others ��������������������������  162 9.8 Final Comments – The Dynamic Self-Construction������������������������  164 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  166 10 Co-constructing Past and Future in Times of Uncertainty: Students’ Positions During the Brazilian Teachers’ Strike in 2012����  169 Gabriel Fortes Cavalcanti de Macêdo and Ignacio Brescó de Luna 10.1 Theoretical Framework: Positioning in Time or an Agentive Understanding of Temporal Experience ����������������������������������������  170 10.2 Empirical Study: Positioning on the University Teachers’ Strike of 2012 in Brazil������������������������������������������������������������������  173 10.2.1 Participants��������������������������������������������������������������������������  174 10.3 Analytical Proposal������������������������������������������������������������������������  174 10.4 Analysis and Discussion of Cases��������������������������������������������������  175 10.4.1 Epistemic as Commitment/Duty: Fighting for What People Know Is Right ��������������������������������������������������������  175 10.4.2 Power Relations: From Certainty to Uncertainty����������������  177 10.5 Conclusions������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  180 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  180 Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  183

Editor Biographies

Maria  C.D.P.  Lyra  is Professor of Psychology at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. She is interested in the process of human cultural development, the dynamic features through which human beings face change and stability throughout their lives. She received her MA at Cornell University, USA, and her PhD at São Paulo University, Brazil. She coordinates a research laboratory  – LabCCom – dedicated to the study of the process of emergence and development of the subject (self) in and through communication, concentrating on its microgenetic transformations embedded in sociocultural milieu. Culture and sign dynamics are particularly relevant to explore diverse themes through reconstructive memory and imagination highlighting the process of internalization/externalization. She coedited “Determinism and Indeterminism in Developmental and Social Science” (Lawrence Welbaum, 1997), Dynamic Process Methodology in the Social and Developmental Sciences (Springer, 2009), Challenges and Strategies for Studying Human Development in Cultural Contexts (Firera & Liuzzo Publishing, 2009), and Cultural Psychology as Basic Science: Dialogues with Jaan Valsiner with Marina Pinheiro (SpringerShort, 2018). Brady Wagoner  is Professor of Psychology at Aalborg University. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he also co-created the F.C. Bartlett Internet Archive and became Associate Editor of the journal Culture & Psychology. His research focuses on how people construct meaning in their lives within cultural frameworks, particularly in relation to memory, imagination, social change, and public engagement with science. His most recent books include The Constructive Mind: Bartlett’s Psychology in Reconstruction (Cambridge University Press, 2017), Handbook of Culture and Memory (Oxford University Press, 2018), The Psychology of Radical Social Change with Fathali Moghaddam and Jaan Valsiner (Cambridge University Press, 2018), and Remembering as a Cultural Process with Ignacio Bresco and Sarah H. Awad (Springer, 2019). He has received several major awards, including the Sigmund Koch Award from the American Psychological Association in 2018 and the Lucienne Domergue Award from the Casa de Velazquez in 2019. xi

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Editor Biographies

Alicia  Barreiro  has a PhD in Educational Sciences, master’s in Educational Psychology, and is pursuing postdoctoral studies in Social Sciences. She is Professor of Genetic Psychology and Epistemology at the University of Buenos Aires and an endowed researcher at the National Scientific and Technological Research Council (CONICET – Argentina). She is Member of the Directive Board of the Jean Piaget Society. Her research interests are focused on the construction of social knowledge and moral development of children, adolescents, and adults, combining social and developmental psychology approaches.

Author Biographies

Angela  Uchoa  Branco  is Professor Emeritus of the University of Brasilia and teaches at the Processes of Human Development and Health graduate program, Institute of Psychology, University of Brasilia. She was a visiting scholar at the University of North Carolina, at Duke University and at Clark University (USA), and at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. Her research interests and publications include the development of human values, ethics and moral development, cooperation, competition and individualism, and the development of the dialogical self. Among her publications are the books Communication and Metacommunication in Human Development (Branco & Valsiner, 2004), Cultural Psychology of Human Values (Branco & Valsiner, 2012), Diversidade e Cultura da Paz na Escola (Branco & Lopes-de-Oliveira, 2012), Cooperação na Educação Infantil [Cooperation and Early Childhood Education] (Palmieri & Branco, 2015), and Bullying: Família e Escola Enfrentando a Questão [Bullying: Family and School Targeting the Issue] (Manzini & Branco, 2017). Taciana  Feitosa  de  Melo  Breckenfeld  is a PhD student in the Department of Postgraduate Cognitive Psychology at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. She is a member of the Imagination Lab – Eikasia, and her research interest includes the study of imagination in the contexts of vulnerability and student internship. She completed her master’s degree in Cognitive Psychology from UFPE in 2018 and specializes in Neuropsychology. Jandson Ferreira da Silva  is a graduate in Psychology (2005) and earned a master’s in Sociology (2009) from the Federal University of Ceará. He is currently a professor of basic, technical, and technological education at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Pernambuco. He has experience in psychology, focusing on teaching and learning psychology, acting on the following subjects: cognition, learning theories, development psychology, performance anthropology, professional ethics, and entrepreneurship.

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Author Biographies

Graciana Vieira de Azevedo  is Professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. She receuved a PhD in Psychology with a dissertation titled “MeaningMaking on School Transitions to 6th Grade.” Her background in English Language Teaching and in Linguistics with a master thesis on Reading and Writing has provided positive insights towards cultural psychology theories. In addition to being a CNPq (Brazilian Bureau of National Researchers) researcher in the areas of cognition, psychology, and learning, she has participated in national and international events both as a speaker and participant. Ignacio  Brescó  de Luna  is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University (Denmark). He is Member of the Niels Bohr Professorship Centre for Cultural Psychology and the Culture of Grief research unit at Aalborg University. He received a PhD at the Autonomous University of Madrid, where he worked as Associate Professor until 2014. His research topics revolve around collective memory, national identity, the teaching of history, and the narrative mediation of remembering. Among his recent books are Remembering as a Sociocultural Process (Springer, 2019), with Brady Wagoner and Sarah Awad; Memory in the Wild, with Brady Wagoner and Sophie Zadeh (InfoAge, 2020); and The Road to Actualized Democracy: A Psychological Exploration, with Brady Wagoner and Vlad Glăveanu (InfoAge, 2018). Gabriel Fortes Cavalcanti de Macêdo  has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, with a history of investigating human development and argumentation, and now works as a postdoc in evaluating teacher professional development programs in the Alberto Hurtado University, Chile. Elsa de Mattos  is Clinical Psychologist, has a master’s and PhD in Psychology, and is Professor of Psychology at the Catholic University of Salvador (UCSAL), Brazil, and a member of the “Human Development and Cultural Contexts” Research Center at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). She has been working with emphasis on the development of children and adolescents in urban contexts. She is Co-advisor of master’s students at the graduate program in Cognitive Psychology at UFBA. She is a member of the Dialogical Psychology WG, from ANPEPP, since 2012. She was Postdoctoral Fellow of PNPD/CAPES at UFBA from 2015 to 2018. Her major interest is focused on child and adolescent development, transition to adulthood, child and adolescent development in different contexts (family, school, and work), forensic psychology, and conflict mediation. Theoretically, she develops her studies from Semiotic Cultural Psychology and Dialogical Self approaches. Tatiana Alves de Melo Valério  is Professor at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Pernambuco, where she develops research on musical experiences in the field of Cultural Psychology. She is a PhD candidate in Cognitive Psychology, with emphasis on Cultural Psychology, at the Federal University of Pernambuco. Her research interests include life course development, musical experiences, adoption, and cultural psychology. She also works on and develops research as a volunteer, at a group of study and adoption support.

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Inga K. Endsleff  is a clinical psychologist in the field of Work and Employment. She received her master’s from the Centre of Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University. Her research focuses on studying the relation between individual and environment in a cultural-psychological perspective, using an image-based methodology to embrace the various dimensions of experiencing the city. She has also participated in the making of the “Copenhagen Zoo: ZooLab Evaluation Report” (Jensen, E., Wagoner, B., Endsleff, I. K., Linneborg, J. D., Jeffrey, M., Spooner, S., & Idema, J. (2016). (54 pages)). Elisa Krause-Kjær  Certified MSc in Psychology, is an associate researcher at the Niels Bohr Professorship Centre for Cultural Psychology at Aalborg University in Denmark. For more than 4 years, she has been working in the field of Educational Psychological Services (EPS). She wrote her master’s thesis in the northeastern part of Brazil researching musical experiences and musical emotional transfer through generations. She is passionate about exploring ways of communication and studied this aspect of different ways to communicate in relation to lonely adolescents in Denmark. Both subjects have been presented at international conferences in and around Europe as well as in Brazil. Of particular interest is the exploration of the human body as a beneficial source of communication in the field of Cultural Psychology. Maria  Cláudia  Santos  Lopes-de-Oliveira  is Professor in the Department of Developmental and School Psychology and at the graduate program in Developmental and School Psychology at the University of Brasília. She coordinates the Laboratory of Cultural Psychology (LABMIS/University of Brasilia). She is Leader of the GAIA Research group, which investigates youth development in conditions of poverty and social vulnerability, according to critical epistemologies. She coedited with Angela Branco the books Diversidade e Cultura da Paz na escola: uma abordagem sociocultural [Diversity and Culture for Peace: A Sociocultural Approach] (2012) and Alterity, Values, and Socialization: Human Development Within Educational Contexts (2018) and edited Perspectivas interdisciplinares sobre adolescência, socioeducação e direitos humanos [Interdisciplinary perspectives on adolescence, socio-education and human rights] (in press). She has been a consultant to governmental projects on social policies and human rights, especially those aiming at benefiting the developmental perspectives of adolescents in conflict with the law. Candy E. M. Laurendon  is Professor of Educational Psychology in the Department of Psychology and Educational Orientation at the Center of Education and also Contributor at the postgraduate program in Cognitive Psychology at the Federal University of Pernambuco. She received a doctorate in Cognitive Psychology cotutorship from the University of Angers (France) and Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN, Brazil), a master’s degree in Developmental Psychology and a major degree in Intercultural Psychology (University of Toulouse II, France), and is also pursuing postdoctorate research at the postgraduate program in Cognitive Psychology at the Federal University of Pernambuco. Her current research is about

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learning at school (mathematics and literacy) and learning out of school (in the “life’s school”) for children and adults and the teaching process. Giuseppina  Marsico  is Associate Professor of Development and Educational Psychology at the University of Salerno (Italy); Affiliated Researcher at the Centre for Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University (Denmark); Visiting Professor at the PhD program in Psychology, Federal University of Bahia (Brazil); and Honorary Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, University of Sydney (Australia). She is a researcher with 20 years of experience, with a proven international research network. She is Editor-in-Chief of the book series Cultural Psychology of Education (Springer) and Latin American Voices  – Integrative Psychology and Humanities (Springer) and Coeditor of SpringerBriefs Psychology and Cultural Developmental Science (together with Jaan Valsiner) and Annals of Cultural Psychology: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind and Society (InfoAge Publishing, NC, USA, together with Carlos Conejo and Jaan Valsiner). She is also Coeditor of Human Arenas: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Psychology, Culture, and Meaning (Springer); Associate Editor of Cultural & Psychology (SAGE), Social Psychology of Education (Springer), and Trends in Psychology (Springer); and Member of the editorial board of several international academic journals (e.g., IPBS, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, Springer). Her academic tracks and list of publications include two complementary lines of investigations: (1) an educational-focused research activity where Prof. Marsico is widely recognized as the leading figure in the new field of Cultural Psychology of Education and (2) a cultural-oriented interdisciplinary perspective based on both theoretical and empirical investigations, focusing on the borders as a new ontogenetic perspective in psychology and other social sciences. Mónica Roncancio Moreno  Doctor of Psychology, is Professor in the Psychology Department in the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Palmira, Colombia, where she is part of the research group “Pedagogy and Human Development.” She has been working on research with children concerning the emergence and change of positionings in the development of the self-system. Her major interest is focused on developmental processes and the construction of developmental trajectories, with an emphasis on educational contexts. Theoretically, she develops her studies from Semiotic Cultural Psychology and Dialogical Self approaches. Karina Moutinho  is Professor in the Department of Psychology and Postgraduate Cognitive Psychology at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. Her major research interests are the study of the imagination process in health and educational contexts, palliative care, incurable diseases. Also, education, student internship, and gamification of learning. She coordinates a research laboratory called Imagination Lab – Eikasia, and she concluded a postdoctorate in the Department of Communication and Arts, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Beira Interior University, Portugal.

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Marina  Assis  Pinheiro  is Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology and at the graduate program in Cognitive Psychology at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). She coordinates the research group “Psychology of Creative Processes.” She is especially interested in the following subjects: creativity and aesthetic experience, art and psychology, language and subjectivity, and culture and singularity. Recently, she coedited the book Cultural Psychology as Basic Science: Dialogues with Jaan Valsiner (Springer, 2018). Luca  Tateo  is Associate Professor in Qualitative Research at the University of Oslo and Visiting Associate Professor at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. His current research interests cover the general areas of the ecosystemic approach to psychology; social psychology; cultural psychology of education; art and affect; the study of imagination as higher psychological process; the affective logic and the aesthetic dimension of psychic life; the cultural mediation of grief; the epistemology, methodology, and history of psychological science; and the epistemic injustice in multicultural contexts. He is Coeditor-in-Chief of the journal Human Arenas: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Psychology, Culture, and Meaning, Springer, and Editor-in-Chief of the book series Innovations in Qualitative Research, Information Age Publishing, USA. João R. R. Tenório da Silva  is Professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, master’s degree in Science Teaching, and PhD in Cognitive Psychology. He has been a fellow of the PhD program for 5 months at the Niels Bohr Centre for Cultural Psychology, University of Aalborg, Denmark. He has experience in the Chemical Education field, with emphasis on the teaching and learning process and conceptualization. He has been working mainly on themes involving conceptual profile, elaboration of digital and analogical games for science teaching, and relations between memory, imagination, and learning.

List of Figures

Fig. 4.1  Remembering of previous knowledge useful for a problem resolution in a learning situation ������������������������������������������������������  54 Fig. 4.2  Possibilities of the loop of imagination: remembering of previous knowledge and creation of mental images in a learning process��������������������������������������������������������������������������  55 Fig. 4.3  Remembering of the source of relevant information to solve the problem��������������������������������������������������������������������������  57 Fig. 4.4  Transformation and imagery on loop of imagination������������������������  58 Fig. 4.5  Representations used in the video by the teacher: (1) mixture; (2) pure compound substance; (3) simple pure substance; (4) mixture����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  58 Fig. 4.6  Attempt to generalization in direction to implausibility: transference and confusion between substance and matter��������������  59 Fig. 4.7  Abstraction of the idea of substance and mixture from the image/representation used by the teacher�����������������������������������  61 Fig. 4.8  Confusion between the concepts of element and atom: remembering going toward implausibility in the looping of the imagination ����������������������������������������������������������������������������  63 Fig. 4.9  Looping of imagination towards abstraction and generalization, by differentiating simple substances from composite from the definition recalled������������������������������������������������������������������������  65 Fig. 7.1  Giselle’s drawing during preschool. “A family that I don’t know” (5 years old) ������������������������������������������������������������������������  117 Fig. 7.2  Giselle’s drawing during the first year of primary. A journalist in a house on fire (six years old) ��������������������������������  119 Fig. 7.3  Giselle’s drawing during the fifth grade. Pool party (ten years old)����������������������������������������������������������������  121

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Fig. 7.4  Giselle’s drawing during the fifth grade. My mom working in her office ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  121 Fig. 8.1  Anchor points throughout Felipe’s trajectory of life ����������������������  134 Fig. 9.1  Meanacting directions on behalf of the given self-construction. . . .  158

List of Tables

Table 4.1  Mediator imagery: embodiment of mental image by Y������������������  56 Table 4.2  Embodiment of mental image by W ����������������������������������������������  58 Table 4.3 Imaginative process—abstraction of the difference between substance and mixture of substances from the image ��������������������  60 Table 4.4  Mutual influence on remembrance and imagination����������������������  62 Table 4.5 The participant Y raises a definition of “simple” and “compound” based on his previous knowledge in Turn 02. In Turn 21, new meanings are constructed from previous recollected knowledge��������������������������������������������������������������������  64 Table 4.6 Participant Y resigns his definition presented in Turn 21, organizing the ideas of element, atom, and substance��������������������  65 Table 9.1 The six participants, their ages and if they currently are active as musicians in either Banda Cultura or Banda Filarmônica ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  152 Table 9.2 An illustration of one of the participant’s seven constructions and the following part of striking out������������������������  154 Table 9.3 Emotional reactions when striking out the seven personal constructions ranging from the youngest participant to the oldest participant in both bands��������������������������  155

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Chapter 1

Memory and Imagination as Meaning-­ Making Processes: Developmental Trajectories of Culture in Mind Maria C.D.P. Lyra, Brady Wagoner, and Alicia Barreiro

Contents 1.1  Outline of the Book References

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This book deals with the relationship between remembering and imagining as experienced by subjects in order to construct meaning in diverse contexts for the purpose of orientation and action there. Moreover, it deals with how these two processes participate in self-development or identity construction. The broad theoretical background in which memory and imagination are explored can be conceived as belonging to the framework of cultural psychology, which stresses the central place of meaning construction as a perennial task resulting from persons’ exchanges with their sociocultural milieu. As human beings, meaning can be conceived as person’s activity mediated by signs, aiming to make sense of the world and the others in order to guide our constant movement from past to future – therefore, it is a constant process (Boesch, 2001; Peirce, 1892/1923; Valsiner, 2014; Vygotsky, 1988). In this sense, meaning is a semiotic dynamic that constitutes all higher cognitive and affective dimensions of psyche, including remembering and imagining. Moreover, meaning-making as a process requires to be grasped as M. C.D.P. Lyra (*) Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Brazil B. Wagoner Aalborg University (AAU), Aalborg, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] A. Barreiro Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, National Scientific and Technical Research Council and University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7_1

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involving a holistic conception of mind and body starting from our felt sensibility and sensuality that relates us to the surrounding world. This notion is highlighted in Goethe’s conception of imagination as fantasy (Cornejo, 2017). Our first movement towards meaning construction starts from the body’s sensations and feelings and grows upwards as abstraction and generalization (Werner & Kaplan, 1963). At a certain point in this process, a boundary is crossed where we can no longer label them, at which point we are left with “hypergeneralized feelings” that cannot be adequately expressed in language. These hypergeneralized feelings-meanings are primarily experienced at the level of the body’s sensations and feelings, creating recurrent dynamics between symbolization and embodiment. How do we grasp the emergence of new meanings in the dynamics of remembering and imagining? The centrality of apprehending meaning reconstruction in remembering was already identified by Frederic Bartlett (1932). For him remembering is “imaginative reconstructive” aimed at adapting to present environment; in this process, new meanings are constructed. Moreover, Bartlett also highlighted the strong role played by the cultural environment in his analysis of how past experiences and unfamiliar materials are signified according to the meanings available in the person’s cultural environment – a process he called “conventionalization.” The re-elaboration of Bartlett’s ideas has been extensively explored by Brady Wagoner and collaborators, who have aimed to make a paradigmatic move in memory research from spatial models towards temporal-process ones (Wagoner, 2017, 2018). Moreover, temporal-process models of memory allow for stronger sociocultural framing of remembering and imagining, through a focus on the relationship between collective and personal meaning-making (Wagoner, Brescó de Luna, & Awad, 2017). Regarded as a higher mental process (Vygotsky, 1931, 2009), imagination can be considered as the quintessence of meaning creation. Named as fantasy, imagination is the very first movement of the soul to apprehend the external world. From a Goethean perspective, imagination can already be found in the immediate apprehension of the world through our senses, comprising our initial relationship with otherness (Cornejo, 2017). According to Cornejo (2017), in order to evaluate the importance and role of imagination-fantasy for Goethe we need to take into consideration three main characteristics of his conception of science that apply to life in general: his developmental perspective, holism, and the role of personal experience as source of knowledge. His developmental perspective places fantasy as a dynamic and transformative human feature in which the human mind gets and transforms knowledge of the world. Hence, it is through fantasy that we can grasp, in perennial development, the world as an object of knowledge. If I look at the created object, inquire into its creation, and follow this process back as far as I can, I will find a series of steps. Since these are not actually seen together before me, I must visualize them in my memory so that they form a certain ideal whole […] At first I will tend to think in terms of steps, but nature leaves no gaps, and thus, in the end, I will have to see this progression of uninterrupted activity as a whole. I can do so by dissolving the particular without destroying the impression itself. (Goethe, 1988, p. 75)

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Moreover, in the above quotation we can identify his holistic perspective. Fantasy works exactly to find the connections, to relate the pieces of information felt. The hidden relationships of nature are unveiled by fantasy that allows us to grasp “the uninterrupted activity (of nature) as a whole.” Thus, there is a primacy of wholeness over the parts or atoms. And more, it is precisely our mind’s capacity to imagine that allows us to comprehend the word. The third characteristic highlights how we connect to the world through our felt personal experience. This shows a human compromise with directly see, touch and feel by oneself the phenomenon at stake. Our knowledge results from working through and over these felt experiences. Fantasy starts as a first answer of our spirit to these felt personal experiences. Thus, fantasy corresponds to intuitive perception of the phenomenon and as such does not require any logical and discursive capacity: “To be sure, sensuousness and vividness provided by sensuality and fantasy cannot be exhaustively translated into words and abstract language” (Cornejo, 2017, p. 16). Nevertheless, Zittoun and De Saint-Laurent (2017) argue we lack models to establish a dialogue between the processes of memory and imagination. Starting from a person’s constant movement that is based on the past but oriented to the future, we can assume that remembering is “an imagination of the past” (Zittoun, 2012, p. 520). Moreover, the irreversibility of time and the centrality of subject’s constructive capacity in constant interaction with sociocultural environment lead us to adopt the unity of two dual infinities as proposed by Valsiner (2014, 2018): both time, past and future in the present, and space, constituted as semiotic activity of person’s internalization-externalization in sociocultural milieu, are grouped together as infinite developmental possibilities. Thus, the person is constantly moving from past to future, in the infinitesimal present moment, in the space between the infinity of internal past experience and the unmeasurable external world, through cultural self-others exchanges. This model is clearly supported by remembering our past experiences and prospecting future ones, using imagination, through a constant subjectculture negotiation, as it is proposed by Valsiner (2014, 2018) in the quadratic unity of two dual infinities – future infinity ⟷ past infinity and inner infinity ⟷ outer infinity. Taking as reference anchor this unity of two dual infinities that places meaning as an internalexternal subject’s activity in preparing the future based on the past, two interrelated reflexive dimensions regarding remembering and imagining can be suggested. The first deals with how the developmental trajectory or trajectories “chosen” by the person over time are constrained or promoted through remembering as carrying a catalyzing role gives the conditions for being sensible, or not, to some but not others – collective meanings available in specific time and sociocultural context. This question requires longitudinal studies having in mind the idea of developmental trajectories as navigating in Avenues of Directive Meaning (ADM) (Lyra, Valério, & Wagoner, 2018). This notion aims to highlight the personal movement towards the next future as resulting from his/her past history (remembered) interacting – through imagined projections – with the available meaning directions offered by the sociocultural milieu through time. The focus is on how the past experience is reconstructed in such way that allows us to “see” some possibilities and not

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others both present in collective culture. For instance, in the present moment (August 2019), in the United States to meet a person in a dark street can lead to focus immediately on the skin color of the person due to his/her reconstructed memories of the meaning of a white or nonwhite person. Thus, skin color always has a meaning in collective culture, but at present it is highlighted and leads to diverse prospected meanings. The second one highlights the dilemma of grasping the subjective experience from the perspective of the person. This focus touches on conceptual but also methodological way of apprehending the process of meaning-making from the internal perspective of the subject as unique and individual construction. How do the processes of remembering and imagining occur as synthetizing personal meaning construction? In his paper “The locus of subjectivity in cultural studies,” Cornejo (2007) had pointed out this dilemma. In discussing Ernst E. Boesch’s 2005 book, Von Kunst bis Terror, he proposed that Boesch’s “symbolic action theory” can be used as intermediary field through which the researcher tries to grasp the internal meaning constructed by the subject inside what Boesch calls the dilemma between “obligation” and “liberty.” …the “intern–extern relation” proposed by Boesch exceeds the strictly cognitive original definition that sees cultural actions in general as interchanges between the person and the external world. Rather than observing the relationship between organism and environment from the outside, Boesch describes it by referring to feelings and impulses experienced from the inside. By doing this he is not only describing the “intern–extern relation”, but also trying to understand it. He proposes that there is a profound human impulse to understand the external world, to incorporate it in the totality of our own actions, which is constantly producing new forms of intern–extern relationships. It is our “incessant aspiration” to give the world an “I-coherent” (in German: “Ich-stimmig”) form which is behind our tendency to decorate our home, to cultivate our garden, to make art, to make friends, or even to construe enemies. (pp. 1–2)

From a dialogical viewpoint, one recent contribution by Marková, Zadeh, and Zittoun (2019) and Marková and Novaes (2020) proposes a renewed perspective developed and elaborated from Bakhtin’s (1981, 1993) chronotope concept. Relying on epistemology and ethics, Bakhtin not only rely counted on the interdependence of time and space (Einstein, 1954) but highlights subject’s responsibility of replying always to the Other and the world lived by I and Others. This emphasizes the profound ethical nature of humans, and because humans always actively communicates this creates meanings in the borders of the subject and the sociocultural environment. These meanings are value-laden always. Thus, Bakhtin’s chronotope is made by the dialogical co-action of subjects inserted in language and culture. These chronotopes create genres in which the internal-external dilemma functions as indissociable units. According to these authors (Marková et  al., 2019), chronotope is conceived “…as a dialogical epistemic genre, that is, a style of co-acting in a concrete time– space situation which results in the transformation of the intersubjective knowledge and experience of participants” (p. 12).

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In a concrete time–space situation, a chronotope embodies the irreducible Self–Other unit that is bound by ethical and dynamic relations. Since a chronotope is a style of co-acting in a concrete time–space situation, it requires that the researcher explores the network of elements constituting the whole of the case in question, its major and subsidiary themes, and their co-existence. Within these, humans have their freedom and constraints with respect to making choices. (p. 12)

Thus, the notion of chronotopes used as analytical and communicative tool can be used to overcome the dichotomy or the dilemma between “external” and “internal” subjects’ construction relying on the deep dialogicality of self-others or, better saying, self-others-sociocultural environment through grasping the dialogical subject inherent and inseparable dynamics in specific and situated time-space symbolic life context. Assuming Valsiner’s quadratic unite the first reflexive dimensions, here pointed out, deals more intensely with time and the second one more expressively with the internalexternal dimension. Nevertheless, the dialogical chronotope idea seems to encompass both time and internalexternal dynamics. Presently we are working on how to approach the relationship between meanings available in sociocultural environment and the very perspective of the subject, the one that in fact constructs meanings throughout life trajectories (Lyra, Oliveira, & Aguiar, 2019).

1.1  Outline of the Book The first chapter Imagining and Remembering in Cultural Settings The second chapter aims to explore the school transition of an 11-year-old Brazilian girl who moved to a new school in the sixth grade, which entails a change into a diverse organization school teaching, where the student, for the first time, has diverse teachers, each teacher responsible for their own discipline, instead of just one (or two) as before. The chapter explores a school essay written by a girl following the dynamics between remembering past experience and prospected future carried by the essay’s character. In this way, the elements of the past and the ones imagined in the future are conceived as externalized expressive feelings and ideas that have a dialogical relation to the author. The chapter illustrates how the dynamics present-past-future exhibits the dilemmas faced by the girl through the analysis of triangulation between the author of the essay (the girl) and the character and a reflexive analysis of the girl/character facing this transition period. In this context, we can observe how remembering and imagining work together towards the subject’s adaptation. Moreover, the chapter also illustrates how to investigate students’ productions (texts, drawings, etc.) as a way of exploring their forms of adaptation (or not) to the new situation in a school context.

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The third chapter explores how a student in clinical psychology prospectively imagines her first experiences of acting as a psychotherapist. She is enrolled in an educational supervised training program, and the focus of the study was to analyze the directionality of imaginative process (including non-directionality) and how remembering works for anticipating imagined resistances for her future psychotherapist role in interacting with his/her client. The fourth chapter focuses on the process of learning scientific concepts – the concept of substance in chemistry  – using a microgenetic analysis of a dialogue between a pair of students that have been given three different kinds of learning material about the substance concept. The progressive development of students and construction of new syntheses, characteristics of learning process, exhibit how these new achievements develop towards abstraction  – plausible versus non-plausible type of abstractions  – and generalization. The chapter highlights the interplay between reconstructive memory and imagination in which they prospectively guide towards the future. Moreover, the importance of a microgenetic approach is highlighted as a royal road to analyzing these dynamics. The fifth chapter highlights how remembering and forgetting are collectively constructed. Memories are understood as social representations that are often guided by a dominant political power. This can lead to an enhancement of remembering and forgetting, as well as transformations in how an individual constructs his or her personal memories. The impact of how their past is collectively presented to people – sometimes in contradictory ways – is illustrated with two empirical studies: (1) about conflicts between indigenous groups and colonizers and (2) about how people construct memories of their cities that are anchored in monuments and historical places through time. The sixth chapter highlights the central role of human aesthetic experience as fundamentally affective, bringing together our capacity of remembering, imagining, and thinking all concurrently constructing meaning about us, others, and the world deeply engendered in dialogicality. The semiotic nature of the dominant aesthetic experience is underlined. To illustrate the authors’ perspective, the chapter locates their analysis circumscribing the context of invisibility of the Negros in Brazil, which shows history’s traces in the present day and describes the places that functioned as shelters of Brazilian Afro-descendant at the time of slavery. These places are called “Quilombos.” The authors illustrate their argument through the subjective feelings of “quilombola” which emerge while listening to typical music of his community. Self-Development and Identity Construction The seventh chapter inaugurates the second part of the book dealing with memory and imagination focusing on self and identity change and development. This chapter deals with the development of new self-meanings in the process of self-­ others exchanges in early childhood (in the transition from preschool to elementary school) focusing on affective-semiotic fields. The development of promoter signs through positive interactions with significant others allows the child to transform his/her past negative experiences into positive ones, constructing anticipatory

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recognitions that allow for interacting with others, which demonstrate a change in his or her self-system. The eighth chapter presents the life trajectory of a musician who also became a music teacher, analyzed according to the interplay between the development of his self-positionings. The follow-up during four successive interviews shows the role of music as dominating in abstract terms guiding his life trajectory. The role of significant social others, including his grandpa, works as a catalyst of the bifurcations in his trajectory. Remembering and imagination are enmeshed during all the development of what the authors call a hybrid self-positioning (musician and teacher intertwined positionings). We can say that due to the strong dominance of music as an affective-semiotic sign, permanently guiding thinking and affection, his life trajectory is dominated by imagination of a future to be achieved. The ninth chapter distinguish nuances of self-identity mainly observing how strong they are more or less valuable. Using a method that progressively asks the participant to eliminate through striking out a list of seven meanings attributed to him/her (to him/herself – I am….) and analyzing the verbal and non-verbal reactions of the participants, the study explores both their explanations and body emotional reactions facing the requirement to eliminate the diverse meanings attributed to each sentence-meaning. Both the role of the body and the I-others (collective-­ cultural) dynamics are examined. Assuming that each act of excluding a self-identity dimensions is considered as meanacting (Josephs, Valsiner, & Surgan, 1999)  – that means that each I am x as act of meaning carries together I am not x as concomitant act of meaning  –  this conception stresses the extent of value laden attributed by the person to the act of eliminating the successive sentences “I am something” meaning “I am NOT this something.” The study was done in a Brazilian town in which being a musician and belonging to one of the two traditional music bands are very valuable tasks. The focus was on being a musician of one of these two bands. In similar way as in Chap. 7, in this chapter we see that remembering the past experience as musician and to be linked with specific music band seem to work as “pulled” by the imagined future in which the person will self-­identify without the meaning that was stripped out, eliminated, by himself/herself. The tenth chapter relies on the concept of prolepsis (Brescó de Luna, 2017) in which the remembered past and imagined future function as a prospection of self’s positioning facing challenges at the present moment. In this sense, it is the future that guides the past and the present. The chapter focuses on a type of disruption for undergraduate students as far as they face teachers’ strike in which the classes and all academic activities are suspended in order to fight for better professors’ salaries and teaching and research conditions at Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil (in 2012). The agentive character of students’ temporal experience was explored through how they use both deontic (e.g., must, should, ought, etc.) and epistemic (e.g., know, believe, guess, etc.) modal verbs regarding their opinion-evaluation of teachers’ strike. Through the use of these modal verbs, students as agents of his/her past-present-future had shown how they move through time and relate to moral judgments regarding their commitments to the strike and evaluations of their

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teachers’ attitudes. Imagination dominates their past reconstructed and moral evaluations and thus the prospected future.

References Bakhtin, M.  M. (1981). Forms of time and of the chronotope in the novel: Towards a historical poetics. In M. Holquist (Ed.), The dialogical imagination: Four essays by M.M. Bakhtin (pp. 84–258). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Bakhtin, M. M. (1993). Towards a philosophy of the act (V. Liapunov, Trans. and notes, V. Liapunov & M. Holquist, Eds.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Google Scholar. Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Boesch, E. E. (2001). Symbolic action theory on cultural psychology. Culture & Psychology, 7, 479–483. Brescó de Luna, I. (2017). The end into the beginning. Prolepsis and the reconstruction of the collective past. Culture & Psychology, 23(2), 280–294. Cornejo, C. (2007). The locus of subjectivity in cultural studies. Culture & Psychology, 13(2), 243–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X07076608. Cornejo, C. (2017). From fantasy to imagination: A cultural history and moral for psychology. In B. Wagoner, I. B. Brescó de Luna, & S. H. Awad (Eds.), The psychology of imagination: History, theory, and new research horizons (pp. 3–44). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Einstein, A. (1954). Ideas and opinions. New York, NY: Crown Publishers. Goethe, J.  W. (1988). Studies for a physiology of plants. In D.  Miller (Ed.), Scientific studies. New York, NY: Suhrkamp. Josephs, I. E., Valsiner, J., & Surgan, S. E. (1999). The process of meaning construction: Dissecting the flow of semiotic activity. In J.  Brandtstädter & R.  Lerner (Eds.), Action and development: Origins and functions of intentional self-development (pp. 257–282). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Lyra, M. C. D. P., Oliveira, C. F. S., & Aguiar, M. B. (2019). How to map psychological phenomenon in their temporal unfolding? ISTP meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark. Lyra, M.  C. D.  P., Valério, T.  A. M., & Wagoner, B. (2018). Pathways to life course changes: Introducing the concept of avenues of directive meaning. Culture & Psychology, 24(4), 443–459. Marková, I., & Novaes, A. (2020). Chronotopes. Culture & Psychology, 26(2), 117–138. https:// doi.org/10.1177/1354067X19888189. Marková, I., Zadeh, S., & Zittoun, T. (2019). Introduction to the special issue on generalisation from dialogical single case studies. Culture & Psychology, 26, 3–24. https://doi. org/10.1177/1354067X198. Peirce, C. S. (1892/1923). The law of mind. In C. Peirce (Ed.), Chance, love a logic (pp. 202–237). London, UK: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.. Valsiner, J. (2014). An invitation to cultural psychology. London, UK: Sage Publications. Valsiner, J. (2018). Human psyche as inherently ambivalent: Semiosis of construction and destruction. In M. C. D. P. Lyra & M. A. Pinheiro (Eds.), Cultural psychology as a basic science: Dialogues with Jaan Valsiner (pp. 75–85). New York, NY: Springer. Vygotsky, L. (2009). A imaginação e a arte na infância. Lisboa, Portugal: Relógio d’água. Vygotsky, L. S. (1931). Imagination and creativity of the adolescent. Retrieved from: https://pdfs. semanticscholar.org/e881/9fb5b3dc0abe30907097c822119b75322637.pdf. 18 Jan 2018. Vygotsky, L. S. (1988). A formação social da mente. São Paulo, Brazil: Martins Fontes. Ed. Wagoner, B. (2017). The constructive mind: Bartlett’s psychology in reconstruction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Link.

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Wagoner, B. (2018). Handbook of culture and memory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Wagoner, B., Brescó de Luna, I., & Awad, S. H. (2017). The psychology of imagination: History, theory and new research horizons. Charlotte, NC: Info Age. Link. Werner, H., & Kaplan, B. (1963). Symbol formation. In H. Werner & B. Kaplan (Eds.), Symbol formation: An organismic developmental approach to language and the expression of thought. New York, NY: Wiley. Zittoun, T. (2012). Life-course: A social-cultural perspective. In J.  Valsiner (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of culture and psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Zittoun, T., & De Saint-Laurent, C. (2017). Life-creativity imagining one’s life. In V. Glaveanu, A. Gillespie, & J. Valsiner (Eds.), Rethinking creativity: Contributions from cultural psychology (pp. 58–75). London, UK: Routledge.

Part I

Imagining and Remembering in Cultural Settings

Chapter 2

The Dynamics Between Remembering and Imagining in School Transitions: A Study on Fictional Narratives Graciana Vieira de Azevedo, Maria Cláudia Santos Lopes-de-Oliveira, and Giuseppina Marsico

Contents 2.1  2.2  2.3  2.4  2.5  2.6  2.7  2.8 

Introduction Adolescence: Developmental Process and the Transition to the 6th Grade Imagination in Reconstructing Past Experiences to Create the Future Memory and Imagination in the Life Course Memory and Imagination as Mental Functions Affective Dimensions of Psychological Phenomena Methodology Empirical Data and Analysis 2.8.1  Sara’s Story 2.8.2  Carol’s First Day at School 2.8.3  Synthesis of the Meaningful Aspects of the Narrative 2.8.4  The Centrality of the Feeling of Fear Along Sara’s Narrative 2.9  Conclusion  eferences R

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2.1  Introduction The transition to the 6th grade in middle school is considered as a challenging moment in the trajectory of many students. In Brazil, this specific change is perceived by many children as a source of contradictory, blended feelings and G. V. de Azevedo (*) Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil M. C. S. Lopes-de-Oliveira University of Brasília, Brasilia, Brazil G. Marsico University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7_2

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conceptions: from one side, the student is grasped by the sense of self-efficacy, in face of the conquests and success in the school career; for the other, he/she is taken by fear, due to the anticipation of a possibly hard future in a new social position. The personal meanings connecting school transitions with fear and anxiety, for instance, seem to be mostly institutionally forged. Thus, the passage between the 5th and the 6th has apparently been historically converted by the “Brazilian school system” as a potential problem, a difficult rupture. In this chapter we explore how a school class activity consisting of the construction of a fictional narrative essay participates in the resignification of this experience. Sara, a girl who has just experienced the transition to the 6th grade in a new school, writes about the first day at school of Carol, a fictional character. This imagined character, while engaged in routine activities, moves towards the uncertain future by trying to anticipate coming events to be faced by Carol, and possibly lived in the future by Sara as well. The expectations of the character (Carol) regard the first day in school as often accompanied by a feeling of fear which triggers tensions especially when the character anticipates what could happen on her first day in a new school. In our analysis of Sara’s school essay, we look into the dynamics between the author’s imagination and her reconstruction of a past experience (changing schools). By doing so, we intend to highlight how remembering and imagination are linked into the ways people relate with the world through personal experience (Marsico & Valsiner, 2017a).

2.2  A  dolescence: Developmental Process and the Transition to the 6th Grade Adolescence cannot be reduced to a set of natural events related to biological maturation (this corresponds to puberty) nor defined as an age interval, usually associated to typical behaviors and processes. This period in the life course, instead, should be understood as a sociocultural phenomenon and, as such, is dated in history. Adolescence has been constructed in function of specific socio-historical requirements by deep political and economic changes in the western world mainly, between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (the industrial revolution, the specialized work in the factories, and the universalization of schooling as a strategy of cultural and scientific socialization of new generations, for instance). Indeed, as a living phenomenon, the concept of adolescence continues to be transformed, throughout the history of our society, because societies, groups, and individual trajectories change in the irreversible time (Araújo & Lopes-de-Oliveira, 2010). According to Mattos (2013), adolescence is a period of intense development of subjectivity, in which biological processes and psychosocial experiences are integrated in the same personal system, defining new social roles, expectations, and fulfillments. An increase in freedom walks side by side with more responsibilities along adolescence. Besides, contemporary adolescents are inserted into a

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controversial cultural universe, influenced by contradictory values; they are informed by the culture of consumption and exposed to a very fragile system of sociomoral values and to the demands of new digital communication technologies – alternative family configurations. Factors as such have a strong influence on their conduct and social motivations, as well as influence the meanings they develop about themselves and their context of life, catalyzing specific developmental processes. Research on school transitions (Akos, 2004; Eccles et al., 1993; Hauser, 2007) points out the moving to the 6th grade in middle school1 as being a particularly difficult process for most students. The 6th grade is especially critical for students for both developmental and institutional reasons. Along this period, most students  – whose ages range from 10 to 12 years – experience among other changes the puberty and the beginning of early adolescence, and this novel psychosocial condition is usually consistent with student’s new patterns of relationship with schoolmates and teachers. Adolescence is considered as a developmental period when the subject challenges most of imposed, established rules, and, for this reason, not rarely, adolescents find new sources of tension and problems in school. Furthermore, the new and challenging demands of this school grade in Brazil should be highlighted. In spite of the fact that Brazilian educational system legally provides a 9-year-long elementary school, it is not unusual that schools specialize in the first five grades or in the last four ones. In this case, the child has no other option than to change schools in the middle of the process and to deal with new institutional demands as a consequence. These aspects are deeply related with the highest rates of dropouts and school difficulties in the 6th grade, according to a national report on education (Cruz & Moreira, 2019). Although the economic and political consequences of school dropouts and failures are topics of major social and political importance, in this chapter we take a different vantage point. Our focus is directed to the psychological issues involved in this transition and to the prevention of the problems that can arise as a consequence of this normative transition, by meaningful pedagogical and psychological mediation. The theoretical frame that guides our analytical movement is the cultural semiotic approach of memory and imagination (Tateo, 2015; Zittoun et al., 2013). We assume here an idiographic stance and elaborate on a case study based on the fictional narrative aiming at a deeper understanding of the relationship between imagination, memory, and critical developmental events. The considered narrative was registered in a written text coming from a student who was facing a double change: starting the 6th grade and moving to a new school. Studies on the subject of school transitions seek to better understand the reason for the decline in students’ performance and their motivation along school career (Hauser, 2007). Some of these studies turn to investigate whether classroom environments and school characteristics are consonant with students’ needs and how school features impact on learning processes (Eccles et al., 1993; Holas & Huston,

 In Brazil, 6° ano of Ensino Fundamental.

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2012). Other studies approach the students’ perception about the transition emphasizing potential anxiogenic factors such as the dealing with new school norms; the building of friendships; the feeling of deterritoriality in a new space; the fear of bullying; the adaptation to the increase of freedom, autonomy, and demand for self-­ regulation; and the increase in the number of teachers, subjects, and school tasks (Akos, 2002). Research has also investigated the point of view of parents and teachers (Akos & Galassi, 2004) on issues concerning this particular period as well as on the relationships between parents, teachers, and students in the process of constructing subjectivity (Eschiletti Prati & Eizirik, 2006). Studies (Cauley & Jovanovich, 2006; Eccles et al., 1993; Hill & Mobley, 2015) point out that the transition process can be facilitated when school specialists develop proactive interventions that enable students and their families to successfully deal with the new school environment. Such interventions may help prevent or minimize the problems that may arise from the particular circumstances of that transition. It is also important, according to research studies (Dias-da-Silva, 1997; Akos & Galassi, 2004), to prepare the students for the transition from the 5th grade, while also preparing the teachers of the 6th grade to receive them, in terms of being concerned about their emotional and academic difficulties and helping them not to suffer so much as a consequence of the unexpected novelties. In this chapter we highlight imagination as an essential psychological component to help the 6th grade students to deal with the developmental process when experiencing school transitions.

2.3  I magination in Reconstructing Past Experiences to Create the Future In ancient times Plato conceived imagination as a pale imitation of the real, a minor mode of thought. For this Greek philosopher, only reason could lead to truth. Plato’s views differed from Aristotle who considered imagination as indispensable mediation towards knowledge. For the latter philosopher, imagination is “that in virtue of which an image arises for us” (On the Soul, Book III-3; see Smith, 2015). According to Aristotle, remembering involves the recall of imagery (phantasmata) of past experiences (Thomas, 2017). In the seventeenth century, Kant (1724–1804) conceives of imagination as the ability to synthesize our experiences, a synthesis which the reason will later on translate into concepts (Archambaut & Venet, 2007). In Kant’s perspective, imagination was associated with the creation and the understanding of the world. In the early twentieth century, Vygotsky (2004/1930) associated imagination with creativity and innovative conduct. He points out that imagination is the basis for human creativity since it allows individuals to use and combine already known elements into something completely new. Even though this author acknowledges the importance for individuals to retain devices previously used to connect with

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reality, he also argues that individuals are not limited to the mere reproduction of the lived experience. If this would be the case, human beings would be just oriented to the past and would not be able to deal with unexpected situations and to adapt to the future: “It is precisely human creative activity that makes the human being a creature oriented towards the future, creating the future and thus altering his own present” (Vygotsky, 2004, p. 9). Thus, imagination allows individuals to prepare for what will come in the future (Abbey, 2007), and through the possibilities created by this mental function, human beings have the freedom to position themselves as agents of their future, acting to transform themselves towards a desired goal (Zittoun & Gillespie, 2016). Moreover, imagination helps individuals give a sense of order to their experiences as they need to handle, in an irreversible time, not only the here-and-now but also the there-and-then, the evanescence of the lived experience and the uncertainty of the next moment (Abbey, 2012). By constantly dealing with the various possibilities of the next moment, the person operates in an ambivalent temporal boundary zone. This boundary zone is marked by a tension existing on the border between what is and what could be. The generated ambivalence and tension demand a solution that is reached when a new meaning is semiotically constructed, thus a semiotic mediation substantiated by thinking with signs. This operation is absolutely essential so that meaning-making processes can take place and changes can occur in the psychological system (Valsiner, 2007; Zittoun, 2006). The individual moves away from the present, orienting himself to the past and towards the future experiences, through perspectives as-if, i.e., thinking as-if it were (past) or as-could be (future), and not something as-is (Zittoun et al., 2013). Imaginative experiences can be “emotionally very intense and intellectually challenging” (Zittoun & Gillespie, 2016, p. 40). We propose that they are present in students’ school trajectories and they play a core role in student transitions along school grades. Imagination corresponds to a strong support in the process of meaning-­making that constitutes “the psychological life, the way the mind works” (Salvatore & Zittoun, 2011, p. 5).

2.4  Memory and Imagination in the Life Course Given its semiotic nature, mental life is defined as a potentially limitless activity that has permeable boundaries and is inherently open to new semiotic possibilities in space and time. Actual images and figurative memory are fused in perception acts. Current physical sensations, perceptions and movements, on one hand and imagined, mentally created worlds that go beyond the concrete lived experience on the other hand are mutually infeed dimensions of mental world, combining an uncountable set of pieces of past experience, which are constantly reorganized and recreated into renewed semiotic complexes within the flux of living. The psychological mechanism of memory and imagination is not natural, but they are connected to the accumulation of experience (Vygotsky, 2004/1930). In

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this section, we treat of developmental issues related to memory and imagination, considering some critical aspects of the development of these two mental processes, in both phylogenetic and ontogenetic terms. Imagination is considered as a phylogenetic conquest of the humankind, an effect of the development of psychological systems derived from the new features of human life, when social groups became more sedentary, living in more protected conditions and less committed with the war for survival. Those new living conditions turned possible to overcome the immediate here-and-now and created the basic conditions for the emergence of the there-and-then, related to the higher mental functions (Vygotsky, 2004/1930). Phylogenetically speaking, this novel psychological condition provided the opportunity for several critical changes, which led to dramatic differences between human beings and other mammals, for instance. Compared to the long process of phylogenesis, the ability to go beyond here-and-now is a recent mental acquisition, associated to the neocortex. It provided human beings with the capacity of memory and anticipation of future events, based on the footprints left by similar situations experienced in the past. In the trail of phylogenetic development of human species, memory and imagination become an essential aspect of our psychological system, present in most of the higher mental functions. Concerning the ontogenetic development, this ability is initially expressed in very practical activities, giving birth to general sensory-motor schemes that are gradually coordinated with other schemes forming clusters of more complex practical abilities, which are liberated from the concrete act. Thanks to those abilities, a small baby is able to act meaningfully in face of a diversity of situations, even when his sensory-motor apparatus is very simple and incomplete, and he has not got a formal language, sharing a rustic capacity of symbolization. Since its very emergence, the semiotic processes in childhood are constantly altered in the context of social interactions, but they go through the most radical shift when the child acquires a formal language. The new condition reached as a consequence of language acquisition converts the child into an active participant in linguistic transactions, providing her with the basis for sophisticated styles of semiotic negotiation (confrontation, argumentation, replication, commitment, etc.) that will continue to develop throughout life. This novel mental competence provokes an interpersonal revolution, concerning the children’s capacity to engage in interaction and other forms of social interchange. One of the consequences of that new quality of their psychological functioning is that, thanks to language, their capacity to recover past events is amplified and interconnected to perceptions, emotions, and meanings. The semiotic game uniting memory, imagination, and experience in concrete transactions within the self, and between the self and other, induces not only child’s mental reconstruction of the lived sociocultural realities through active internalization but her growing participation in the construction of culture as well. She not only internalizes the symbols of her community but also becomes an agentive member and an author of their shared reality. Memory and imagination are higher mental functions that, after all, are essential to the construction of a self-image and the integration of the self-system, i.e., the

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continuous process of sense-making that sustains the idea that one person continues to be herself in the irreversible time, even though dramatic changes occur in all levels of her self-system into the irreversible time. The construction of the self takes place within the framework of those experiences in which the subject is interpelled by reality or otherness, having no alternative but to act, to feel, and to communicate and, at the same time, to resignify in a singular way these same interpellations. This notion of subjectivity requires to consider simultaneously two processes in a dialectical relation: (1) the intrapsychic movement of experience structuration which conditions the emergence of a sense of self continued in time, despite the changes (Lopes-de-Oliveira, 2006), and (2) the process of public self-presentation (Valladares, 2000), in which the zone of contact between identity and otherness is defined, establishing the border between the self and the other. Valladares (2000) argues that although the development of the self-system is continuous and ongoing along life course, human beings’ ability to build a coherent sense of self is dependent on the evolving capacity to organize linguistically their lived experience through narrative. And this ability is not fully developed before the period of adolescence when the subject becomes capable of linking pieces of experience and fragments of eidetic images into a personal and unique continuous. The self is imbricated with our effort to build a story that integrates into a totality the dispersed or controversial aspects of each one’s biography.

2.5  Memory and Imagination as Mental Functions Human beings live constantly between “here-and-now” and “there-and-then” fields of experience. The former refers to the current course of action in specific time and place, while the latter refers to both the reconstructive remembering (something lived “there-and-then” in the past) and pre-constructive imagining (something that I will/would/could live “there-and-then” in an imagined future) (Marsico & Valsiner, 2017b). From a cultural psychology perspective, remembering is a constructive process that occurs at the intersection of a person and their social-cultural world (Wagoner, 2017). In this vein, memory is not conceptualized as a “storage” anymore; instead memory is considered as a “construction” at individual and sociocultural levels. Yet, we live towards the future, and in doing so we create, recreate, and modify the psychological horizon. According to Tateo: Imagination is the higher mental function that elaborates and manipulates these horizons in the form of universal and abstract representations of life starting from very situated individual actions. (2016, p. 161)

Memory and imagination are both inherently constructive high mental functions. Human psyche operates in the infinitive small present moment always between the

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past and the future. The present, in fact, is extended outwards in both directions: from the actual moment to the past and to the future. This dynamic process of “being in the past” while “being into the future” is evident in the narrative of personal life story in which the description of “who I am now” is depicted through what “I was” and what “I will become” in the future. If we assume that human existence is oriented towards the future (even when we recreate the past and are involved in ordinary activities in the present), we should, then, consider the direct consequences that derive from that. First the future is unknown, and this calls for the relevance of the psychological anticipation of the next step. Hence, imagination leads the understanding of everyday world. Secondly, the process of imagination is purposefully an act of crossing the border of the present, moving into the future (Valsiner, 2015). The present is the temporal “border zone” (Marsico, 2015) between the past and the future. If we assume this border zone, we can analyze how the unknown future becomes known and in this way becomes part of the past experience. Lastly, the two worlds – here-and-now (the AS-IS world) and there-and-then (the AS-IF world) – are linked with each other because of the irreversible flow of time. The constructive imagination unfolds exactly this interconnection of “being here” while imagining of “being there.” Yet, the temporal “border zone” between the present and the future is not the only one at work in our psychological experience. Any processes of remembering and constructive recognition are all processes that happen, de facto, on the border zone between the past and the future (which is actually the present time). As Roth (2014) points out, any act of remembering involves the contemporaneity of the past and the present: past events come to be recalled in the present, co-­existing with the present. The paradox of memory becomes even more profound when we try to answer the question of what the memory is about. Here the future comes. Memory, indeed, is about future! In a recent attempt, Marsico and Valsiner (2017b) introduced a new perspective on memory where the core issue concerns the future orientation of memory practices. A task for remembering something is oriented towards the future; a task of recalling something (here and now) is about some function of it for the immediate future. When we lose our external memory (cell phone) and need to remember the phone number of the person we want to call, it is for the immediate future of making the phone call; when a child is remembering something during an exam, it is for getting a mark; when a government erects a monument to a general (or tears down another to another general who is a deposed leader of the losing country in a war), it is all about the anticipated future; etc. Memory serves the future, and the future is ambiguous (Marsico & Valsiner, 2017b, pp. 353–354). The axiomatic foundation for the idea that memory is mainly about the future orientation is that of the irreversibility of time which goes together with the idea that the novelty is a main feature of human life and, therefore, the future – as well as the present and the past – plays a central role in the temporality of human experiences. As we can see in the next pages (see the analysis of the school essay), the past and

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the future – possible and actual – and their intertwined relations are the permeable temporal borders where future multiple possibilities in the actualized past can emerge. This acquires a special relevance with respect to the study of transitional phase in human development.

2.6  Affective Dimensions of Psychological Phenomena Vygotsky (1998) talks about studies conducted with children (age 10–11) that aimed to find out more about the relations between memory and intellect. The children participated in an experiment with test questions. The children’s responses showed that they were given having in mind a concrete case. In other words, the children took from their recollections some appropriate elements for their answers. For example, to a test question like “What must you do if you are late for the train?”, a child answered “You have to spend the night at the station.” Vygotsky (1998) says that at first glance, the child’s answer may seem inadequate, but it starts to make sense when it is known that the response was based on the child’s recollection of the day when he had to spend a night at the station with his family to wait for a train in the morning because they had missed the last night train for their trip. Vygotsky (1998) points out that this experiment assumes that children bring up a recollection (some kind of definite experience) and isolate “some component that is dominant because it is colored with emotion connected with other elements” (Vygotsky, 1998, p. 92). The hypothesis of the selection of a component which is colored with emotion leads us to think about the importance of taking into consideration affectivity when studying psychological aspects of a given phenomenon. Vygotsky (1986) stresses the importance of emotion, in special, in the relationship between thought and language: When we approach the problem of the interrelation between thought and language and other aspects of mind, the first question that arises is that of intellect and affect. Their separation as subjects of study is a major weakness of traditional psychology since it makes the thought process appear as an autonomous flow of “thoughts thinking themselves”, segregated from the fullness of life, from the personal needs and interests, the inclinations and impulses, of the thinker. […] Unit analysis points the way to the solution of these vitally important problems. It demonstrates the existence of a dynamic system of meaning in which the affective and intellectual unite. It shows that every idea contains a transmuted affective attitude toward the bit of reality to which it refers. (Vygotsky, 1986, p. 10)

As we can see, Vygotsky does not separate mental functions (intellect, cognition, attention, reasoning, and imagination) from affection, emotions, interests, and inclinations of the individual. On the contrary, he was concerned about integrating all these elements to study the psychological functioning of human beings. Thus, we cannot go deeper into understanding how individuals construct meaning throughout their lives without taking into account their uniqueness, i.e., their own way of feeling and apprehending the novelties while experiencing and dealing with them.

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2.7  Methodology Historically, the production of knowledge in psychological science has been nurtured by researches following an inductive or deductive logic. But both models operate on a static conception of reality and do not pave the way to an approach that permit a broad understanding of the processes of human development in its inherent dynamics. As an alternative to induction and deduction, semiotic cultural psychology suggests exploring the interpretative possibilities of research guided by the concept of abductive logic, or just abduction (or retroduction; see Peirce, 1972/1905). Abduction starts from different and dispersed aspects of the facts that draw the researcher’s attention without, at first, having an obligation to follow a particular theory. It is possible to explore reality in a relatively free way, but one recognizes the need to arrive, in the course of the research production process, at a theory that explains the surprising or unexpected aspects offered by the context investigated. Following abduction does not serve the needs of those researches with the purpose of confirming a theory, but engages it in the task of a progressive systematization of knowledge, with a view onto the explanation and production of new theories. Thus, abduction is characterized as an initially intuitive process, which allows the researcher to “jump” from facts to their explanation, according to the principle of similarity versus that of contiguity. Contiguity characterizes both induction and deduction, because they aim at the correspondence between the particular case and the general law, by the principle of ergodicity (Zittoun et al., 2013). The principle of resemblance, proper to abductive reasoning, speaks of a symbolic approximation between the particular and the general, mediated by the researcher’s interpretation guided by his investigative interests and research problems. Therefore, abduction is the epistemological process that allows the production and alteration of hypotheses and beliefs, through active and continuous dialogue between the particular and the general, constituting a way of approach that not only approximates the researcher of the investigated field, as it operates developmental processes along the research itself (Cabell, 2009). The way Cabell (2009) describes investigation practices coheres with idiographic stance. According to Lopes-de-Oliveira, Toledo, and Araújo (2018), Idiographic science focus onto everyday life events and the meaning they may have to individuals, taking into account their own standpoint or the position of those who lived the experience to be interpreted, which is personal and unique (Valsiner, 2007). Moreover, idiographic science considers uniqueness not as a given inner feature of the individual, but indeed, as a product, in a certain sphere of experience, of active and tense negotiations between the subject, the culture and its institutions, […] in reference to the effort to understand cultural and subjective phenomena. It focuses on individuals and is based on cases studies.

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2.8  Empirical Data and Analysis 2.8.1  Sara’s Story Our analysis is a case study focused on the experience of school transition lived by the student called Sara (a fictional name). The main material to be analyzed is a written narrative produced by Sara in the classroom during a Portuguese class. Sara was experiencing a double change: she moved to the 6th grade and was beginning the school year in a new school. This new context is a public school in an urban area of Recife, the capital of Pernambuco State, in the Northeast of Brazil. After about 1 month at the new school, this 11-year-old girl wrote a story involving a character who changed school. This task was one of the procedures adopted in a study which investigated school transitions (Azevedo, 2017) and consisted of requesting the 6th grade teacher of Portuguese (the students’ mother tongue) to ask them to write this essay. Sara’s essay was chosen among other students’ written productions for the purpose of the present chapter because we recognize in it strong negative feelings and a lot of emotional tension accompanied by fear, in special, when describing Carol’s (the main character) first day at the new school. This feeling of fear stands out along the narrative as a powerful and recurring element. Considering its developmental importance and its role in providing Sara with psychological tools to integrate the past and the future in school transitions, we aimed at understanding how imagination and memory reflected in her story are intertwined with this feeling of fear and how both act as catalysts of her personal development, in terms of the reorganization of her self-system and its adjustment to the new cultural-institutional environment. Despite being aware that it is not possible to say that the character of the narrative mirrors the young author’s feelings about her experience on her first day at school, we also think that the account cannot be overlooked as it was written from the perspective of someone immersed in a sociocultural context that provides her with elements for the building of the text. Therefore, in our view, the imaginary text has something to tell us, through a character, what might be like to face the first day at a place where you feel uncomfortable in a completely different environment and among people you probably do not know.

2.8.2  Carol’s First Day at School We present the whole narrative as follows, so one can have a view of the entire text, but it is didactically segmented in parts (numbers 1–4), and these same numbers are referred to along our analysis just below.

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The first day at school 1. A few days ago, Carol, a very naughty girl, heard that she would change schools because she was already a big girl to continue in her present school. 2. She would go to a school where only big children studied. Every night before sleeping, she thought if she would get on well with the other students and if the teachers would be nice. She also wondered if the school subjects would be easy to learn because she was scared to death of making mistakes in front of all students while she was answering some exercises orally. 3. The first day of class arrived, she was feeling lazy to get out of bed, but she thought about what her friends would be like and got rid of her laziness. She got up, had a shower, ate, tidied her hair and ran to the bus stop. She didn’t even wait for her parents to kiss her so excited she was. On the bus, she began to think of how bad it would be if she studied in a school where no one liked her and began to be afraid of going there, but she had already arrived at the school bus stop. 4. She entered, scared to death, there were several boys running in the schoolyard that made her feel even more afraid, but when she arrived in the classroom, several girls came to talk to her and liked her. After that, Carol lost her fear and went to enjoy the first day of school with her new friends.

2.8.3  Synthesis of the Meaningful Aspects of the Narrative Before immersing in the developmental aspects of the narrative concerning Sara’s subjectivity considering the feelings emerging out of the story elaborated by her, it is important to identify some general analytical aspects extracted from the essay. Segment 1  – Sara presents the protagonist in a veil of positive personal features (naughty girl; big girl). Segment 2 – Sara presents the context through ambivalent lens, both as a positive and a negative scenario: it is a place where just big girls go (what means that now Carol herself is a big girl!), but it would be not that good if those girls did not get on well with her. Segment 3  – Sara refers to Carol’s resistance to face the challenges of the new school, naming it feeling lazy to get out of bed and her overcoming this resistance and running to the bus stop to get to school. Segment 4 – Sara presents the coda of her narrative: Carol finally enters the classroom and finds nice schoolmates who welcome her in the new school.

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2.8.4  T  he Centrality of the Feeling of Fear Along Sara’s Narrative In the process of imagining a story and building it by bringing back past experiences from a particular perspective, Sara talks about a girl, Carol, who experiences ambivalent emotions and a recurring feeling of fear along her first day at a new school. The personal cultural perspective about transition integrates psychological processes which take place imaginatively when Sara experiences successive moments of reconstruction of meanings as to overcome the feeling of fear. This feeling is gradually integrated in the semiotic nature of meaning-making captured in the narrative. In Sara’s imagination, the character she created, Carol, often wonders what might happen to her on the first day at school. In the excerpts below, Sara introduces Carol: (1) […] Carol, a very naughty girl, […] she would change schools because she was already a big girl to continue in her present school. (2) She would go to a school where only big children studied.

From (1) and (2), we observe that Sara’s perception of moving to another school reveals a world of feelings that generate tensions connected to body and space changing. naughty girl (childish behaviour) < > big children (serious behaviour) present school (for small children) < > future school (for big children)

We can see that Sara’s view of the world when writing about the experience of changing schools is immersed in a complex set of semiotic processes exhibited when she talks about how Carol moves towards the future. Carol, like Sara, is going through physical (body) and spatial (school) changes. These changes bring out uncertainties about the coming time which haunt Carol every night before sleeping when she wonders about her future: […] Every night before sleeping, she thought if she would get on well with the other students and if the teachers would be nice. She also wondered if the school subjects would be easy to learn because she was scared to death of making mistakes in front of all students while she was answering some exercises orally. (Excerpt 2)

Sara’s narrative – written after a month she had experienced the first day in a new school – brings back memories which were either picked from Sara’s own experience or taken from what she captured in her cultural context. Either one way or the other, it is interesting to observe in the previous excerpts (2 and 3) how these memories and the process of imagining the future interwine and are embedded in a feeling of fear when Sara’s character (Carol) tries to foresee possibilities for the first day in a new school. Fear appears as a semiotic element symbolizing a personal way of experiencing school transition. This element – constructed or “borrowed” from a particular sociocultural environment – guides the character’s experience in the narrative Sara created. Thus, Carol’s anticipations about the future appear in a series of “as if”

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concerning her uncertainties. She wonders about future relationships and possible difficulties she might encounter in the new school environment: get on well with students < > not get on well with students nice teachers < > not nice teachers easy subjects, no mistakes in front of students not easy subjects, mistakes in front of students a school where no one liked her < > not a school where no one liked her

This as-if domain of her thoughts guides the present state of things (in which fear runs through) and fulfills the need for future orientation while generate tensions at the same time. At the beginning of excerpt 3, we notice the existence of some excitement on the arrival of the first day at the new school when Carol would finally face her fear in loco. This excitement is manifested in Sara’s choice of words as she describes a sequence of events that takes place in preparation for the day that she had anticipated so much with a mixture of fear and curiosity. The first day of class arrived, she was feeling lazy to get out of bed, but she thought about what her friends would be like and got rid of her laziness. (Excerpt 3)

One important aspect to highlight in the previous segment (3) is the affective matter regarding friendship that apparently regulates positively the character’s enthusiasm towards the novelty: imagining what their friends would be like encouraged her to get out of bed. The orderly description of activities seems to emphasize the importance of the day for Sara who talks about the character and the occasion in detail. […] She got up, had a shower, ate, tidied her hair and ran to the bus stop. She didn’t even wait for her parents to kiss her so excited she was.) […]. (Excerpt 3)

Then, still in segment 3, we find the character already on the bus, once more fearing her first day at school when she starts to imagine possible bad scenarios for her life in a new environment. […] On the bus, she began to think of how bad it would be if she studied in a school where no one liked her and began to be afraid of going there, but she had already arrived at the school bus stop. (Excerpt 3)

Imagining what things could go wrong made her feel afraid of going to school. We can see that her fear makes Carol feel uncomfortable, but then, she gets off the bus just because it had already arrived at the school stop. In segment 4 we notice that her fear seems to have got to an almost unbearable level as she enters the new school. (4) She entered, scared to death, […]

However, when her fear seems to have achieved its maximum level, Sara’s character gets to the point of feeling even more afraid as it can be observed in the continuation of segment 4:

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[…] there were several boys running in the schoolyard that made her feel even more afraid, […]

Carol felt more uncomfortable when she did not see any girls but only boys running in the schoolyard. We observe that in the early adolescence (age 10–12 years), boys and girls tend to gather in separate groups (boys × girls). Therefore, for the character, the fact that she could only see boys running in the schoolyard probably made her think that it would be really difficult to make friends in the new school. In the last part of the narrative, we observe that not spotting any girls at first must have been really hard for Carol as we see that her fear vanishes when she finds some girls who like her. […] when she arrived in the classroom, several girls came to talk to her and liked her. After that, Carol lost her fear and went to enjoy the first day of school with her new friends. (Excerpt 4)

Being able to make friends is an important issue when one changes school especially during early adolescence as boys and girls are facing physical changes as well. Their bodies start to go through transformations that will eventually make them leave their childhood behind. These boys and girls value even more than small children the opportunities to be in groups of friends. They feel the necessity to separate physically from their parents so they can develop their own identity (Berndt, 1982, 1987; Frazier & Frazier, 2001). Therefore, in Sara’s narrative, being able to socialize and find helpful new friends is an aspect of this experience on the first day at the new school that cannot be overlooked. The character’s tensions created in Sara’s imagination in the form of as-if anticipations are closely related to the fear of not feeling welcome in the new environment. This interpretation is corroborated by the fact that the character’s intense fear of going to a new school disappears like “magic” the moment she feels welcome and accepted by the girls she met on the first day at school.

2.9  Conclusion Our aim has been to show how a narrative can constitute important data for the understanding of the perspective of an individual going through two important changes: starting the 6th grade, considered a challenging school year, in a new school. As we have seen, by telling Carol’s story, Sara imaginatively recalls what she has experienced and/or learned/heard about changing schools. In doing so, Sara unravels some psychological aspects regarding the semiotic-affective field one can move in when they leave behind the familiar, the expected, and the regular fields of experience and have to face a novelty, which is something they will have to deal with and learn about so they can bring it to their advantage to move on in their lives. Hence our analysis shows that an intransitive (irreversible) change (Zittoun, 2012) might trigger the emergence of tensions which can occasionally take the form of a negative feeling. In the case of Sara’s narrative, her character moving to a new

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school routine generates a mix of feelings of curiosity, anxiety, and fear that deeply affects her present experience in the new school. That semiotic-affective complex pervades this changing experience which is a rupture with her previous taken-for-­ granted routine she was used to in her old school. She only manages to get rid of the pervasive feelings, when she manages the construction of new meaning for her new school: there are some girls in her class that seem to like and welcome her. No need to be afraid anymore; she can enjoy her new school because she feels “safe” among her new friends. Sara’s narrative shows the way to a transition that takes place oriented towards a future where she wants to be accepted by her peers. This projection of positive future social relationships helps her to deal with the here-and-now, the rupture within her previous school routine, and gives a new sense to her personal life in middle school.

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Chapter 3

Imagining and Remembering in an Educational Context: An Exploratory Study Karina Moutinho, Taciana Feitosa de Melo Breckenfeld, and Candy E. M. Laurendon

Contents 3.1  I magination: A Fundamental Higher Psychological Function 3.1.1  Imagination and the Dynamics of Directionality and Resistance 3.2  Memory and Remembering 3.3  An Analytical Road: Rosa’s Case 3.4  Final Comments References

                 

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The scene is California, and the plot involves replicants, replicant hunters, and humans. The cinematographic work “Blade Runner 2049” takes place on a planet suffering from social and environmental degradation. The plot provides a continuity to the first film, “Blade Runner” (1982), when replicants, artificial human beings, are created and used for the most noxious and deadly activities and, after a mutiny, are banished from the Earth. However, a group of remnant replicants resist their fate and remain in Los Angeles. The film follows the replicant hunter agent Deckard (Harrison Ford) and his unsparing attempt to track the remnant group and exterminate them. In Blade Runner 2049, in the context of the film released in 2017, the main character is K (Ryan Gosling), an LA police blade runner who hunts and kills fugitive replicants. In the beginning, K discovers a secret: the replicant Rachel (Sean Young) had a child, who was kept hidden until then. It is the only case of reproduction registered among replicants. The possibility that replicants are able to breed and hence become independent of humans could lead to conflict with the humans. It is this realization that leads K’s boss to order him to track down and eliminate the hidden child, whom by then would be a young adult. K. Moutinho (*) · T. F. de Melo Breckenfeld · C. E. M. Laurendon Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7_3

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The key factor in the plot, and what we want to relate to our chapter, is when K discovers that he himself could be the child he seeks. And what lead us to this conclusion are his memories. During his investigation, he recalls memories of a wooden toy from his childhood, which had his date of birth marked on it. However, he is tormented by the uncertainty of his faith in his own memory. He knows that replicants are implanted with false memories to help them improve their performance, so he attempts to discover if his own memories are really his or implanted. First, he seeks the help of a professional image producer, who prepares and sells memory images to the replicant manufacturing company. She confirms to him that the memories in question, of the wooden toy, were real and lived, and on hearing this he believes that he is indeed the child that is being sought. From that point on, the plot takes on a special development, and K adopts a name. From now on he is called “Joe.” He begins a search to discover who he believes his father could be, the missing ex-agent Deckard. Joe tracks him down and questions him on the birth of the child and why Deckard was not around during its upbringing. As a blade runner, Joe does have the option to exterminate Deckard; however, as he believes Deckard may be his father, and Joe’s “memories” are casting uncertainty on his identity and his own growing significance, his next step is to protect Deckard to ascertain the full facts of the story. His memories are fundamental in sustaining what Joe believes and imagines his future could be. All his beliefs would need reimagining and recasting. And the first significant change is to quit his role as a replicant hunter. Thus, the film raises a subject we wish to explore in this chapter: the relation between remembering and planning action to the future, that is, imagination in relation to a first supervised practice in clinical psychology. How does remembering constructions contribute to her decisions in a practice situation of psychotherapeutic attendance? How does the experience remembered contribute to define what she imagines to be done in the future? In other words, what can we say, from the theoretical and empirical point of view, about the relationship between imagination and remembering, from a psychological perspective? In order to explore this subject, we have the objective of presenting how imaginative and remembering processes are interrelated, in a case study about a first psychotherapy practice of a psychology undergraduate student at the Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil) alias Rose. As our starting point, we will present the studies of Bartlett (1932/1995) and Wagoner (2011) with respect to memory and to remembering, as well as Valsiner (2007, 2014) and Tateo (2015, 2016, 2017) with respect to imagination. Following the theoretical presentation, we will present the case study that will provide the basis of the empirical analysis we intend.

3.1  Imagination: A Fundamental Higher Psychological Function The study of imagination has been an object of interest over the years, by thinkers such as Nicolau de Cusa (1401–1464), G.  Vico (1670–1744), J.  W. Goethe (1749–1832), and I. Kant (1722–1804), as was highlighted by Cornejo (2017) and

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Tateo (2015). Sartre (2008), Bakhtin (1981), and Ricoeur (2016) were also devoted to the discussion of the subject. Sepper (2013) reports the understanding of the imagination from Plato until Kant. In psychology, the phenomenon also gets special attention. In the beginning of the twentieth century, Vygotsky developed studies about imagination and regarded it as a fundamental psychological process. In his book Imagination and Creativity in Childhood (2004), he explains his understanding of the imagination and treats the interdependence between memory and imagination. In this work, the author discusses the laws that govern imagination, and in the first he relates imagination and experiencing. Vygotsky (2004) proposes “the creative activity of the imagination depends directly on the richness and variety of a person’s previous experience” (p. 14), since the material with which fantasy is constructed comes from experience. The larger and richer the experience, the richer the imagination will be. Here we see that the author links the lived experience to that which we can imagine, as a tie connecting memory, remembering, and imagination. Although Vygotsky’s initial discussion sheds light on the connection between these psychological processes, it still lacks a larger understanding of how each of these processes are related in daily actions. The present chapter comes as an initiative in this direction, following principles of semiotic cultural psychology (Valsiner, 2007, 2014).

3.1.1  I magination and the Dynamics of Directionality and Resistance Nowadays, imagination has been attracting attention in various fields. In scientific investigation, researchers in different domains, such as neurobiology (Agnati, Guidolin, Battistin, Pagnoni, & Fuxe, 2013) and education (Girardello, 2011; Montezi & Souza, 2013), have carried out studies of this phenomenon. More recently, psychology adopting a semiotic cultural orientation has been explaining imagination as an intra- and interpsychological process, built through the relationships within the culture, in irreversible time, and directed towards the future. From this perspective, semiotic cultural psychology has highlighted the construction of varied propositions of imagination, such as in the studies of Tateo (2015, 2016, 2017), Valsiner (2014), Zittoun and Cerchia (2013), and Zittoun and Gillespie (2016). An explanatory thread about imagination, developed by Luca Tateo (2015, 2016, 2017), has been the motivation for recent empirical studies carried out at the Federal University of Pernambuco (Feitosa de Melo, 2018; Moutinho & Carvalho, 2020; Moutinho, de Melo Breckenfeld, & Laurendon, 2020). Tateo’s studies are noticeable for their understanding that human actions are imaginative, affective, and pre-­adaptative. He argues that imaginative processes have a central importance in the establishment of our relationships with the world. Thus, imagining does not only appear in situations where the object with which we relate is considered unreal and fictitious. Imagining is related to the memory and problem resolu-

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tion and, thus similar to Vygotsky’s idea, has a crucial function as much as for art, as for the development of scientific thought. In short, Tateo (2015) proposes three fundamental ideas, where imagination is conceived as: (1) “a higher fundamental psychological function that elaborates meaning by linguistic and iconic signs” (p. 1); (2) that allows for adaptation to the present and pre-adaptation to the future through self-regulation processes by the production and elaboration of meaning; and that (3) “human beings establish first of all an affective relationship with the world (objects and persons), and through imagination they treat concrete and real things as if they were abstract and treat non-­ existing objects and abstract concepts as if they were concrete things” (p. 1). To deal with signs and constructing meanings is, thus, an important and central point in the understanding of imagination and of other human psychological activities. As human beings, intentionally and unavoidably, we signify our experiences in the world, dealing with objects or people, real or abstract (Valsiner, 2014). To imagine, as a process involved in this construction of meanings, is part of any extraordinary or usual activity, expected or surprising, such as, for instance, in academic experience. The way that we imagine has a particular proposition in Tateo’s understanding (2017). To explain this process, which occurs in irreversible time, the author turns to some concepts presented by Valsiner (2014), such as Gegenstand, directionality, resistance, and action vectors, and applies them to a specific scenario related to imaginative processes. The dynamics are explained in more detail in the chapter Seeing Imagination as Resistance and Resistance as Imagination (Tateo, 2017), and we will conduct a brief overview so that the link between imagination and remembering can be possible in the analysis of case study. Our experience in the world is made in a selective way when we deal with what is around us. In this process, Valsiner (2014) says that we transform “things” into “objects,” in other words, the variety of different elements which compose our life changes condition for us when we establish a relationship with them, when we signify them. In many countries, there is a belief that opening an umbrella inside a house can bring bad luck. An umbrella in the corner of the room in the house would even be noticed. But if it is opened, in the center of the house, it can cause the occupant anxiety. An umbrella stops being just another “thing” in this scenario, to become an “object” both for the person who opened it, ignoring the belief in bad luck, and for the occupant who got scared. In this regard, Valsiner (2014, p. 153) points out that: “The crucial role in this transformation is the role of the agent—by acting upon things in nature, these become objects. These objects can resist our actions (stand against us— Gegen + stand), or can evade us […] Gegenstand is the result of our actions towards things, their projection into the object, and our action relative to the projected object.” Gegenstand is a German word that, even in the eighteenth century, in philosophy and psychology, marked the distinction between a thing and an object, in the way that human action on things causes their transformation into being a significant object. The use of the word in semiotic cultural psychology allows us to identify this counteraction of the object (projected or exercised on us).

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The umbrella example also allows us an important discussion on what is referred to as process of meaning. It is in a symbolic and affectionate relationship that the “objects” become significant for us and this significance commonly involves, in turn, our recognition that the “object” with which we are dealing has its own force and that it is opposed to our own interests or intentions. In the umbrella example, its own force will be in the symbolic construction about the bad luck that is brought to the people in the house or for those who open it. In some cultures, this gesture can even cause death. This example helps us to recognize that, when we deal with the world, we see objects in a private and personal way, for besides their use characteristics, and with their own force, to the resistance of our actions. When we transform things into objects, in other words, into the act of meaning, we attribute features and properties to the objects as we engage with these objects, and we understand their power over us. In these dynamic forms of meaning, where the object is not passive, we can accept that our actions in relation to it (in this case, the umbrella) involve understanding it in a certain way. Not only in the sense of the network of senses involved but also by the way that we recognize the action of the object towards us. From this angle, Tateo (2017) draws on a point made by Wittgenstein, present in his writings in 1958, on the human actions of “seeing” and “seeing-as.” If in the “seeing,” we have the anatomic physiological possibility to recognize one thing in our perceptual field, in the environment that we live in; it’s with the “seeing-as” that this thing becomes an object, because we give meaning to it  – we attribute intentionality, value, feelings – at the same time that it “acts” on us and resists and establishes an action opposed to our actions. For Tateo (2017), the “seeing” and “seeing-as” constitute an inevitable, inseparable, and complex dance in the construction of meanings. The author also explains that the process of meaning-making with “seeing” and “seeing-as” occurs on three levels. On the first level, there is the perception of the thing itself – in other words, it’s when we “see” the opened umbrella in the corner of the house; on the second level, it’s the “seeing-as,” such as in the dance of the meanings mentioned above, when the umbrella is being “seen-as” a threat which can bring bad luck to those around it. In this attribution of meanings, the object becomes capable of accomplishing a counteraction and, so, of becoming Gegenstand, just as Valsiner (2014) explains in full detail in his work. It’s on this level 2 that a range of opportunities for action opens up, derived from the anticipated resistances, called “vector-like” by Tateo (2017). Then, on the third level, the agent makes decisions according to what he anticipated as the resistance on the previous level. Then, in our example, if the house owner thinks that the open umbrella can brings bad luck or death (resistance), he will decide to close it as soon as possible. The action can be created because of the type of relationship established by the agent (the house owner) with the object (Gegenstand; in this case, the umbrella). Tateo (2017, see also Valsiner 2014) emphasizes that this dynamic is also marked by ambiguity. From the beginning of the meaning-giving process, the umbrella could take on meaning in several ways. We have already spoken about umbrella as a bad omen, but it could also be seen as a beautiful ornament or even indicative of

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seasonal transition. According to Valsiner (2014), Tateo (2017) says that levels 1 and 2 produce a duality of meanings where we have possibilities on one side “A” and on the other “non-A.” In the case of the open umbrella, we can see it as a threat and not see it as an aesthetic object at that given moment (non-A), but potentially it could be seen like this in another situation. The meaning-making path that we are required to take will be a contextual, affective, and cultural process. If we consider a woman who has already had bad experiences with open umbrellas inside of her house, she will avoid the same occurrences whenever possible. If she and her community share that value, each member of the culture will strengthen their individual belief. At the same time, this process is contextual in as far as in some certain situations the fear can disappear: in case of intense rain, the umbrella may be opened before leaving the house; or even, if it is closed quickly, there “would not be time” for the bad omen to affect the family. Additionally, a last conceptual presentation needs to be given before we discuss remembering. It is about the concept of resistance and its different possible types to identify with regard to the construction of meanings process. Tateo (2017) analyzed some studies developed about resistance in everyday life and identified four different presentation forms of resistance. As an example, he cites the study carried out by Suneja and Sharma (2017) on how children in family relationships resist their own desires. The first form of resistance is called “blocking” and occurs in the relation between the agent and the object when the meaning construction “A” is blocked. The children can, for example, forego the immediate satisfaction of desire in a favor of a future objective. The second type of resistance is called “circumvention”: the children find ways to satisfy their own will, cheating any obstacles of their satisfaction. Tateo (2017) also cites Awad, Wagoner, and Glaveanu’s study (2017) on the different resistances related to graffiti in street art. The authors state that different surfaces provide different paths of meaning-making according to the resistance that each one possesses. These authors speak of a third form of resistance, called “amplification” which occurs when the initial meaning is expanded. In the study, the authors highlight the case of when one type of given surface where the art is produced expands and intensifies the effect of the graffiti design. And the fourth type of resistance is called “escalation” and can be understood by the cases, for instance, where a public design is progressively remade by each artist or person who redrafts it. To summarize, we conceive of imagination as a superior mental process with meaning-making coming in and through the use of signs. It is a process towards the future, in an irreversible time, in a semiotic field where objects are at the same time “seen” and “seen-as.” But how is remembering a part of this process?

3.2  Memory and Remembering To talk about remembering, we will draw out the most distant discussion that interests the humanity, which is memory. In antiquity, Plato affirmed that learning was remembering, and memories were considered to be writing inscribed in stone,

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such as those used in ancient times. Plato made an analogy between memory and an aviary, where birds would be specific memories and to access the memory was similar to holding one of these birds (Mota, 2000). Memory, in this context, involved inscribing marks, which are connected to writings, and can be read, remembered, and accessed. According to Wagoner (2011), since Plato the mind was understood to be a storage system, and the best example of this association occurs in the perspective of information processing, which considers memory to be constituted in three phases: encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. This idea that memory is a cognitive system, broken into several components, grew in strength in the 1960s with the appearance of several memory models deriving from the standpoint of information processing theory. To the detriment of this view of memory as storage place, research in cognitive psychology and neurosciences showed that the memory works in an associative way and that information is not stored complete, but many items are lost, and, when recovered, they are rebuilt according to a variety of past experiences, social suggestions, or new imaginative creations (Silva, 2018). In contrast to the commonly held view of the time, British psychologist Frédéric Bartlett (1995) put forward his work Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology, first published in 1932. In this, he proposes that the memory is like an active process, where memory is reconstructive and not reproductive. Bartlett (1995) questions the reductionist strategy of isolating simple mental processes taking place independently and rejects the traditional research on memory by Ebbinghaus (1885/1964), which looked to rule our personal responses that people could have according to the material they were asked to memorize and remember under the controlled conditions of the memory experiments. That is, for Bartlett (1995), remembering is not a capacity to access images and memories as indeed they were lived, but involves a reconstruction of what had been lived, a reconstruction of meanings: our memory doesn’t remember information about the world, but is intrinsically related to the meaning we attribute to these experiences. Thus, memory would not be neutral, because the remembering process occurs with meanings that the subject builds through certain signs that activate the process of mnemonic reconstruction. Bartlett (1995), therefore, introduced a constructivist vision of memory and proposed the concept of schemata. He was interested in how subjects would remember a story, whose content had a distant relation with their cultural schemata. Bartlett observed that people used their cultural references at the time of remembering an event, reconstructing it according to their previous schemata. In this idea, “Remembering is when the organism is turning around upon [one’s] own schemata and constructing them afresh” (Bartlett, 1995, p. 206). For Bartlett (1995), schema is a mass of experiences inside the continuous temporary flow, which is part of past experiences that are rebuilt before some demand in the present. It is a continuous and dynamic adaptation between people and their physical and social environments. Wagoner (2013) exemplifies this with a daily occurrence: when we leave our home in the morning, we generally take the keys which are kept in a particular place. If 1 day the keys are not in their usual place, a discontinuity in the action is caused, and the process becomes conscious. At that

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moment, we have a tendency for remembering the actions of the previous day to try to recall the location of the keys. For the author, an attitude or orientation is created before the present demand (find the keys). This allows us to distance ourselves from the here and now, extending possibilities of action, so that we are in a dual environment – involved in the past and the future. In that moment, the updating of schemata becomes a conscious process, heading to the demand found in the present. Silva (2018) highlights that when the subject turns around upon his own schemata, there is a tendency towards a combination of several organized bundles of past experiences (groups of schemata), so that he is capable of reconstructing something that happened 1 year ago, reintegrating it, and combining it with something that happened yesterday, in order to solve some problem that challenges him today. That process involves the construction of meaning and the preparation of imagined future. These imaginative processes start to act, allowing for a temporal transition (Zittoun et  al., 2011), in order that past experiences are reformulated. The constructive value of this process is pointed out when we don’t reproduce that activity literally, but we give it a new meaning. Bartlett (1995) uses the notion of schema to build his theory on remembering, and that concept mirrors a process where the meaning of past experiences is reconstructed. What Bartlett proposed was the interdependence between cognition, affection, and cultural symbols, in other words, a holistic explanation of the mnemonic phenomena, where the tools mold the past into a particular cultural form and therefore give it meaning (Wagoner, 2011). However, according to Wagoner (2011), Bartlett’s theory leaves a gap and does not explain what the mechanism is which enables the process of “turning around upon schemata” and the escape from the continuous flow of action. Lev Vygotsky’s concept of “sign” could, then, refer to this missing mechanism as a process of sign mediation which explains that we turn around upon schemata making meaning for ourselves (Wagoner, 2011). Thus, […] memories are organized, accessed and formed by social suggestions performed with social tools, such as language and narrative. In other words, remembering is not simply an internal process but relies on the mediation of culture; culture comes to participate in and constitute the process of remembering. (Wagoner, 2011, p. 112)

In this regard, Edwards and Middleton also emphasize the importance of considering the context where meaning-making emerges during the remembering process. Because “our understandings and remembering are permeated by culture and communication. […] Lots of remembering that we do is embedded in social and communicative settings, such as conversations with other people” (Edwards & Middleton, 1988, pp.  3–4). According to these authors, the subject of human ­relationships is fundamental to the remembering process because it is the communicative context that provides significant criteria which define what is worth remembering and in what form it is remembered. So, the act of remembering stories, but also objects, events, people, and the way that we narrate it while we are remembering, is mediated by social conventions. In other words, the act of remembering is, therefore, a dynamic process which involves how individuals and groups appropriate, modify, and adapt tools that are strange or new to them.

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3.3  An Analytical Road: Rosa’s Case This study was carried out with a graduate student of psychology from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Brazil, hereby called Rosa. The interpretative material created here is from the work from one of the authors of this chapter as her master’s research undertaken in the Post-Graduation Cognitive Psychology Program of UFPE (Feitosa de Melo, 2018). The research aimed to investigate how a last-year undergraduate student in psychology imagined her first psychological intervention at a municipal health institution which welcomes children, adolescents, and families who have suffered violence. She was chosen to participate in the research because she was one of the two students selected to work as a trainee in a recognized municipal health institution dedicated to face this problem and available to supervise students. At the time of the interviews, Rosa was 25 years old and was studying in her last year of undergraduate psychology at UFPE. Rosa didn’t have any previous experience of how to carry out a psychological intervention, and she was preparing to carry out an apprenticeship discipline under supervision for the first time, as part of the requirements for her formation in psychology. She lived with her parents in Recife, in the state of Pernambuco. This institution, which we will call Playtime, is linked to the Secretary of Health’s Office in the city of Recife and sets up projects to counter violence against children and adolescents. It is a free public tool dedicated to the promotion of health. The coordinator of Playtime is one of the psychologists from the staff and is responsible for the supervision of the psychology department students serving apprenticeships. Pedro, a code name used in this study, has psychoanalysis as a theoretical referential, and he constructed a routine with students and professionals that involves discussion of the cases that have been attended by the staff and a group of weekly studies. Regarding the undergraduate curriculum in psychology at the UFPE, supervised trainees are divided into Basic and Specific. The Specific Internship is divided into Specific Internships I and II, run in the 9th and 10th semesters, respectively, each with 240 hours. Rosa, the participant of the study, has begun the 9th semester. She had already undertaken the Basic Internship, and for 1 year, she would carry out supervised interventions in Playtime. Our interpretative path will be made about an interview carried out with Rosa that took place after she had completed her first supervised psychology intervention. In this chapter, we will analyze whether Rosa said the clinical appointment had taken place as she had imagined and also how she had imagined and how she imagined the next intervention to be. The interview will be analyzed with reference to the concepts related to the dynamics of directionality (Tateo, 2017), as well as the principles of the construction of memory proposed by Bartlett. The first point that we wish to highlight is that Rosa is being invited to remember a personal lived experience about an important activity in her life, which was key to her professional formation and development: her first psychological intervention; we will take as reference what she said to us about how she had imagined the

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moment would be. Another relevant point is that the session took place with an adolescent and not a child, as Rosa had hoped and as she had told the researcher when she was interviewed before completing the first intervention. Let us see the fragments of the interview in order to proceed: P: How did you conduct the session? Rosa: I got there: “Hi, how’s it going? I’m Rosa, a psychologist from Play. Pedro told me that he met you here.” Then he said: “Yes, it was Pedro who welcomed us here.” Then I said: “Then, I will be the psychologist that will be here with you. How are you? What did you bring with you?” Then he began to speak. He spoke a lot, a lot...There was one point when I thought: “Oh my God, should I speak or not?” I stopped myself and said something like this to myself “Should I say something or not say something?.” Then, there was one point when I had wanted to say something, but he started on another subject and I missed the chance to get back to what he had been talking about before. However, at last... I had some opportunities to interrupt him and I thought: “Oh my God, was it the right thing to have interrupted him or not?,” then, there was also... he said everything and then afterwards he began to repeat everything again, and then when he was repeating it, I was like “Oh My God....” And I didn’t note the time, I knew that his appointment was scheduled for 15:00, but he had already got there at 20 to 15:00, but I didn’t remember what time I had got there. I remember that I got there before 3 o’clock. When I looked, it was 15:25, and I was already thinking that finally... I had already asked Pedro [the supervisor]: “Pedro, how do we wrap up a session?,” and he had told me “Rosa, it’s like this, that is what you will find out yourself, but it is important that we understand why we are finishing at that point, so if you stop, then you need to be able to explain to me why you chose to finish there.” And I thought: “Ok.” Then, when I realised that nothing more was coming out, that he was just repeating himself, without much substance, it was as if he was just telling me, ok I have finished. But I don’t know if that was the right time to finish or not, ... But it was ok, … There were some points when he stopped speaking, and then I thought: “Oh my God, should I say something or do I wait for him to speak?,” that kind of thing, that’s it ...

Guided by the researcher’s questions, Rosa carries out her remembering with a wealth of details about the session she had. She talked about what she said to the client, how he behaved in the session, her doubts about when to stop the session, and a previous conversation already made about the procedures of the session (“Pedro, how do we finish a session?”). This remembering process appeared to be characterized in two different ways, highlighted in bold in Fragment 1. The first happens when Rosa describes the beginning of the appointment, as if, at this stage, the remembering involved a more general introduction. Rosa describes a sequence of actions that involved what she said to the client and how he responded. She does not talk about her feelings; she does not judge herself or the client, although we understand that, on principle, the narration is warm. We called this remembering descriptive, because we noticed that the focus is to present a scene where two strangers get to know each other. Then, the remembering changes completely. As she begins to describe the session itself, the moment when the patient starts to speak, the point when the psychological demand begins to appear and for which she was ready to deal with, the narrative is richer in details. She now presents her feelings, her fears. This point begins when Rosa says: “Then, he began to speak. He spoke a lot, a lot ...” and finishes with the sentence, “My God, should I say something or wait for him to speak?, that kind of thing, that’s it ....” In this act of remembering, Rosa does not

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only present a sequence of actions. Rosa’s narrative raises her doubts about whether she should have spoken or not, whether she should have interrupted the adolescent’s flow, whether she should have stopped the session and when. She judged him when she said that he spoke a lot and repeated himself. At the same time, she also reveals some uncertainty, by not knowing how to proceed exactly and what to do. She seems to look for a strategy to deal with the situation when she recalls what Pedro had said to her (“if you stop, you need to be able to explain to me why you chose to finish there”). Rosa’s remembering is a construction made possible only by considering what she lived at that moment that was key in the therapist-client relationship. It was the moment when she should make decisions, she should know what to do, and then she talks about the lived tensions about this. It is not a wholly precise recollection of the session. But an affective construction about what more concerned her at the time: knowing what to do while in front of a client who had suffered from violence and spoke a lot. We called this remembering auto-reflexive. For the two rememberings we devised, descriptive and auto-reflexive, we highlight what Bartlett says (1995): Remembering is not the re-excitation of innumerable fixed, lifeless and fragmentary traces. It is an imaginative reconstruction or construction, built out of the relation of our attitude towards a whole active mass of organized past reactions or experience [i.e., schemata], and to a little outstanding detail which commonly appears in image or in language form. (p. 213)

This active mass of reactions and experiences, of which Bartlett speaks, in the uncertainty of how to act for almost every different situation with the teenager, is reconstructed by Rosa for the researcher. On that occasion she was invited to remember in a specific situation where she was interviewed by a psychologist. She was invited to tell a researcher and psychologist a story about a very important professional situation: a practice in clinical psychology with her first patient. She felt that moment again and decided what to tell and why. She evaluated the adolescent (“he spoke a lot, a lot”), his behavior, and what was a big problem for her at the session: finishing. Therefore, Rosa attends the demand of a researcher (in the context of the research), and reconstructs that moment, when she narrates to the researcher. It doesn’t mean that she couldn’t reconstruct this experience before, to friends and family, for example. Maybe she was. But as researchers, we know Rosa’s experience of remembering when she responds to our demand of expressing her feelings of this first attendance experience. And Bartlett himself admits this as an imaginative construction. And how can we make this interpretation with the resources that we have on the dynamics of directionality and resistance, conceptual tools to understand the act of imagining? Let us begin by drawing attention to the fact that, when imagining her past, constructively remembering the lived experience, Rosa “sees” and she is “seeingthe-­adolescent-as” when she attributes qualities to him: somebody who talks a lot and repeats himself. Rosa turns it Gegenstand, whose resistance carried by her in relation to the psychotherapy event seems to us to be of the blocking type: with respect to the teenager’s behavior of speaking, Rosa does not seem to know when she should speak and when she should listen, and her listening appears like an

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authoritative action. Even when she wants to speak, she remains in silence. The sign path seems to be blocked for what she would like to do at different times of the session. By remembering, Rosa lives what Marsico (2016) calls a border: by going into the room to treat her client on her own, in a psychotherapeutic session, she crosses the border between the student universe (classrooms, university, lecturers, et cetera), to present herself as a professional. Rosa described herself as calm, at the end of the narrative, and seemed to “see” herself and to “see-herself-as” undecided, not knowing what to do in the situation (whether to speak, to listen, or to interrupt the session), but still she proceeds and does what needs to be done, as in when she needs to conclude the session and doesn’t know if it had run for long enough. However, she remembers her supervisor’s advice which serves as an element doing what needs to be done. In the imagination process, we understand her relation with the patient (Gegenstand) as a resistance of the circumvention type (when the client speaks more than she expected in the session), since she dodges her own insecurities to follow the intervention and maintain her psychotherapist position at the same time as being a trainee. Besides this, Rosa constructs an ambiguous path, where the definition of what a psychologist should do in psychotherapeutic intervention moves between listen and don’t listen, interrupt and don’t interrupt. A and non-A emerge constantly throughout her interview, constituting the construction of meaning about the remembered past experience. What is more, by remembering the session, we understand that she creates a lived experience. Rosa tells us what she imagines had happened, in the light of professional uncertainty about what should have been done, and thus, she transforms an experience that took place at the level of human relationships into a symbolic event. This is what Tateo (2015) means about transforming the real reality into the abstract and the abstract into the real. While she remembers, Rosa presents a trajectory of meaning in which the teenager client is “seen” and “seen as” somebody who speaks a lot, and then his unexpected behaviour generates for Rosa what we identify as blocking resistance: she did not know whether she should interrupt or not. She continued to listen then, while he, as she tells us, talked a lot, repeated himself, and began to repeat everything all over again. The lived experiences in the trainee made up to that point, the group of studies of Playtime and her learning at the University may suggest to her that, in a psychotherapeutic intervention, it would be beneficial for her to listen, yes, but it would also be fitting for her to speak. So, Rosa is happy to listen and to speak/interrupt the possible actions at that point, and it is from these that she prepares for the next intervention, as we will see below. P: How do you think the next session will go? Rosa: I don’t know. I think he will talk about his week, because it’s like this, he brought what took him here, but I think he will bring more about how his week was, about the family, I think it will be a proper conversation, and he will talk. Because he is a 15-year-old teenager, it is already a big thing. But I think he’ll come and he will turn up less inhibited, without such a rehearsed speech, you know? [...] T: What do you think could happen in the next session? R: (laughs) I don’t know. I think that I will listen, I might say something. But I don’t really know yet, but I would like to speak more.

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Here we have the researcher asking a question that helps the participant to move into the future, imagining how the next session could unfold. We notice here that the form like she signifies (sees and seen-as) the client to be assisted with has a narrow relationship with what she experienced in the session undertaken. For her, he will continue to speak as he was previously, but now with less inhibition. She anticipates more significant matters to be treated (the week, the family), like a more detailed imaginative construction and which keeps what she believes to be the subject of a 15-year-old youth’s topics (it is “already a big thing”). Rosa thinks he will speak, but in a different way as more uninhibited, and so that she would listen more than at the last session. To listen and to speak are the possible action vectors. A vector has a specific feature: “but I want to speak more,” Rosa tells us. The vector that she anticipates was redefined according to what she lived in the past. What she remembered emerges directly in the vector. Rosa does not simply want to speak. She wants to speak more, in other words, to interrupt the client’s speech more frequently and maybe to change her professional profile. If before she was positioned as who needed to dodge the youth’s speech (circumvention), now maybe she hopes to increase (amplification) her action listening and speaking during the psychotherapeutic intervention.

3.4  Final Comments This study represented our first attempt to apply concepts related to remembering and imagination in a particular educational context. We believe that the recordings given here allow reflections on the articulation between these processes. We understand that we have managed to show remembering as an important process in the action of imagining, and at the same time, we have identified a constructive remembering (descriptive and auto-reflexive). Rosa began her experience with psychotherapeutic intervention with a surprise. “I thought that in the beginning I would first treat a child and that we would have a lot of playing about,” she said before the first session. She was then surprised with the teenage boy. For this session perhaps she did not have clear schemata, still in a state of formation in her academic career and a professional novice. In the remembering process, we saw that the chosen themes brought to the narrative dealt with the most central elements, key to her own story, as “knowing to do,” acting as a professional in an initial consultation situation to somebody who has an experience of suffering. For Rosa, it was not a recovery of what happened exactly, but the meaning of a lived experience in her professional journey, with the emphasis on objects of meaning (here we highlight the client and herself, as the psychotherapist), what she saw, what she assigned meaning to, the lived experience, the resistances that she anticipated, and the actions that she planned. Likewise, we analyze the projection she made of the future (“I will speak more”), explicitly self-regulated by the previous experience (“he speaks a lot”). She predicts her client’s counteractions: to speak, to talk more about new subjects, to be less inhibited, and to keep the action vectors open.

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Like the example of K, Rosa transforms herself and progressively assumes a new identity, also of a professional nature. She passes through the “border” (Marsico, 2016) that separates her from the semiotic field related to the student world and enters into the professional field of a psychologist who works in clinical psychology in the promotion of health in the municipality of Recife. Differently from him, she knows exactly what she has experienced. And based on these remembered experiences, she imaginatively creates her future and owns the actions that she will take.

References Agnati, L. F., Guidolin, D., Battistin, L., Pagnoni, G., & Fuxe, K. (2013). The neurobiology of imagination: Possible role of interaction-dominant dynamics and default mode network. Plumed. US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, 24(4), 296. Awad, S. H., Wagoner, B., & Glaveanu, V. (2017). The street art of resistance. In N. Caudhary, P. Hviid, G. Marsico, & J. W. Villadsen (Eds.), Resistance in everyday life: Constructing cultural experiences (pp. 161–180). Singapore, Singapore: Springer. Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination (ed.) by M.  Holquist, trans. by C.  Emerson and M. Holquist. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Bartlett, F. C. (1995). Remembering; a study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cornejo, C. (2017). From fantasy to imagination: A cultural history and a moral for psychology. In B. Wagoner, I. B. de Luna, & S. H. Awad (Eds.), The psychology of imagination: History, theory and new research horizons. Charlotte, NC: IAP. Ebbinghaus, H. (1964). Memória: Uma contribuição para a psicologia experimental (Trans. H. A. Ruger, C. E. Bussenius). Nova York: Dover. (Trabalho original publicado em 1885). Edwards, D., & Middleton, D. (1988). Conversational remembering and family relationships: How children learn to remember. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 5, 3–25. Feitosa de Melo, T. (2018). Processos imaginativos de estagiária sobre a experiência de intervenção em Psicologia Clínica. Dissertação de Mestrado Não-Publicada. Programa de Pós-­ Graduação em Psicologia Cognitiva, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Girardello, G. (2011). Imaginação: arte e ciência na infância. Pro-Posições, 22(2), 72–92. Marsico, G. (2016). The borderland. Culture & Psychology, 22(2), 206–215. Montezi, A. V., & Souza, V. L. T. D. (2013). Era uma vez um sexto ano: estudando imaginação adolescente no contexto escolar. Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, 17(1), 77–85. Mota, M. (2000). Uma introdução ao estudo cognitivo da memória a curto prazo: da teoria dos múltiplos armazenadores a memória de trabalho. Revista Estudos de Psicologia, 17(3), 15–21. Moutinho, K., & Carvalho, J. F. (2020). Cuidados Paliativos: significações construídas por paciente com doença incurável. In Livro de Atas do 13o Congresso Nacional de Psicologia da Saúde (pp. 183–191). Covilhã, Portugal. Moutinho, K., de Melo Breckenfeld, T. F., & Laurendon, C. E. M. (2020). A “box of surprises”: imagination and the challenge of practicing psychology. In T. Tateo, A. C. Bastos, & T. Valério (Eds.), From dream to action: Imagination and (im)possible futures. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Ricoeur, P. (2016). Imagination in discourse and in action. In Rethinking imagination (pp. 118– 135). London, UK: Routledge. Sartre, J.-P. (2008). A imaginação. Porto Alegre, RS: L&PM. Sepper, D. L. (2013). Understanding imagination: The reason of images. New York, NY: Springer.

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Silva, J. R. R. T. (2018). Memória e aprendizagem: construção de significados sobre substância química. Ph.D. Dissertation. Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil. Suneja, S., & Sharma, B. (2017). Children finding their ways through life spaces: Glimpses from the Indian ecology. In N.  Caudhary, P.  Hviid, G.  Marsico, & J.  W. Villadsen (Eds.), Resistance in everyday life: Constructing cultural experiences (pp.  65–77). Singapore, Singapore: Springer. Tateo, L. (2015). Just an illusion? Imagination as higher mental function. Journal of Psychology and Psychotherapy., 5, 216. Tateo, L. (2016). What imagination can teach us about higher mental functions. In J.  Valsiner, G. Marsico, N. Chaudhary, T. Sato, & V. Dazzani (Eds.), Psychology as the science of human being (pp. 149–164). New York, NY: Springer. Tateo, L. (2017). Seeing imagination as resistance and resistance as imagination. In N. Caudhary, P. Hviid, G. Marsico, & J. W. Villadsen (Eds.), Resistance in everyday life: Constructing cultural experiences (pp. 233–246). Singapore, Singapore: Springer. Valsiner, J. (2007). Culture in minds and societies: Foundations of cultural psychology. London, UK: Sage Publications. Valsiner, J. (2014). An invitation to cultural psychology. London, UK: Sage. Vygotsky, L.  S. (2004). Imagination and creativity in childhood. Journal of Russian and East European Psychology, 42(1), 7–97. Wagoner, B. (2011). Meaning construction in remembering: A synthesis of Bartlett and Vygotsky. In P. Stenner, J. Cromby, J. Motzkau, & J. Yen (Eds.), Theoretical psychology: Global transformations and challenges (pp. 105–114). Toronto, ON: Captus Press. Wagoner, B. (2013). Bartlett’s concept of schema in reconstruction. Theory & Psychology, 23(5), 553–575. Zittoun, T., & Cerchia, F. (2013). Imagination as expansion of experience. IPBS: Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science, 47, 305–324. Zittoun, T., & Gillespie, A. (2016). Imagination in human and cultural development. London, UK: Routledge. Zittoun, T., Valsiner, J., Vedeler, D., Salgado, J., Gonçalves, M., & Ferring, D. (2011). Melodies of living: Developmental science of human life course. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapter 4

The Microgenetic Analysis of Remembering and Imagining in the Process of Learning Scientific Concepts João R. R. Tenório da Silva, Maria C.D.P. Lyra, and Brady Wagoner

Contents 4.1  Introduction 4.2  Learning as Meaning-Making 4.3  Memory and Remembering 4.4  Imagination and Its Relation to Memory and Learning 4.5  Method and Data Analysis 4.6  Data Analysis and Discussion 4.7  Conclusions References

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4.1  Introduction Memory, imagination and learning are processes that work together involved in many human activities. Every time we make meaning about the world or towards ourselves, we are using memory and imagination. Imagination allows us to transit between the past and the future (Wagoner, 2013), between diverse places, and between “real” and unreal possibilities (Zittoun & de Saint-Laurent, 2015). Thus, we (re)construct and give new meanings to our past experiences and project possible future situations. In this context, we do not consider memory as storage, but as a continuous process of meaning-making (Wagoner, 2011). According to Bartlett (1932), when we remember some event, situation, object, etc., our memories are continuously modified. Normally, they can be transformed, receiving external

J. R. R. T. Silva (*) · M. C.D.P. Lyra Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Brazil B. Wagoner Aalborg University (AAU), Aalborg, Denmark e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7_4

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influences and new elements from different social and cultural inputs managed by the person remembering (Wagoner & Gillespie, 2013). Wagoner (2013) argues that new senses emerge when people remember their past experiences. Zittoun et al. (2011) understand learning also as an instance of meaning-making, in which signs presented in the cultural environment mediate the construction of new meanings about the world. Silva and Lyra (2017) explain how remembering uses signs available in the sociocultural milieu present in the individual life trajectory (previous knowledge) which can contribute to understand the process of learning scientific concepts, focusing on the dynamics of remembering of past experiences. But, it is compelling to reflect on the role of imagination as well (Tateo, 2017; Zittoun, 2016; Zittoun & Cerchia, 2013) in order to grasp the learning process of scientific concepts. This chapter explores the movement of remembering and imagining by microgenetically analyzing the process of learning scientific concepts, investigating the learning process of the concept of substance in chemical science. In particular, this chapter focuses on the nature of the mental images (Bartlett, 1921) in the analysis to explore the abstractive direction of this movement on a loop of imagination. In this sense, imagination is discussed as a high mental function (Tateo, 2017) and a sociocultural psychological phenomenon (Zittoun & Gillespie, 2015), understood as the human capacity to distance oneself from their here-and-­ now situation in order to return to it with new possibilities (Vygotsky, 1967). Zittoun (2016) explains this capacity through the looping of imagination, in which human beings can create new meanings from past experiences abstracting concrete materials. In this process, the mind experiences a “loop” where it disengages temporarily from the perceptual field and engages in a dynamic semiotic process that is not bound to the same linear or causal temporality as that of the socially shared reality (Zittoun & Gillespie, 2015). Imagination can therefore be oriented towards the past, the future, or an alternative present, and an imagined action in those spheres does not imply a causal consequence in them. In other words, this chapter explores how reconstructive remembering and mental images progressively develop towards abstraction and a greater generalization through imagination.

4.2  Learning as Meaning-Making In literature, we find several theoretical approaches that explain how students can learn scientific concepts. These approaches were proposed based on learning theories, such as Piagetian constructivism (Piaget, 1974) and sociocultural approaches (Vygotsky, 1967). In these perspectives, the environment emerges as an essential element in human development. The difference among them is the way in which the subject will interact with his/her context. While for Piaget the concepts of assimilation and accommodation become central to understanding the acquisition of new skills and concepts, with an emphasis on the physical environment, in Vygotsky we find in sociogenesis the key to understanding how the subject, in its development,

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internalizes skills and meanings that are culturally shared (Valsiner & Van Der Veer, 1988). According to the concept of internalization, elaborated by Vygotsky (1962), the cultural development of the subject happens in two stages: first on a social (interpsychological) level and then on an individual (intrapsychological) level. Thus, the author proposes that higher mental functions emerge from social exchanges and are progressively internalized. This process is mediated by signs, principally words in language, which first are used to coordinate social relations (Valsiner & Van Der Veer, 1988; Van Der Veer & Valsiner, 1988). At all times, the subject internalizes elements of his daily life, from his relation with the environment. However, the way culturally shared meanings are internalized will not be the same for all people. The way in which the subject interacts with the environment will determine how the meanings will be internalized (Vygotsky, 1934). Elaborating on Vygotsky’s notion of internalization, Valsiner (2012) affirms that internalization is the process of analyzing the external experience of semiotic materials and its synthesis into a new form in the intrapsychological domain—that is, it concerns how subjects construct meanings about their experiences in the world. In addition, he highlights the role of externalization, which is characterized as a process of analyzing these experiences, on a subjective level (personal-cultural materials), and their transposition to the external world, as from person’s “inside” reflections to “outside” actions. In this transposition, the person communicates his/ her new synthesis and can thus modify the external environment. In view of the discussion presented so far, we consider that an analysis of the process by which the subject externalizes his previous knowledge (past experiences), during a learning situation (in the classroom), can trigger the construction of new meanings in the process of learning a scientific concept. Outsourcing comes from the process of recollection, which according to Bartlett (1932), Valsiner (2012), and Wagoner (2017) promotes the construction of new meanings, since new elements are added or created to what is being recalled. Thus, the internalization of scientific concepts in classroom does not take place purely from a transmission of meanings already established within a scientific community, but from a dialectical play, establishing tensions and oppositions, between what is stable within the scientific context and the previous knowledge (past experiences) that students will recall to understand the concept. It is precisely the study of this process that we highlight in the present work, in which we aim to investigate how the process of learning scientific concepts takes place, from the exploration of the microgenetic changes towards abstraction. With such task, remembering and imagining are interdependent processes—that is, how the subject recovers and re-signifies the material previously internalized, when outsourcing it to the demands present in learning situations facing problem-solving tasks. Through this process the stability goes through successive moments following the abstractive movement towards the understanding of the scientific concept under study. In this study, we consider the learning process as a semiotic process of meaning-­ making. When we look at Vygotsky’s (1934, 1962) ideas about learning, we identify the emergence of concepts that are determinant in the explanation of the learning

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process, focused on the subject’s relationship with his social and cultural milieu. In addition to the concept of internalization, presented earlier, the notion of mediation of signs appears in Vygotsky’s theory as central. For Vygotsky (1962), the notion of learning is constructed from the consideration that the world is internalized in the interaction of the subject with the sociocultural world through social others. This interaction is mediated by signs, exactly the socially originated psychological instruments. During this process, the subject internalizes the products of his culture, with the meanings of the objects assumed in social relations. By externalizing, the subject can assign new meaning (re-meaning) in a personal way (Valsiner, 2009, 2012). According to Valsiner (1998), human existence is organized by semiotic meanings—signs of different types—socially constructed and personally internalized. Signs are representations of some aspect of the phenomenon experienced and are constructed by someone to meet communication needs—with other people and with themselves. This constructive act is always personal, requiring an active human being in relation to their culture (personal culture) and collective culture through the processes of internalization and externalization (Valsiner, 2012). Valsiner (2009) states that past experiences regulate the student’s new learning horizon. In the process of learning, action in the present (use of instructional materials, teacher explanation in class, discussion with colleagues, etc.) will open up possibilities for future learning pathways that will appear as zones of proximal development for the subject (Valsiner & Van Der Veer, 2014; Vygotsky, 1962). We understand that learning is based on the previous experience of the subject, which will play a fundamental role in the zone of proximal development, opening new learning potentials from the re-signification of these experiences. These potentialities are possible through the reuse of past experiences (prior knowledge), since they guide the subject into the future when he interacts with the environment (either with other subjects or with instructional materials). The projection of the future, within the horizon of learning potential, is due to imagination (Zittoun et al., 2011). It is important to emphasize that at the moment of learning, several important cognitive and affective processes are all involved; besides memory and imagination, attention, perception, and reasoning are also involved. Nevertheless, in this text we highlight the role of memory, described in terms of remembering, and imagination working as a loop in the direction of abstraction and generalization.

4.3  Memory and Remembering Plato regarded memory as a place of storage and inscription, similar to a wax tablet used for writing in the ancient world. This analogy has been persistent ever since in theorizing and psychological studies of memory (Danziger, 2008; Wagoner, Brescó, & Awad, 2019). In this sense, many works analyze the relation between memory and learning as the capacity to store factual bits of information—for example, exploring how many time students need to be exposed to content for it to be learned

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(Brandeis, Brandys, & Yehuda, 1989; Kintsch & Bates, 1977). This kind of research cannot explain the process of learning, only its outcome. In other words, it does not respond to the question of how learning takes place nor the role of the recollection of previous knowledge in the reconstruction of new meanings. The works in the literature that use the memory metaphor of storage or inscription are models that we consider limited to understand the dynamics of learning scientific concepts. These models stress memory as reproduction (in which the subject must memorize and reproduce information), and, in general, its use is considered harmful for the learning process. Some studies such as Loftus and Palmer (1974) and Loftus (1997, 2002) point to a different way to view memory. In these works, memory is not considered as a warehouse, in which information are introduced, kept, and reproduced, but is instead understood as a process, malleable and subject to change. In her experiments, Loftus (2002) notes that memories can be changed by influence of misinformation, imagination, and social suggestions. While we agree with Loftus’ focus on memories changeability, we argue that her notion of suggestibility as only a distorting influence is limited and does not take account of the social and cultural context. Many other recent studies (e.g. see Wagoner, 2017; Wagoner & Gillespie, 2013; Zittoun et al., 2011) pointed out how cultural resources can shape the process of remembering towards both accuracy and inaccuracy—in other words, social and cultural inputs are involved in both outcomes. These studies are built on the idea advanced by Bartlett (1932), Halbwachs (1992), and Vygotsky (1967) that memory as a higher psychological function develops out of and relies on social frameworks. Bartlett (1932) developed four methods to investigate memory: serial reproduction method, repeated reproduction method, picture writing, and the method of description. Conducting experiments regarding the process of remembering, he observed some mnemonic’s features that did not fit with classic ideas about memory as storage. Bartlett argued that remembering should be seen as a constructive rather than reproductive process, which is conditioned by social and cultural factors. In recall, people fill gaps in memory with familiar elements and change unfamiliar terms to familiar words. Some details are omitted during recall, and the object becomes more general. Bartlett (1921) also studied the influence of mental images, especially with the method of description and picture writing. In the method of description, subjects had to remember several faces of military men, having been exposed to the pictures of them for 10 seconds. These kinds of faces were chosen because the experiments were conducted during the early days of WWI, when interest in members of the Services was more widespread and intense. After an interval of 30 minutes from the presentation of the figures, subjects were asked to describe them. A second description was done after a week. The cards were not exposed for observation more than once. Bartlett noticed widespread blending of details between the figures and the influence of an “affective attitude,” such that, for example, a face seen as stern was given a sharper chin in reconstruction. In the method of picture writing, participants had to reproduce picture signs with certain words associated. Subjects had free time to do the associations between

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signs and word. After 15 minutes, pieces of dictation were given (with word presented before), and the subjects had to write the signs associated to each word. Other exercise of association was made after a fortnight with one piece of dictation and another again after the lapse of another fortnight. According to Bartlett (1921), this method was adopted because the definite demand for a specific description was often taken to mean that a subject was being directly required to attempt to evoke a visual image. Again, there was widespread blending of details in reconstructions which were also clearly shaped by conventional links between word and image. There is a clear influence of sensory images and affective factors in these recall tasks. In the method of description, Bartlett argues that the post-card representations of soldiers and sailors aroused in nearly all subjects considerable interest, due the sociocultural context and the actual events in the Great War. So, their perception was accompanied by no small amount of affective tone. Feelings and attitudes, such as acceptance, satisfaction, dislike, disapproval, and so on, commonly assumed an important role in the process of recall. In the method of picture writing, a participant strongly maintained all reproduction and association sign-word. According to her, she was “effected were now carried out by the help of peculiar “feeling”, which she could not properly analyses but which appeared to be a compound of affective and motor constituents” (Bartlett, 1921, p. 324). In sum, Bartlett claims that suggestion is very clear on the results under the influence of sensory image. According to him, the sensory image works as a kind of mediator of remembering. People who relied more on sensory imagery tended to set up an attitude of confidence in the accuracy of the reproductions. The mediation of memory by images is very similar to the idea of semiotic process of memory discussed by Luria (1987), in which the mnemonist “S” used mental and sensory images and synesthesia to recall memories, as well as Vygotsky (1967), who studied how children used images as signs to mediate the recall. To better understand the role of these kinds of images in remembering, it is important to discuss how imagination influences the process. In fact, according to the ideas of Bartlett (1921, 1932), remembering is a “creative” process in which new elements (created or transformed from the sociocultural process) are added during the recall in order to create new meanings about the object or event remembered—actually new histories are created in the process (Valsiner, 2014). In this sense, in the next topic we will present a discussion about imagination and how it is related to memory and learning.

4.4  Imagination and Its Relation to Memory and Learning Imagination has also been studied since ancient Greeks such as Plato and Aristotle. Imagination in the field of cognitive psychology has been treated as a category of mental activity or mental faculty in which its definition and interpretation have greatly varied from age to age and from author to author (Cocking, 2005).

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It is a fact that we use imagination every moment of our lives. At many sets (university, school, work, and so on), we are encouraged to use our imagination to create new ideas and solve problems. In this sense, according to Tateo (2017), imagination is one of those words which has been heavily invested with commonsense meanings before entering psychological jargon. He highlights imagination as a higher mental function that enables us to manipulate complex meanings of both linguistic and iconic forms in the process of experiencing. This requires addressing the role of imagination in the production of knowledge and in the construction of concepts, abstractions, and generalizations. In this sense, Tateo (2017) claims that imagination is not only about creation of mental images, but creation of figurae or phantasm, that is, meaningful images that can be iconic, linguistic, acoustic, etc. Figurae is defined as any form in which thought is expressed. At the same time, figurae has a second meaning, which is the configuration of elements in discourse, which we know as rhetorical figures. From this idea, we can deduce that the thought is related to configurations of signs, in which each linguistic sound has an iconic function and all the images have a linguistic aspect (Tateo, 2017). In this same sense, imagination, according to Sepper (2013), is a form of elaboration of experiences that is not limited to emotional or perceptual processes, but is related to mental manipulation of complex signs with both linguistic and iconic contents (Sepper, 2013, p. 79). Understanding imagination as a higher mental function allows us also to perceive how people project the future based on past experiences (previous knowledge to solve problems in learning situations). Zittoun et al. (2011) argue that imagination as semiotic function may play an important role in human development. Instead of the strict classical logic that deals with either/or designation of TRUE and FALSE (either true or false, both cannot co-exist), our capacity for imagination creates a third class of objects in between (“FALSE—yet IMAGINATIVELY TRUE”). The crucial feature of the human mind is the capacity to imagine oneself in other times— in one’s childhood or in the future (or even in “afterlife”)—and other places besides in “real” or unreal scenario, yet all these imaginary scenarios are created in the present. Through such imaginary scenarios, we move forward to ever-new experiences in our unique personal life courses. Imagination is like playing among possibilities of futures (AS-IF) in opposition with the present (AS-IS). According to Zittoun et  al. (2011), imagination about the future (AS-COULD-BE) becomes socially guided in the present through the AS-SHOULD-BE AS MUST NOT BE opposition. Zittoun and Gillespie (2016) present the idea of the loop of imagination. According to them, imagination has the function of creating experiences and escaping the immediate here-and-now setting. Though this imaginative capacity enables us to explore the past and future, showing possibilities or even impossibilities. In this sense, imagination is a process in the sense that it only exists in the making, that it is a looping dynamic (Zittoun & Gillespie, 2016). When somebody imagines such an event, the subject escapes from reality in the direction of implausibility, creating an alternative present. But this getaway can be in the direction of generalization too, that is, creating meaningful signs to solve some problem or represent something at present time transcending the single

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context. In the same way, we scape the past as reproduction only to reconstruct it and, by this way, solving some problem in the present moment, building new meaning during the recall. Silva and Lyra (2017) propose a model to explain the learning process (as meaning-­ making) of scientific concepts based on the notion of reconstructive remembering proposed by Bartlett (1932; see also Wagoner, 2017). According to them, when the subject is in front of a problem in a learning situation, he/she remembers their previous knowledge adding/creating new elements. In this movement, new meanings are built in relation to the scientific concept, occurring in the internalization/externalization process described by Valsiner (2014). We can express what they discuss according to Fig. 4.1. We can consider that Fig. 4.1 is related to a horizontal axis in Fig. 4.2, that is, we can see the loop of imagination in the past direction, re-signifying past experiences (previous knowledge). But to consider the influence of imagination particularly the abstractive aspects of mental images, it is necessary to analyze the vertical axis of Fig. 4.2 in the direction of abstraction and generalization in their relation with the reconstruction of past experiences—regions A and B. It is important to highlight that regions A and B in Fig. 4.2 are not isolated. Our mental images are created based on our past experience. Moreover, we can remember something through creation of mental images. Luria (1987) illustrated the capacity to remember things with mental images of the mnemonist “S,” and this is an important point discussed by Zittoun (2016) based on the studies of Vygotsky about memory and the importance of the past experiences to the imagination. According to her, a poet can create a poem about mermaid; for example, he must have had some previous experiences with images of mermaid, movies, tales of mermaids, and so on. But, it is important to highlight that, in this example, the poet will not merely reproduce an image from previous experience but transforms it in doing

Fig. 4.1  Remembering of previous knowledge useful for a problem resolution in a learning situation

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Fig. 4.2  Possibilities of the loop of imagination: remembering of previous knowledge and creation of mental images in a learning process

so. Similarly, Vygotsky (1967) claims that human beings have the capacity to do more than reproducing the impressions once experienced. According to him, all human activity of this type results not in the reproduction of previously experienced impressions or actions but in the creation of new images or actions, in a creative or combinatorial behavior. To illustrate these ideas, we present a case study using an adaptation of the method of description (Bartlett, 1932) in which two participants construct new meanings about the concept of substance (in chemistry) in reaching a resolution regarding a theoretical question.

4.5  Method and Data Analysis The experiment presented in this text is an adaptation of the previously described method of description proposed by Bartlett (1932). Two college students (13 years old), who never had studied chemistry before at school, participated in the experiment analyzed here. In this study, they are named “Y” and “W.” The procedure involved the following steps: Step 1: Participants answered a questionnaire with questions aiming to identify previous knowledge about chemical substance. Step 2: Participants experienced three ways of describing chemical substance: ( A) Read twice the text of a textbook on the concept of chemical substance (B) Read twice a Wikipedia article that addresses the concept of chemical substance

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(C) Watched a video lesson, lasting 10 minutes, about chemical substance. Step 3: They were submitted to distracting tasks during 30 minutes (to solve mathematics problems and to play a trivial computer game), as suggested by Bartlett (1932) and Wagoner and Gillespie (2013). Step 4: After 30 minutes, the participants answered in pairs three questions about the concept of chemical substance. Before answering the questions, the following instruction was given: “Answer the following questions based only on the information contained in objects A, B, and C (textbook, Wikipedia article, and video lesson).” This step was recorded in audio and video for later analysis. A microgenetic analysis (Wagoner, 2009) of the problem-solving process was carried out based on the recorded dialogues of the participants both in audio and video, aiming to identify: • Transformation and transference of the previous knowledge to solve the problems (Bartlett, 1932) creating new meanings about the concept of substance • Loop of imagination related to transformation, transference, and creation of mental images (relations between regions A and B in Fig.  4.2) observing the movement of abstraction between generalization and implausibility axis • Creation of mental images focusing on abstraction as part of a semiotic function, aiming to build new meanings in the process of problem-solving

4.6  Data Analysis and Discussion The analysis focuses on the three answers to the questions and the dialogue between the pairs, distinguishing the characteristics of remembering and the nature of imagined possibilities, mainly analyzing the mental images created during the process towards achieving an answer to the questions posed to them. Question 1: What is a chemical substance? Give three examples of substances, and justify your answers. The first attempt of the participants was to try to recall in which of the three sources they could find the answer. During the dialogue, it is possible to observe some embodiment of mental images in order to specially locate the support for their answer. We can recognize the use of what Bartlett (1921) and Wagoner and Gillespie (2013) called imagery. In Table 4.1 we show the moment that imagery emerges in the speech of student Y. Table 4.1  Mediator imagery: embodiment of mental image by Y Y Chemical substance… I guess that it is on Wikipedia. Chemical substance was in the first thing (object A) doing a movement with the right hand raised from left to right side as if he was following the lines of a text located at the top of it in the first… part of the Wikipedia that exposes about chemical substance

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Fig. 4.3  Remembering of the source of relevant information to solve the problem Table 4.2  Embodiment of mental image by W W What do you remember? If I’m right … chemical substance is … the one with … an atoms in the same … stuff … the measure and … other … the measure (doing circulars movements with the fingers having the hand raised), something like that Y Wait … first … remember … remember of …

Imagery was used by Y to recover the location where the information was in the Wikipedia. It seems to have a spatial role that helps Y to remember the location where the information was in the article. The spatial mental image of the text seems to be in the region B of the loop of dynamics of remembering and imagination, in which Y recall on the past relevant information to solve the problem (Fig. 4.3). The embodiment of mental images seems to play a role in it as an attempt to answer the question. In Table  4.2, we see one more time this embodiment being used, now by W, to remember a definition about chemical substance, but in this case, it seems to not only refer to the spatial location of the text the information is in but also to their own inferred definition of substance through fingers moving in circular movements as they show the atoms. In the dialogue, W wanted to remember the definition of chemical substance. The circular movements with his fingers can represent the atomic model drawing by the teacher on the video-class source. The information that W wanted to remember is that chemical substances have the same type of elements. When W used the word “measure” instead of “element,” he is involved in transforming the material (Bartlett, 1932). It is a re-signification of the information presented on the video, combining it with past experiences. Beyond that, the images presented on the video-class seem important to help the remembering process. The transformation in remembering

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Fig. 4.4  Transformation and imagery on loop of imagination

identified by the changing of “element” for “measure” indicates a movement away from a scientific view. On the other hand, the imagery used by W is a form of using mental image as an attempt at abstraction and generalization. Figure 4.4 shows how the transformation and the use of imagery are oriented on the loop of imagination. In this sense, the transformation described by Bartlett (1932) appears to be a loop of imagination using remembering to change elements, passing by regions B and A on Fig. 4.5, but on the implausibility axis. A transformation could be considered a failed attempt at abstraction when people remember past experience against a demand in the present. An imaginative process that creates something new is required, but in this case, participant W moves away from a scientific view. The imagery appears already as a mechanism towards abstraction, and it was useful to W for trying to answer the question. The written conclusion by the participants to the question was “Substance is an element that occupies a place in space.” This is a wrong answer seen from the concept of substance in science. However, it shows an interesting feature of the meaning-­making process under the dynamics of remembering and imagination. The correct answer according to scientific view and the sources available for them is that substance is a system with the same kind of molecules, presenting constant properties. It is possible to arrive at the adequate answer through the appropriate information present in the Wikipedia article and the video-class. But the answer given by the participants is not in any source provided before. It was a novel creation based on possible previous knowledge of the students. The response “Substance is an element that occupies a place on the space” is very close to a very popular definition of matter concept in physics, commonly introduced in the elementary school: “matter is anything that has mass and occupies place in space.” They added in this

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Fig. 4.5 Representations used in the video by the teacher: (1) mixture; (2) pure compound substance; (3) simple pure substance; (4) mixture

definition the word “element,” picked up from the sources provided before (Wikipedia article, chapter of the text book, and video-class). This represents an important feature of the meaning-making process, when previously remembered knowledge is re-signified under the influence of the creative process of imagination. This is a dynamic process in which remembering and imagination interact—regions A and B shown in Fig. 4.2. Analyzed under the optics of abstraction and generalization—Fig. 4.6—this loop develops through an attempt to achieve the degree of abstraction required by the scientific concept of substance, but, as the answer is wrong in a scientific point of view, the movement on the looping goes in direction of implausibility normatively assessed. In this case, the implausibility is caused by the confusion between the concepts of matter and substance. The subjects transfer an attribute of matter (occupy place on space) to substance. In some sense, it shows a kind of tentative play with both remembering and imaginative processes, using some free features of past experience and constructing new ideas still not submitted to a smooth-precise adaptation of both processes towards the generalized scientific concept of substance. Question 2: What is the difference among substance, element, and mixture? In the second question, the pair answered that “mixture is the junction of two substances and substance is the junction of 2 (elements) atoms (elements).” The word scratched in the answer was presented by the pair that, in the end, decided to use the term “atoms” to refer to the elements. The pair came up with a simple but scientifically sound answer. A mixture, in fact, can be defined as two or more substances together in the same system. In addition, the substances are formed by chemical elements.

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Fig. 4.6  Attempt to generalization in direction to implausibility: transference and confusion between substance and matter

One aspect that stands out in the answer is the semiotic mediation provided by the images presented in the video lesson. The idea that mixtures are various substances and that substances are formed by elements was raised by the pair based, above all, on the teaching model that the teacher on the video used, which related to a representation of substances and mixtures (Fig. 4.5). Throughout the dialogue to solve the question, we note the importance of these images as semiotic resources. In this case, the images used by the teacher acted as significant supports, constitutive of the process of recall and imagination investigated here. The construction of the response based on the use of images, as we observed in the dialogue below (Table 4.3), composes the dynamics of remembering and imagination that lead to the search of the answer to the question in focus. As occurred in the answer to the previous question, there is an incidence of embodiment of mental images, evidenced in the movement of the hands to represent the images to be recalled. It is important to note that the answer to this question suggests that the visual representations present in the video-class contributed to the creation of mental images that led to the creation of a new synthesis that corresponds to the conceptually correct answer. This synthesis is observed when the participants were able to abstract the difference between mixtures and substances from the representation shown in Fig. 4.5. In Fig. 4.7 we show how in the looping of the imagination the process of constructing the response was in to the abstraction and resulting generalization, extracting from a concrete object (the visual representation) the difference between the two concepts. It is also important to note how the incorporation of mental images—expressed mainly by the hands and fingers, a feature widely used by the pair—can be observed

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Table 4.3  Imaginative process—abstraction of the difference between substance and mixture of substances from the image 6

W There was … there was a picture … with some … some balls like that, remember? The first ball had two balls (makes movements as if drawing the balls on the table) and a third one (hits the finger that was drawing on the table). Then he said that the third … it … it … how can I say it? The third is different from the first (making hand movements) because it had a lot of thing (inaudible) and it was substance … it was a substance 7 Y Mixture 8 W Mixture 9 Y It’s not … it’s because there is … there is … it was in a cube (makes shape like a cube with both hands) and there is a kind of two substances there … in that substance it was … two balls equal … and in the other had three. This is a mixture of two elements. Then he arrives and shows there “it’s a mix” (reproducing speech from the video and pointing with his arm). Then the other was that he had … is … three … three stuffs … only one was standing and both were lying down except that one (inaudible) 10 W I think … an element is … just a one … just one … (more movements with his hands trying to remember) just one … just one element, right? I forgot the name …

Fig. 4.7  Abstraction of the idea of substance and mixture from the image/representation used by the teacher

in turns 6, 9, and 10 of Table 4.3 to recall aspects of the objects visually presented in the video-class. Thus, on turn 6, participant W “draws” balls on the table with the tip of his finger. In turn 9, the incorporation is noticed with Y making the sign of a square with the hands, and, finally, in turn 10, W makes movements with the hand to remember the word atom.

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Table 4.4  Mutual influence on remembrance and imagination 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62

W Y W Y W Y Y W Y W Y

63 64 65 66 67 68 69

W Y W Y W Y W

I think substance is the junction of the elements The junction of many? Hunrrum Everything is junction … everything is interconnected to one another I think so … It is hard! Substance … is the junction of the atoms … not the elements Not …? There were atoms in … Were there? About … substance … chemical substances. Didn’t you see? In the Wikipedia. Write “video and Wikipedia.” No … video and textbook Of atoms, is it? From … atoms … is the junction of atoms. That I remember that He’s not putting an atom … he’s talking about element … element has atom … No … but he wants to know the difference … But element is atom … Okay, but … I’ll put it … in parentheses, element

The definition of the final answer to the question is given by the mutual contribution of the participants, in which one participant seems to influence the remembering and imagination of the other (Wagoner & Gillespie, 2013). From turn 52 (Table 4.4), W provides a definition for substance, stating that this is “the junction of the elements.” In the later turns, the pair develops this definition until, at turn 58, Y disagrees with W, stating that it is not the junction of elements, but of atoms, and that such information was in the Wikipedia article. During disagreement, W counter-­argues (turns 65 and 67) and later complies with Y’s suggestion, stating that he will put “element” in parentheses (turn 69). Their final synthesis suggests that the processes of remembering and imagination can be conceived as dialogical processes and are dynamized when one partner faces another, thus contributing to the learning of new concepts. Question 3: What is the difference between simple and compound substance? In the third question, it was necessary to distinguish simple substances from compound substances. The pair provided the following answer: “Simple substances is when they have only one atom and one compound substance when it has two or more atoms of different elements.” During the dialogue, we realized that the remembering of material from the video prevailed throughout the process, once again showing the importance of visual images for mnemonic reconstruction and abstraction in imagination. In this sense, imagination, anchored in the remembering of a visual image, suggests that the subject seeks to abstract from this image characteristics or attributes

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that construct new meanings in an attempt to solve the problem that is posed to him. Thus, the looping of the imagination moves towards an abstraction and generalization. The pair’s final response is still confused from a scientific point of view, showing a lack of clarity about the concepts of atom and element. However, we can discern the process by which the pair came to the answer as showing the mnemonic and imaginative dynamics and the path they have taken toward abstraction and generalization. Sometimes, this path can lead to implausibility, as in the answer to question 1. In the same way, we recognize here confusion between concepts presented in the answer to the second one. Analyzing the conceptual confusion between the concepts of atom and element, also identified in the analysis of the second question, we suggest that the phenomenon of transference in remembering (Bartlett, 1932) may lead to the field of implausible. In the transference, the subject transfers attributes of a concept to another one, causing a conceptual confusion. It happens in the answer to the first question in which the concept of matter is confused into the concept of substance and in this answer to the third question, when an atom is characterized as an element (and vice versa). The search for the answer to the demand can lead the looping of the imagination towards implausibility (Fig. 4.8). In this case, the transference (characteristic of remembering) is accompanied by the looping of the imagination towards implausibility (the pair reaches a consensus of a response that, in a scientific context, is implausible). In this way, we can characterize that, possibly, the dynamic remembering-imagination uses the transference in achieving at the implausibility. However, it is the imaginative dynamics that will lead to a greater abstraction of the relevant aspects to be recalled and create a new

Fig. 4.8  Confusion between the concepts of element and atom: remembering going toward implausibility in the looping of the imagination

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Table 4.5  The participant Y raises a definition of “simple” and “compound” based on his previous knowledge in Turn 02. In Turn 21, new meanings are constructed from previous recollected knowledge 2

Y If I was in the fifth grade, I put in simple substance when it has only one object and composed when it had two or more … 21 Y Simple substances are substances that have two or more … no … simple substance when it presents only one structure … of atoms. Composed substance when it has two or more

synthesis of a more abstract nature that could lead to the generalizable concept. It is important to point out that going towards something implausible, when solving a scientific problem, is not harmful from the point of view of the learning process. On the contrary, to raise implausible hypotheses, as has hitherto been demonstrated, is part of the path to abstraction, in which new syntheses (new meanings) are constructed around the problem. With each implausible hypothesis, the subject is led to new “loopings,” reformulating his ideas, until he abstracts the concept. What we call here an implausible hypothesis, in the epistemology of science, some authors call “error,” being important in the process of construction of scientific knowledge (Bachelard, 1966). It is important to emphasize that what we want here is not simply to include “error” as part of the learning process but to unravel the dynamics between mnemonic reconstruction and imaginative construction and, thus, to know the steps followed until the learning of the scientific concept. In verifying the process by which the pair arrived at the final answer (Table 4.5), we note that it was not built based solely on what was provided in the book chapter, Wikipedia article, or video-class. In turn 2 of Table 4.5, Y raises the hypothesis that if he was in the fifth grade he would answer that the difference between simple and compound substances would be based on the number of objects (simple for only one object and composed for two or more objects). We do not know in what context of the fourth grade it is studied the difference between the “simple” and “composed” qualities. But at this point, as in the resolution of the first question, participant Y makes an effort to reconstruct new meanings in a demand in the present by recalling something that went beyond the information contained in the sources available. The confirmation of Y’s attempt at turn 02 to “tell the story of what he was doing in the fifth year” is part of an effort to re-signify previous knowledge, which we can observe in turn 21, in which he re-adapts his earlier definition by substituting the word “object” by “structure” (transformation), coming close to a scientific definition and reaching a certain level of abstraction and generalization. In Fig. 4.9, we present how the participants create a new synthesis, based on the remembering of a previous knowledge in the information contained in the available sources. In the looping of the imagination the process was towards the generalization and abstraction. This means that in the final response, we observe a certain level of abstraction for the definition of simple and compound substances, which departs from a literal reproduction contained in the information present in the sources. Throughout the dialogue we note that the movement represented in Fig.  4.9, where the definition of simple and compound substance is re-signified, occurs again

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Fig. 4.9  Looping of imagination towards abstraction and generalization, by differentiating simple substances from composite from the definition recalled Table 4.6  Participant Y resigns his definition presented in Turn 21, organizing the ideas of element, atom, and substance 30 Y When there are two or … no no no … simple substance when you only have one element … 31 W An atom … 32 Y An element of atoms … simple substance when it has only one atom … and compound substance when it presents two or more … or more … two or more are … structures … more or less … in atoms

between shifts 30 and 32 (Table 4.6). It is through the course of the dialogue that a consensus is developed from the double that simple substance has an element atom and is composed of two or more atoms of different elements. The fact that the final answer is constructed from the discussion of ideas along the participants’ dialogue makes explicit how the remembering and imagination, directed towards the construction of meanings, are processes mediated also socially. We note that the characteristics described here of remembering and imagination emerge from the influence of one participant in the discourse of the other, in a collective contribution that allows the reflection and creation of new syntheses.

4.7  Conclusions This chapter aimed to show the relation between remembering and imagination during the process of constructing meanings in relation to the concept of chemical substance, while participants solved problems about this concept. Therefore, we

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used Bartlett’s conception of remembering as the theoretical basis, which states that when recalling, the subject modifies his/her memories, and there may be transformations. We added to this the analysis of the imaginary looping proposed by Zittoun (2016). We carried out a microgenetic analysis of the meaning-making process involving remembering and imagination; especially focusing on a nature of the image that we can infer in the responses and dialogues of the participants was our main contribution. Based on these theoretical perspectives, we analyzed the process by which a pair of students (age group 12/13 years old) answered problems about the concept of chemical substance and how new meanings emerged about this concept. For this, we assume that learning, as the construction of meanings, is characterized by the abstraction of ideas, there being a distancing of the information contained in the sources consulted before the problems are solved. This detachment culminates in a new synthesis, in which the pair proposes answers that go beyond the reproduction of what was written in the book and Wikipedia article or presented in the video-­ class. The new synthesis, which represents an association of mnemonic and imaginative processes, points to the construction of meanings that project in the direction of the greater abstraction and generalization required by the scientific concept in focus. In the analysis of the data, we note important characteristics of the relation between memory and imagination in the learning, such as: • Mediation of visual images: As highlighted by Bartlett (1921), the visual images have helped in recall and can be considered as semiotic resources, as pointed out by Luria (1968) and Vygotsky (1967). Imagination, in this case, presents its semiotic function (Tateo, 2017) by assisting in the formation of mental images, in the absence of the concrete image/representation. In addition, often the mental image is embodied, being externalized by the subject through gestures. This happened markedly in the resolution of the second question, in which the pair maintains the focus on the image/representation of substance and mixture used by the teacher in the video-class to arrive at an answer to a question. In the looping of the imagination, the mediation of visual images moved towards generalization, showing signs of abstraction of ideas from a reflection on the images (sometimes embodied, as observed in the first two questions). • Transferences and transformations: These features of remembering occurred throughout the process, especially in three moments: in the first question, when a new synthesis is created for the construction of a definition for the concept of substance from the remembrance of the idea of matter; in the second one when there is a confusion between the concepts of atom and element; and in the third one, when there is also a confusion between the concepts of atom and element and when the participants elaborate the answer from the remembering of a past experience (difference between the simple and compound qualities seen in previous degree in the school). We note that transference and transformation can go

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into two ways in the looping of the imagination in the process of constructing meanings: (1) By moving away from the scientific view of the concept (such as the final answer to the first question and the confusion between concepts of atom and element), the looping motion is toward implausibility, since what is being constructed is an implausible answer from the scientific point of view; (2) in approaching the scientific view of the concept (as in the third question, recalling the simple and compound qualities to apply to the differentiation between types of substance), the movement in the looping of the imagination is towards generalization, since there is a creation of a new synthesis from a distance of literal information available from sources available from the remembering of past experiences. • Abstraction: Abstraction, being characteristic of the learning process, happened when the pair “moved away” from the information contained in the available sources creating a new synthesis, constructing new meanings from the remembered information. In the looping of the imagination, abstraction can be pointed out when the pair went towards generalization, occurring in the following moments: (a) construction of the answer of the first question, in which the definition of the concept of matter served as the basis for explaining what is a chemical substance, even if it is wrong from the scientific point of view, shows an attempt at abstraction towards something implausible; (b) the differentiation between substance and mixture, in the second question, being made from the interpretation of the image/representation used by the teacher in the video-class, with the visual images as mediating elements for abstraction; and (c) differentiation of simple and compound substance, in the third question, from the remembering of the difference between the terms simple and compound, studied in an earlier grade. It is important to emphasize that the process of abstraction did not happen only with the pair going towards generalization in the looping of the imagination. The imagination going towards implausibility is important, since the construction of new syntheses also occurs from reflection under implausible hypotheses raised, showing the role of error in the construction of scientific knowledge (Bachelard, 1966). Finally, we consider that the results presented here can contribute to a greater understanding of the relationship between these three processes—learning, memory and imagination—taking into account the notion of a holistic mind, in which these processes, despite their specificities, act together in the construction of meanings and thus of learning, here, of scientific concepts. We emphasize the idea that, in the future, with the contribution of other empirical researches, it is possible to propose teaching methods that favor the learning process of scientific concepts, in which the students actively have space to reflect on their ideas through imaginative and mnemonic processes.

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Chapter 5

Remembering and Forgetting: A Crossroad Between Personal and Collective Experience Alicia Barreiro and Inga K. Endsleff

Contents 5.1  Introduction 5.2  Social Representing and Symbolic Construction of the Environment 5.3  Environment, Personal Experience, and Remembering 5.4  Remembering Through the Environment: Some Empirical Examples 5.5  Conclusion References

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5.1  Introduction The act of remembering is often viewed as a cognitive static and fixed process concerning acquiring, encoding, storing, and recalling information (Kitchen, 1994; Wagoner, 2015). Even though there is a cognitive dimension, remembering should be understood as an ongoing and dynamic process involving more than individual cognition. According to social representations theory and cultural psychology, remembering is a process that occurs on a collective level as well as an individual level (Barreiro, 2020). Individuals are not only capable of remembering situations that they experience during their existence, they are able to remember some process that has happened to their social groups before they were born, and even the process of forgetting is culturally constraint. In this chapter, culture is defined not simply as a container but as a complex phenomenon created between individuals, by

A. Barreiro (*) Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, National Scientific and Technical Research Council and University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina I. K. Endsleff Centre for Cultural Psychology, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7_5

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individuals, and in relation to the environment (Valsiner, 2012). There will be a focus on how culture as a part of the environment affords remembering and forgetting. As Vygotsky (1980) notes, culture is part of individuals; it is essential in the way people experience, perceive, and remember. People remember through collective shared narratives and other symbolic resources, such as street names, places, and monuments, and, in fact, in all of cultural heritage (Brown & Reavey, 2015). These culturally shared objects act as memorials (Connerton, 2009) that encapsulate collective memory contents. They bring the past into the present, placing memory in the context of ordinary settings of human life (Azaryahu, 1996). Many urban spaces are designed to facilitate links to the past. In many cases, collective memories are constructed by transforming material features of the urban environment into objects with memorial affordances (Brown & Reavey, 2015). Therefore urban spaces could be the arena where different social groups confront their versions of the past. Social representations theory highlights that collective memory (Halbwachs, 1925/1992) enables individuals to make sense of social phenomena (Jodelet, 2003). It allows them to build commonsense knowledge that encompass shared images and knowledge of the past, elaborated, transmitted, and maintained by a group through daily interactions and communication. Individuals recognize themselves in their in-group memory that transmits shared values and thinking frames from which historical processes are evoked (Barreiro, 2020; Barreiro, Wainryb, & Carretero, 2016). Moreover, the contents rooted in collective memory are transmitted from one generation to the next prescribing present behaviors and feelings such as reparation actions for past injustices (Bar-Tal & Halperin, 2009) or the willingness to fight in an armed conflict (Páez et al., 2008). Collective memory contents are crucial when understanding how individuals remember a past that they personally did not experience and could have existed long before them, as well as the systematic oblivion across different individuals of some particular social situations (Barreiro & Castorina, 2016). In a similar vein, cultural psychology highlights the constructive relations between the individual and his cultural environment (Bang, 2009; Valsiner, 2014a). According to Valsiner (2014a), the main ambition of cultural psychology is to understand the symbolical restructuration of objects during the meaning-making process by which they are constituted. Specifically, this chapter will analyze the relations between collective and personal remembering, from the perspectives of social representations theory and cultural psychology to explain the phenomena of remembering and forgetting as a cultural process. On one hand, findings from a study about the sociogenesis of the social representations of an historical process describing the narrative expressed by different symbolical resources (monuments, names of streets, commemorative objects, and museum exhibitions) will be discussed. On the other hand, some findings from a study on peoples’ mental maps of their city will be interpreted. These mental maps can give insight into how individuals relate to, perceive, and remember their urban city in everyday life as well as elucidate the collective memory.

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5.2  S  ocial Representing and Symbolic Construction of the Environment Social representations (SR) are signifying structures that provide a shared code of what individuals from a social group consider to be real (Marková, 2012; Moscovici, 1961, 2001a, 2001b). Individuals construct SR in their communicative exchanges and daily interactions to facing everyday life issues (Wagner & Hayes, 2005). Hence, social groups structure their environment by a meaning-making process. SR are conformed in a triangle composed by an object (which is represented) and a subject (ego) in a dialogical relationship with other subject (alter) (Marková, 2003; Moscovici, 1985). This way SR emerge in everyday interactions and are determined neither by clear perceptions nor by rational inferences, but by the meanings groups give to the phenomenon (Jodelet, 1986; Moscovici, 2001b). The epistemic force of such representations arises from the strength of people who believe in them –consensus – and from the efficacy they have for in-group communication (Marková, 2003). Therefore, many realities can coexist, because one object can acquire different meanings depending on the whole interactive social situation (Moscovici, 1961, 2001b). The figurative nature of the SR allows considering them as metaphorical knowledge (Jodelet, 1986); they play a role in communicating the social group’s viewpoint, and they carry collective images loaded with values and emotions. SR are collectively constructed and transformed in sociogenetic processes, that is, in a sociohistorical movement through time (Kalampalikis & Apostolidis, 2016). Those genetic processes have a temporal dimension; even when SR are described in a specific moment in time, their analysis needs a diachronic perspective. Social groups engage in a process of symbolic coping (Wagner, 1998) to deal with relevant objects that produce a gap in their cultural available meanings. This process is achieved by the functioning of two genetic processes: objectification and anchorage (Moscovici, 2001a). The first selects some features of the real object and concretizes them in an image, becoming concrete and naturalizing them. Therefore, this selected features of the object become the reality for individuals. Anchorage follows a dialectical movement with objectification, because the phenomenon is interpreted in the frame of the available meanings in the culture of this particular social group. Then, collective shared beliefs, values, and ideologies condition which parts of the object were represented, which were not, and how to interpret them (Barreiro & Castorina, 2016; Moscovici, 2001a). During the objectification process, a tension operates, based on the power relations between and within social groups. The meanings that prevail in this struggle between representational fields within the social arena constitute a positive representation, a specific symbolic structure that occupies the place of the object in the individual’s everyday life. Nevertheless, other possible representations become nothingness and remain as the dark side of the positive representations or as the non-present parts of their symbolic structure (Barreiro & Castorina, 2016). In other words, there is a dialectic relation between the structures of meanings constitutive of a SR and the presence of absent meanings that make its constructions possible.

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This exclusion of some meanings from the representational field is by no means casual. They are excluded because they challenge the hegemonic understanding of the social world and, in that sense, they become threatening for individuals. Moreover, this absence indicates an overwhelming affective presence in the social group’s daily lives, that is, the neglect of objects – or the omission of some of its constitutive parts – during the representing process shows that they are emotionally laden for the members of the social groups by which the SR is constructed (Barreiro & Castorina, 2016). For example, research by De Alba, Dargentas, and Balez (2014) shows that in youngs’ socio-spatial representations of the French city of Brest, the memory of the old city (from before the Second World War) is absent, as well as the places to commemorate the war. According to the researchers, this lack of representation manifests a conflict between the historical memory symbolized by the monuments and a reconstruction of an urban space that didn’t take into account the city’s identity before the war. The remembering of the destroyed city may result very hard to the Brestoises who evacuated their houses and came back to a city in ruins after the war. The invisibilization of the monuments and the old city can be considered a deliberated collective intent to forget such painful past. This constructive process allowed different understanding of people’s active construction and experience of the “presence of an absence” (Bang, 2009, p. 376). What cannot be anchored in the collectively available system of social meanings and values would be repressed, transforming its ontological quality into nothingness. The gestalts of meanings culturally constructed by human activity may include present and non-present parts or objects as they were present (Valsiner, 2014b). In Bang’s words (2009): From a relational point of view, this absence is not a real absence but a presence of an absence. That which is “not there” and that which is “invisible” are—from the present point of view—the relational and dynamic processes out of which meaning grow as Gestalt qualities which at the same time belong to the individuals and to the cultural and environmental transformations they produce. (p. 376)

Hence, the social construction of nothingness, as collective forgetting, takes place between individuals and their cultural environment. An ontological status to this phenomenon is provided, placing it in the flow between the past and the present, that is, placing it in the movement of human history. This constructive activity is not voluntary or conscious and determines what will be recognized as reality by subjects and what will not.

5.3  Environment, Personal Experience, and Remembering The way human beings relate to their environment involves an emotional connectedness. It is through experiences involving strong affect that individuals create attachment, become attached to their environment and to the people in them, thereby constructing meaningful environments (Tuan, 1997). Subject and representational

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object are both co-constructed in a developmental process: “from this perspective the world which is known, is the product of the set of socio-psychological structures through which it has been constructed” (Duveen, 2002, p. 140). However, individuals experience these diverse realities, created by collective meaning-making processes, as if they were the only one possible. Individuals live in a symbolical order that is taken for granted because they were born in it. They consider it as the natural world that is only questioned when something unexpected happens and a new meaning-making process is necessary to reestablish the balance with the environment (Duveen, 2007). As Moscovici (2001b) pointed out: Consensual universes are places where everybody wants to feel at home, secure from any risk of friction or strife…. As a result, memory prevails over deduction, the past over the present, response over stimuli and images over “reality”. (p. 37)

People are born in a thinking society (Moscovici, 2001b) that offers a world already structured by the SR shared by their social group peers. As people become social actors, they need to appropriate the representations that allow communication and orient the behavior within their social groups (Duveen & De Rosa, 1992). This process takes place whenever individuals join a new group or social institution. However, appropriating SR is not just a matter of collective beliefs being imposed on individuals; it implies an individual’s reconstruction that enables her/his understanding (Barreiro, 2013a, 2013b; Barreiro & Castorina, 2017). The ontogenesis of SR is understood as “a process through which individuals re-construct social representations and in doing so they elaborate particular social identities” (Duveen & Lloyd, 1990, p. 7). This meaning-making process is constrained by the symbolic and material resources that societies construct to remember and share the past with the next generations (Connerton, 1989), such as street names, monuments, novels, or movies. Besides, during this ontogenetic process, there are transformations both in the collective meanings attributed to an object and in the psychological structures that signify it (Barreiro & Castorina, 2017; Duveen & Lloyd, 1990). However, only individuals perceive novelty as such, because those structures enable them to grasp the representational object in a different way. In most of the cases, novelty does not exist for the social group, since those meanings were already present in collective culture (Duveen, 2007). Therefore, individuals develop their own sense of themselves within the framework of cultural signifiers. The psychological process of appropriation of a cultural tool, such as SR, refers to its transformation by an agent to make it his or her own (Wertsch, 1998). Thus, representations about the past are cultural resources that constrain and empower identity formation (Penuel & Wertsch, 1995, 2000). In Hammack’s (2008) terms, identity can be understood as “ideology cognized thorough the individual engagement with discourse, made manifest in a personal narrative constructed and reconstructed across the life course and scripted in and through social interaction and social discourse” (p. 223). From a sociocultural and developmental perspective, Wertsch (1998) distinguished two dimensions in the cognitive processes involved in the individual’s appropriation of a cultural tool. One

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dimension refers to “knowing-how” to use a mediating tool with a relatively high degree of skill; in this case the tool is being mastered by the agent. The other dimension of this process refers to a sense of “ownership,” that is, how an agent takes a cultural tool – such as a narrative or a monument – that belongs to others and makes it his or her own. In many cases the levels of mastering coincide with the levels of ownership, though it can occur that a high mastering level is not matched with a similar level of ownership. Thus the agent could use the tool with a feeling of conflict or resistance and not considering it as his or her own, so it remains as someone else’s voice in his discourse and thought. The cultural tools that constitute individual’s environment consist of physical as well as symbolic dimensions, the people who live in it and their cultural heritage. Cultural heritage is passed on from generation to generation often manifested in objects such as history books, arts, monuments, etc. These objects are usually inspired by significant and meaningful past events that have in some way changed or influenced the nation or cities’ development and identity. A very important factor in making the collective past is that it is memorialized and socially shared, making the past events become history. The process of remembering is a complex process woven into people’s behavior, actions, beliefs, and experiences (Wagoner, 2017). How the community and individual remember the past will affect the present, which again affects the possible trajectories for the future (Valsiner, 2014a). In a cultural environment such as a city, the process of remembering is central (Stevenson, 2013; Tuan, 1997), since it consists of many places, landmarks, objects, and artifacts, which have significance for the individuals and the community’s sense of identity. Places like battlefields, cemeteries, squares, and religious places often play a part in the collective remembering and work as memorials. In this sense, the past acts on the present through the work of recollection (Brown & Reavey, 2015). Social groups construct narratives about the past to give historical continuity to their social identity, and without the tradition of passing on narratives/stories of the past events from generation to generation and connecting places and objects, the citizens living in the present time would not know of the past events, which would affect the social identity. In other words, it would be forgotten. At times the forgetting is an intentional action where events are “erased,” monuments destroyed, history altered in the books, etc. This perspective will be elucidated later on, but sometimes it also could be a non-delivered result of processes of social construction of nothingness. Through the collectively shared history, the individual constructs a sense of identity influenced by them being part of a community with a social identity. Furthermore, collective remembering creates a sense of belongingness and attachment to the environment and the people in it. It is possible to argue that the identity formation would not be possible without the process of remembering, and it is remembering on an individual as well as a collective level. People remember their past experiences and construct a narrative that gives a sense of being the same person over time (Bamberg, 2011; Barreiro, 2020). Past experiences also guide their future actions and orientations, hence their future identity. This dynamic relation between individuals and their cultural environment becomes salient precisely when mismatches arise, leading to the creation of new meanings in a genuine dialectic of

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transformations (Bang, 2009). In this sense, humans as living beings create their symbolic environment in an indivisible relation between mind and world, because mind experiences and interprets the psychical environment through the biological organism. As it is well known, how the world is experienced varies from culture to culture even from person to person. According to Shweder (1991), how the world is experienced has to do with the fact that human beings are meaning-making and intentional beings living in a co-constructed intentional world, which is subjectively experienced. Each community and individual give meaning to their world in the forms of SR, emotions, and other mental and collective representations, thereby making it an intentional world. No sociocultural environment exists or has identity independently of the way human beings seize meanings and resources from it. While, on the other hand, every human being’s subjectivity and mental life are altered through the process of seizing meanings and resources from some sociocultural environment and using them. (Shweder, 1991, p. 74)

Cultural environment and the mental world of the individual are co-constructed and interdependent of each other. The meaningfulness of the environment is constructed by the meaning given to it; however, when it is passed on from generation to generation and places and objects become memorials, they act back on us and become a central part of our sense of identity. In the field between the intentional being and the intentional world, phenomena occur that neither one can control, as the active construction of nothingness results from the negation of the quality of social existing objects. In sum, from this cultural perspective, meanings – including nothingness  – are neither mere products of individual mental activity nor imposed perceptually by the environment. They are qualities that constructively emerge within the relation between individuals and their cultural environment. The personal experience of nothingness alludes to feelings of anguish, anxiety, and emptiness caused by the unknown, because it expresses the experience of a breakdown in everyday meanings  – the subjective experience of emptiness and estrangement about a person’s whole life (Kraft, 1974). The experience of losing meaning at the individual level turns up when people are trying to make sense out of the apparent nonsense in their lives. From this perspective nothingness is an emotional experience caused by the rupture in people’s conventional leaving. When people are overwhelmed by nothingness, they cannot make real contact with others, and they believe there is no meaning in their daily actions. They experience the others and the environment as more present in their absence than in their presence. This can be exemplified by the loss of a significant other. When an individual experience the loss of a significant other, the emptiness or the presence of nothingness is often a dominant feeling. The shared environment, house, bedroom, etc., is a constant reminder of the other person no longer being present. Furthermore, the future is insecure because it will require new ways of dealing with the everyday life. In a similar vein, individuals can experience parts of their history/identity slipping away when changes in the environment occur. Even though this experience of losing meaning may lead individuals to a subjective breaking point, it brings them an

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opportunity to construct new meanings and develop new actions to transform their current situation. This way the sensation of nothingness is considered as an unpleasant feeling as well as a fundamental life force, since it may lead individuals to carry out activities to develop more authentic meanings of their own daily existence.

5.4  R  emembering Through the Environment: Some Empirical Examples Individual’s appropriation of contradictory narratives about the past. Collective remembering could generate emotional reactions, as guilt, proudness, or sadness, about past events, even though individuals have not experienced or have not been directly involved in the events they remember. For example, sometimes individuals could feel guilty for the actions of their ancestors, even though they don’t have any direct responsibility for the morally questionable facts that are part of their social group history (Doosje & Branscombe, 2003; McGarty et al., 2005). In these cases, when some morally questionable actions of the group’s members in the past become salient, the individual’s identity could be threatened. In this way, if some elements of the environment become evident that belonging to a social group implies to enjoying of some benefits illegitimately obtained in the past at the expense of other group, the individual may experience a loss of self-esteem (Pawel, Branscombe, & Schmitt, 2005). Then, the way individuals understand and are affected by the collective past relays more in the relation identity/environment than the evidence on what really happened in the past (Ellemers, Spears, & Doosje, 2002). A study aimed to analyze the sociogenesis of SR of the “Argentine Conquest of the Desert” (i.e., a military campaign that was undertaken by the Argentine Government from 1874 to 1885), and their appropriation by individuals could bring some insights into this matter (Barreiro, 2020; Barreiro et  al., 2016; Barreiro, Ungaretti, Etchezahar, & Wainryb, 2020; Barreiro, Wainryb, & Carretero, 2017). As it has been already pointed out, urban spaces could be the arena where different social groups confront their versions of the past, and this is the case of the remembering of this historical process in Argentina. The history of “The Conquest of the Desert” has been largely known and thought of in terms of a hegemonic narrative, implied still now in numerous cultural tools such as national monuments, school textbooks, and street names, which represents the Argentine military as important figures responsible for the creation and organization of the new nation and for overpowering and defeating the uncivilized and violent indigenous groups that constantly attacked the southern frontier of Buenos Aires. Although the traditional view is still present in different symbolic resources such as textbooks, museums, or monuments, it conflicts with a revisionist narrative that emphasizes the slaughter of indigenous people perpetrated by the Argentine state during this process. Thousands of indigenous people were massacred, while others were sold to the new landowners. The surviving were forced to neglect their culture and to assimilate to the

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dominant power, becoming invisible as a social group for the “white” societies founded during the “Conquest” (Del Río, 2005). The conflict between these two accounts of the past has led, for example, to question the presence of a picture of General Roca, who was in charge of the “Conquest,” on the 100 Argentine peso bill, leading to his gradual substitution by other national icons. Nevertheless, in various central provincial capitals in Argentina, there are large equestrian statues commemorating General Roca’s achievements. Because for many people he represents indigenous genocide, these monuments are vandalized with graffiti and thus demonstrate the tensions between the different versions of the past. Moreover, there are lots of monuments that pay homage to the “heroic” militaries who participated in this military operation all around the country, and many of the most important avenues at the main capitals have their names. The names given to the streets are based on the collective remembering (Herbert, 2005). However, it also involves people’s less reflexive and less conscious presence and participation in a social locus symbolically reconstructed for the act of remembering (Connerton, 2009). For example, following Barreiro et al. (2016), to give the name of the indigenous chief to a precarious street in the outskirts of town may be interpreted as a form of perpetuation of indigenous people’s exclusion. The same relation between social prestige and commemoration is expressed by naming a neighborhood as an indigenous’ well-known indigenous person: in the opinion of most of the people interviewed during the study, that neighborhood is the poorest in the area, with the most significant levels of delinquency and violence (Barreiro et al., 2020). In spite of the daily interaction with different symbolic resources aimed to commemorate this historical process, it is mostly absent in individuals’ narratives about the national past. The study of the young people’s narratives shows that, in general, they do not know what happened during this historical process. Moreover, the few people who elaborate a narrative about what happened tend to think that this militaries were Spaniards or attribute all the responsibility to a group of militaries without establishing a link with the Argentine Government (Sarti & Barreiro, 2018). In the same vein, there is an absence of the indigenous people’s suffering representation in the collective memory, since they are not present in historical museums and other places of memory. The few commemoration of a very important indigenous chief presented him as glorious Argentine, and there are no memorials of his tortures inflicted by the Argentine military forces. Moreover people tend to think that there are no more indigenous in Buenos Aires, and only a few of them survive in the south and north of Argentina, because they all were killed more than 100 years ago during the campaign (Barreiro et al., 2020). Many studies (Gordillo & Hirsch, 2010) show that there is an invisibilization of the indigenous groups or their descendants that nowadays live in Argentina, in general.  Moreover, the current  SR of indigenous people is based in an anachronism, that is, their identity is represented as they development as social group had been stop 100 years ago (Barreiro et al., 2017). Then, as the indigenous people in the present do not fit with this anachronic image, they are considered as no “real,” constituting the stereotypical belief that supports prejudice attitudes towards them (Barreiro et al., 2017; Barreiro et al., 2020).

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This invisibilization of current indigenous people in the social environment or the collective oblivion of the responsibility of the Argentine Government for the lootings, tortures, and killings during the conquest may be interpreted as the social construction of nothingness (Barreiro & Castorina, 2016). As we already pointed out, it is possible that in representing an object creating a SR during the collective meaning-making process, some of its constitutive features may be omitted, becoming not present for the social groups and, as a consequence, for individuals. It is important to emphasize that any account of the past implicates a political dimension negating or legitimizing the historical basis of social group claims that provides them with temporal continuity (Sibley, Liu, Duckitt, & Khan, 2008). To think that all indigenous people were massacred during The Conquest of the Desert by the Spaniards may be a way to avoid the present conflict with this social group that demands reparation for the injustices suffered in the past, the guilt for the actions performed in the past by the Government, and feeling proud about the heroic militaries who consolidate Argentina as a free country (Barreiro et al., 2017). The contradictory meanings expressed by different cultural tools that constitute individual’s daily environment are appropriated by individuals in an effort to make sense of their own history. Contradictory  – or at least incoherent  – narratives expressed in the discourse of individuals suggest a collective struggle about the remembering of the past. At the individual level, people would be able to perceive a contradiction between cultural meanings only if these meanings were expressed simultaneously in their discourse, but generally this contradiction is not resolved in favor of one or the other or towards a state of consistency. This inconsistency can be understood if the situated use of cultural meanings is taken into account, because different situational contexts pose different demands which may be satisfied via different (and sometimes contradictory) discursive forms (Jovchelovitch, 2008; Wagner & Hayes, 2005). Barreiro et al.’s (2016) report give a noteworthy example of how transformations in the same context can elicit individuals to construct contradictory narratives on the same representational object, depending on the contextually salient historical aspects. It was all peaceful. Why? Because there were no aboriginal people (…) There was nobody here. (…) Roca [the Minister of Defense] is the one who orders General Villegas to arrest Pincén. Why? Because up to that time there had been a kind of mutual respect between Pincén and Villegas, they called each other “Bull”. Bull Pincén and Bull Villegas. … Going back to the aboriginal people, well (…) their families were divided, some of their children were adopted out, women became servants, the husbands were held prisoners (…) they didn’t have so many options (…) Because you dig a trench, you isolate them from resources, where would they go to find their food? They don’t have water, they can’t go to find animals to hunt. They were enclosed. Either you surrender or you die like that. … See her? [points to a woman in a picture] She was with Chief Pincén [when he was captured by the military forces], and her granddaughter [a local woman living in town], tells of how soldiers used to cut their heels, so they couldn’t escape. (From Barreiro et al., 2016, p. 48)

This woman started her narrative depicting a peaceful relationship between the military and the indigenous people. However, she ended up talking about the tortures and sufferings inflicted on the indigenous. While there is a contradiction between these two narratives, she did not seem to be aware of this. The woman brings the

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abuses and sufferings that indigenous people went through into the scene when she sees the photos of the indigenous chief captive with his family. Furthermore, her earlier commentary about the absence of indigenous people in the region is inconsistent with the reference to Chief Pincén and his people living there. Hence, this woman’s account of the past suggests the juxtaposition of two narratives: one about the peaceful encounter between two groups in the town foundation and the other about the violence and abuses committed by the Argentine army against the indigenous people in the same timeframe. This woman’s narrative about the glorious peaceful past may support a sense of social identity; abandoning such a narrative may be threatening to her identity as Argentine. Nevertheless, she is also aware of the tragic history of the indigenous people, so she cannot simply deny these facts either. Thus, both narratives are alternatively externalized in her discourse, depending on the contextual demands, without maintaining a coherent relation between the two (Barreiro et al., 2016). The role of mental maps in remembering, forgetting, and meaning-making through the collective represented environment. The environment is a complex phenomenon with no fixed meaning or reality. How the environment is experienced and remembered by the individual is influenced by many sociocultural factors. The city is for many people an essential part of their everyday life and the relation to their city a complex matter. Citizens have a map of their city in their minds, often fragmentary, which is based on the structure of various streets, avenues, and neighborhoods and how these are situated in relation to each other. These mental maps reflect individual’s lifestyles and connectedness, which can be seen in selection, emphasis, and distortion (Milgram, 1984). The city and its elements are understood in a specific cultural context where the urban space is constantly being structured by meaning-making processes (Marková, 2003; Moscovici, 1985) carried out by its inhabitants – the citizens. The cultural context is shaped by the citizens’ SR, collective past, beliefs, values, sense of identity, ideology, etc. The meanings and narratives that prevail and gets passed on from generation to generation are the dominant representations, which often are positively framed. The other possible representations become nothingness or become negatively framed (Barreiro & Castorina, 2016), as seen in the study by De Alba et al. (2014) where the psychical reconstruction of the city involves a collective effort to forget a painful past resulting in the memory of the old city being absent. Understanding a persons’ relating to the memory of the city can be a difficult task; one way of approaching this phenomenon is to explore the mental representations (mental maps) people have. The mental maps are constructed in everyday life as people maneuver through the city and try to make sense of it. This is done partly by engaging in the act of mapping (Kitchen, 1994). To explore the concept of mental maps, image-based methodologies are often applied. The study in focus is based on the work of Lynch (1960) and Milgram and Jodelet (1976), in which the participants were instructed to draw maps that contained elements they believed to be personally significant and important to them. Furthermore the map should not be a tourist map, but the city as the participant perceived it. As the participants drew, they

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were asked to write a short description of the drawn elements and note why they drew it. The aim of this strategy was to facilitate the processes of gaining insight into the individuals’ mental maps of their city, but it is important to remember the drawn map is not a complete mental map but simply a clue to it (Milgram, 1984). The maps alone are not enough; as the maps are personal, subjective and based on past experiences, it is not possible for a researcher to decode the maps simply by looking at them. To address this issue and avoid misinterpretation, semi-structured follow-up interviews were conducted, making the data collection in two steps: first the map-drawing task and second the follow-up interview. The research, from which the case in focus comes from, was conducted at The Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil, and The University of Aalborg, Denmark, with university students, masters or higher level. Most of the participants in Salvador drew Farol da Barra (a lighthouse) as the first element. In the follow-up interview, a female participant explained why it was her first drawn element. It’s the center, where everything began in the city, okay? They came all the Portuguese people and this is the center, the center part of the city…

Many of the other participants had a similar explanation when asked why they drew it. Exploring individuals relating to their city requires a deep understanding of the individuals’ perspective as well as knowledge about the city’s historicity. As noted earlier history is a part of collective remembering when narratives are passed on the community and individuals in the community will establish a relation to the past and remember significant past events often attached to the cultural environment. In this sense, the mental maps are influenced by history (Gould & White, 1974). The drawn maps can provide an idea of how the individual’s mental map looks like and which elements are important, but it cannot reveal the narratives and the history of the city. As a tourist, one would hardly have guessed that the corner of the city was perceived to be its symbolical center. Historically the lighthouse has been important for the city as it is the place where the city began one might call it ground zero. The Portuguese invaded or came to Salvador at that very spot and changed the city forever. This story is known by most of the citizens of Salvador. Many of  the citizens consider the place to be “the center of the city” or the place where the city began – even though Salvador did in fact exist long before the Portuguese came. This is a classic example of how the victor of a battle often gets to dictate what and how the past is remembered. The Portuguese are given a positive identity as the founders of Salvador, when they might as well have gotten the identity of invaders. The positive narrative of the Portuguese accomplishment has been passed from generation to generation, and the lighthouse has become a memorial to the achievement making the narrative and history woven into the city itself. This has affect not only how the citizens perceive the city but also their collective sense of identity, distancing themselves from the natives and embracing the Portuguese language and roots. Newer generations have given the place of Farol da Barra new meanings and new applications; for instance, they often use the place for carnival and political demonstrations rather than visiting it as a historical place to remember the beginning of

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Salvador. Of course, these new applications are based on the original meaning of the place. Another interesting tendency was the lack of other historical places, as De Alba et  al. (2014) found in French population. Another place where the forgetting of indigenous achievements is visible is the Praça 2 de Julho also called Largo do Campo Grande which is a park constructed at first in the memory of an important indigenous chief who fought against the Portuguese when they invaded Brazil. Later on the park was reconstructed in the memory of a president of the province from 1847, and the name of the indigenous chief was long forgotten. The park is only known by the name of the president of the province and his achievements. In the data only 1 out of the 15 participants drew Campo Grande, and that 1 participant only drew it because he/she lived near the park. None of the participants knew the story of the battle or the chief. A participant was asked about the park and replied that the name was Campo Grande and that it was the only name the park had ever had. It became very clear that the story of the chief was forgotten and shows a very clear example of nothingness where the less dominant representation is not only forgotten but actually removed by constructing/creating another meaning for the park.

5.5  Conclusion Throughout this chapter it was pointed out that people remember in relation with their cultural environment populated by other individuals, as well as cultural tool resources as SR, narratives, and symbolic-laden material objects (monuments, city centers, etc.). In this framework, the collective past is the cornerstone by which individual makes sense of their urban spaces and its elements. The environment – urban space in the cases presented here  – is collectively constructed by diverse cultural resources that social groups transmit from one generation to the other resulting in the development of a common culture. Moreover, this chapter has pointed out that cultural resources or sociocultural tools constrain – allowing and at the same time restricting (Castorina & Faigenbaum, 2002) – what is remembered by social groups and individuals. Remembering here was conceptualized as a dynamic sociocultural activity – which implicates forgetting  – that is not only based in cognitive process and information recuperation, because it has place in the crossroad of collective and personal meaning-making activity. From the perspective of SR theory and cultural psychology, remembering is both a collective and individual process, since it is a result of the dynamic constitutive relation between individuals and their cultural environment. Hence, what individuals remember of their collective past is based neither on rational judgments nor on analytic activity of the available evidence about what really happened; it is based on an emotionally led reaction rooted in consensual interpretations about what occurred in the past. These consensual interpretations are transmitted from one generation to the other in the collective memory, being present

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in SR and other symbolic resources. Also, in that process power struggles between social groups have a constitutive role. If the process of remembering is analyzed from a collective level, power struggles intervene in the determination of what becomes reality by social groups and what should be remembered or forgotten. Therefore, social disputes about different versions of the past, which carry diverse political implications in the present by legitimating and recognizing a particular social group’s version, constrain the way individuals’ remember and project themselves to the past, present, and future. Remembering is a complex process woven in people’s behaviors, actions, beliefs, experiences, and feelings. Individuals are born in a cultural environment which is already culturally constructed and presented to them as the only possible world. Hence, the social environment individuals remember through is naturalized and considered as the only legitimate reality. When individuals appropriate the cultural constructed representations and symbolic resources available in their environment, they construct their own identity and emotional bounds with the diverse elements present in their environment. These collective feelings (e.g., proudness, fear, guilt, hate) are at the crossroad between collective and personal experience, since they are determined not only by the environment but also how individuals relate with their environment in a spiral movement. In spite of individuals’ experience of these feelings as their subjective experience, they have roots in the collective memory. Individuals develop a sense of selves in the frame of cultural signifiers about their shared group past. Even though, in appropriating a cultural tool, they do not transform it on their own, it remains present in their identity as the voice of others, in a polyphony of voices. However, individuals have a personal story framed in a narrative about who they are that gives continuity to their identity throughout developmental changes. This personal narrative and the feelings involved in it also intertwine in the interpretation of the cultural environment by individuals. By means of the dynamic symbolic interaction between personal story and cultural memory, but may be transformed by changing collective meanings, as well as individuals’ cognitive structures and feelings.

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Chapter 6

The Aesthetic Experience as a Central Pathway in Understanding Memory and Imagination – The Case of Quilombo Barro Branco Marina Assis Pinheiro, Jandson Ferreira da Silva, and Luca Tateo

Contents 6.1  Introduction 6.2  The Aesthetic Experience: Philosophical Considerations 6.3  Towards a Psychology Based on Aesthetic Experience 6.4  Memory and Imagination 6.5  From Vico to the Sociocultural Imagination 6.6  The Quilombo Culture 6.7  The Discourse on the Brazilian Negro 6.8  The Construction of a Tradition 6.9  The Quilombo Barro Branco 6.10  Discussion 6.11  (In)Conclusions or Final Considerations References

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6.1  Introduction Psychology is today striving to understand the relationships between the physical, the spiritual, and the existential dimensions of being human. Actually, psychology is just trying to bring back together what has been divided for the sake of the positivistic quest since the late nineteenth century (Marková, 2016; Valsiner, M. A. Pinheiro (*) Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Brazil J. F. da Silva Federal Institute of Ceará (FIC), Fortaleza, Brazil L. Tateo University of Oslo (UO), Oslo, Norway University of Bahia (UFBa), Salvador, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7_6

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2012; Valsiner, Marsico, Chaudhary, Sato, & Dazzani, 2016). The WundtBrentano controversy, which paved the way to the emerging of two different approaches to the study of psychic phenomena, is still representing a conundrum and a challenge for contemporary psychological sciences, still caught in between the structural and elementist or descriptive and phenomenological opposition (Citlak, 2016). Yet we seem today unable to grasp the richness of that debate, backed by a deep knowledge of philosophical, theological, anthropological, and historical issues, that was taking place in the middle of Europe between early nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We seem also unwilling to deal with elusive phenomena such as spirituality, aesthetics, and morality, preferring to reduce them to any kind of “neuro” something or to postmodern linguistic constructivism. One of the most relevant examples of this improvident forgetfulness is the interest for the aesthetic dimension of psychological experience, which is today understood in the narrow sense of experience of beauty, pleasure of contemplation, or specific mode of artistic consumption in contemporary societies but was in its origin a general project of understanding the human capability of personal experiencing and creating practical, moral, and affective collective meanings (Jahoda, 2005; Tateo, 2017; Valsiner, 2014). There are some aspects of the psychological phenomena that are particularly challenging and thus show the limits of any theory that divides cognitive, affective, and perceptual moments: these are the spiritual experiences, the aesthetic experiences, and the imaginative processes (Lapoujade, 2014). For these reasons, in this chapter we will try to discuss the complexities of human experience when it is understood as a wholeness in which aesthetic, moral, affective, and imaginative are intertwined. We will try to develop our argumentation within the theoretical framework of the cultural psychology (Valsiner, 2014). In the first part of the chapter, we will discuss some historical and theoretical points about the relationship between aesthetic experience, imaginative processes, and remembering. In the second part, we will develop a discussion concerning aesthetic ravishment triggered by music. Such ravishment is conceived as an unutterable affective overflow in which occurs the process of sign emergence marked by the four infinites of the self: internality-externality and past-future (Valsiner, 2014). For this theoretical construction, we will propose an interpretation of its dynamics through the field notes that pictured the commotion of a quilombola’s1 participant while he tried to describe the emotional impact and memory evoked by hearing a traditional song forgotten in nowadays routines of the quilombola group. For this reason, this chapter aims to highlight the aesthetic experience as a landmark of differentiation of the psyche. The concepts of imagination and memory are brought into the proposed argument as a psychological process inherent to this empirical landscape.

1  Community of Afro-descendants originated by groups of escaped slaves in the historical period of Colonial Brazil.

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6.2  The Aesthetic Experience: Philosophical Considerations As it is known, in a historical perspective, aesthetics can be seen as a precursor field of human singularity as it deals with the domain of sensibility, perception, feelings, and imagination in the perspective of the beautiful and the sublime. The relationship between psychology and arts shares a history prior to the very emergence of psychology as a scientific discipline. In a broader understanding, aesthetics would be a way of feeling related to any kind of experience. Already at the end of the eighteenth century, Burke discussed how some specific experiences “are capable of producing delight; not pleasure, but a sort of delightful horror, a sort of tranquility tinged with terror” (Burke, 1767/1998, p.  129). The experience of the sublime can be inferred in the presence of overwhelming sensations but can also be produced by signs, as “many ideas have never been at all presented to the senses of any men but by words, as God, angels, devils, heaven and hell, all of which have however a great influence over the passions” (Burke, 1767/1998, p. 181). The concept of sublime implies affectivity, embodiment, and semiosis forming a whole of human experience. For this reason, words, images, and other signs have the power to create overwhelming experiences by producing a surplus of meaning by either “affectivating” the natural landscape or evoking things that can seldom occur in reality. The concept of sublime helps us to see how the surplus of meaning, which characterizes the aesthetic experience, goes beyond the referential function of the sign. In the eighteenth century, Baumgartem proposes aesthetics as a single epistemic universe composed of a distinct and inferior type of knowledge. In this project, aesthetics was conceived as a new discipline, with the purpose of revealing that sensitivity has an autonomous functioning and is regulated by distinct and irreducible principles to the logic of understanding. The sensible dimension of subjectivity would have its own principle and its own dynamics situated in the grammar of fantasy or imagination. In Kantian philosophy, the discussion concerning aesthetic experience takes the place previously dedicated to the reflection on the beautiful. In its most innovative perspective, Kant proposed the aesthetic experience as inexorably subjective, being impossible to access any objective knowledge that could contribute to the knowledge of the object of the experience in itself. In other words, it would be a mode of subjective affectation and not an objective quality of its content, its object. Beauty would be a gratification to human needs, or an excess unselfishly given or received by the subject. For this reason, beauty would be perceived/felt necessarily without any kind of goal, intentionality, and purpose. According to Santos (2010), the Kantian proposition on the beautiful could be represented by the following poem of Fenando Pessoa: “Beauty is the name of anything that does not exist. That I give to things in return for the pleasure that they give me” (in Santos, 2010, p. 50). In this perspective, the beauty refers to something ideal and nonexistent in its totality, rather a tension toward something, a temporary condition.

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In Kant’s view, if the aesthetic experience of the beautiful could be situated on the creative spontaneity of forms, the experience of the sublime would operate in the dimension of the irreducibility of nature to the subjective capacities of recreation/representation/semiotization. The sublime would emerge in the record of the formless shapes by its unreasonable greatness or by the uncontrollable power. Displeasure or negative pleasure would reveal the inadequacy/finitude of imagination to capture a nature, a commotion of mood, very distinct from the calm and mere act of contemplation. The sublime would be a genuine experience of defiance of our forces. Undoubtedly, Kantian philosophy sought, as conditions of possibility of our reason, understanding and sensitive experience, constructing a project focused on the epistemic subject. Although the centrality of the epistemic subject in the Kantian perspective, it is worth noting that the contributions of his propositions on the aesthetic experience were opposed to the normative tradition of taste. In the present chapter, the Kantian thought is evoked in its historical-­ epistemological value by the impact on the understanding of the subjective conditions of aesthetic experience, as well as by the landmark that his thought produced in the modes of differentiation between the beautiful and the sublime. (…) Kant’s own meditation on these topics constitutes both a point of culmination and a turning point, representing a moment of unstable equilibrium between two regimes or paradigms of aesthetic thinking: one, revolving around the category of taste, notion Still strongly marked by a social sense and conceived even as a kind of “common sense” or “community sense” (gemein Sinn, gemeinchaftliches Sinn); the other, centered on the category of genius and the consequent presupposition of the absolute character of creative individuality and subjectivity. (Santos, 2010, p. 37)

In the context of the emergence of Psychology as scientific knowledge, it becomes relevant to consider that at the time aesthetic experience had two hermeneutic axes: that of the subjectivity of the artist or of the audience in its sensitive and judgmental dimension, and, another, objective, referring to the manifestations that provoke what we feel and judge. The initial project of psychology was to observe/ describe the subjective aspects of the experience (Brentano), but because of the value of the experimental method (Wundt), this young science had ended up by focusing more and more on the objective aspects such as the perception of sounds, lines, volumes, rhythms, proportion, symmetry, etc. In other words, psychology starts a science of experience, so its main objects would be situated close to religion and art; hence, the science of thinking was philosophy and the science of perception was biology. At a certain point in history, psychology becomes the science of the empirical and perceptive bases of thinking. Thus, half of human experience is obliterated.

6.3  Towards a Psychology Based on Aesthetic Experience Fechner’s inductive aesthetics, as opposed to the metaphysical aesthetics, as well as Wundt’s first laboratory of psychology (Frayze-Pereira, 2006), remind us that any kind of knowledge concerning psychology necessarily comes from an aesthetical

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dimension of experience, and, for this reason, we state that arts must be reintegrated as the most singular universe of exploration of the human condition. We consider that the resumption of aesthetic experience in psychology implies the challenge of constructing a dynamic-holistic understanding of subjectivity, overcoming the diversity of dichotomizations of the psyche. The so-called cognitive processes (such as memory, perception, attention, consciousness, language, and so on) are understood as necessary and foundational dimensions of knowledge construction. However, if taken as isolated parts of a cognitive “machinery”, it couldn’t develop an effective dialogue with the question of human singularity. (Pinheiro & Meira, 2010, p. 604)

The domains of science, art, and life – historically split by the epistemic subject – would have to bear their mutual implications in the uniqueness and unity of human action (Bakhtin, 2013). Placing the aesthetic experience at the ethic-­ hermeneutic core of the psychological subject requires the consideration of three inseparable axes: (1) the founding corporality of the border between internality and subjective externality; (2) affectivity implied in the temporary suppression of the barriers between subject and object in aesthetic impaction; and (3) semiosis always contingent and given in an irreversible time proper to the modes of regulation, approximation, and distances of the subject-immersed world. In this sense, the question of the beautiful and the sublime gains particularly critical contours in the perspective of semiotic cultural psychology. Kant’s tendency for making of distinctions (e.g. the day is beautiful, while the night is sublime) has obscured the focus on how the sublime becomes beautiful, or vice versa. It is not the contrast between two opposite categories, but their dynamic unity  – the borders for transition into each other – morning as the transition from the sublime into the beautiful, or evening as the transition from the beautiful to the sublime – that is the issue Kant failed to cover. (Valsiner, 2018, p. 19)

Psychological experience is based on affective meaning-making process which has inherent aesthetic dimensions (Valsiner, 2014). In this perspective, the world is experienced as a meaningful aesthetic object. The sublime as an experience of subjective immersion is marked by a certain affective excess triggered by the impaction provoked by the linguistic and ambiguous heterogeneity nature of the objects of experience. Valsiner (ibid.) highlights that the place of the mediation is not static, nor even a simplistic capture by the sign of what would extend beyond itself. Very different from this, semiosis proper to the psyche would be marked by the dynamic movement between one sign structure and another, in a process of continuous transformation proper to conflict, uncertainty, and affective tensions. According to Valsiner (2014), meaning-making processes are marked by two complementary pathways of “schematization” and “pleromatization”: the former providing relative stability in the flow of experience by concept formation, categorization, and fixation of meaning, while the latter provides an expansion and enrichment of the meaning of a specific sign supporting personal and various interpretations. For instance, the concepts of “proportion” or “canon” in art can be considered schematizations that guide the aesthetic experience. On the contrary, the idea of “beauty”

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or “innocence” represents pleromatic signs that cannot be fully expressed in verbal terms (the most powerful schematization form that human beings have produced, even more than formal languages, for its capability of naturalizing categories). Both pathways of schematization and pleromatization are required in the aesthetic experience. For instance, architectural elements have always combined the schematization of geometrical forms with the pleromatization of infinite repetition of these forms to generate an affective guidance of the person entering buildings like temples, churches, and centers of power in general (Valsiner, 2014). The affective primacy in aesthetic impact would trigger the actual sensory experience full of ambiguity and irreducibility to previous significations. In this process, sign regulation can be understood as a subversion of dualities such as pain and pleasure, generating catalytic syntheses, temporarily determined, like the pleasure of pain or even the pain of pleasure. This type of transmutation is based on the question of affective investment/interest in the object of experience. The detachment, the disinterest given by the denial of ambiguity proper to the impaction, would give birth to generalizations, stabilizing the field of possible meanings, giving light to the beauty where the astonishment of the sublime was occurring. Thus, for Valsiner et al. (2016), the beautiful is a result from an inhibition of interest. The work of the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz can shed light on the aforementioned semiotic dynamism. In his book Reflex-Vik Muniz from A to Z (2007), the author narrates the production of the series “Children of Sugar” which earned him international success. During the holidays in the Caribbean islands, the artist says that every afternoon he met a group of children while he was at the beach. In this approach, in a short time, he knew the children, their names, some of their unique stories. In one of these meetings, the children took him to meet his parents. “In contrast to the sweet and cheerful way of children, their parents looked tired and bitter; the picture of an unjust exchange: long and exhausting hours of work in sugarcane plantations for a salary based on survival” (Muniz, 2007, p. 59). The artist continues his narrative in the context of his return to the United States at the moment in which he examined the photographs of the children. “I could not stop thinking of the sad metamorphosis that most of my little friends would pass. He knew that some mysterious poisonous potion would modify those small, bright-eyed islets, and that they would in the future look as hopeless as their parents” (ibid.). In the narrative of Muniz, it is interesting to follow the transfigurations of the artist’s affective semiosis in the experience with the children. From the aesthetic jubilation recorded by the photographic camera, the image brings up a dialogical duality of impossible stabilization. Between childish sweetness and the bitterness of coming adulthood, the author seems to recapture his own history of humble youth with a future prospected as bitterness. The artist presents a fragment of a poem written by Ferreira Gullar at the time he was working on the production of photographs. The poem concludes with the following passage: “It is with bitter lives of bitter people that I sweeten my coffee on this beautiful morning in Ipanema” (Muniz, 2007, p. 60). From this poem, Muniz reports that he began sifting sugar on the chil-

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dren’s photograph and then photographing it. Afterward, he poured the sugar into a small glass jar with a picture of the children’s faces. In this story, we follow the primacy of commotion in the artist’s experience as a trigger for the symbolic transmutations that sugar gains in artistic production throughout the irreversible temporality of its life history. In this sense, the affective primeness, an imaginary irruption of the children on the Caribbean beach, can recover something of the mute field of experience, as intangible as bodily lived. Thus, we can understand the initial delightful encounter with the children and the confrontation with the “hopeless” image of their future, as an unspeakable, sublime point of rupture in the context of Vik Muniz’s vacation and in his art work. As mentioned, there is a gap marked by an affective tension and excess that produces the silencing of verbal speech as it would occur in the processes of rationalizing abstraction. In the narrative temporality of the author, the poem of Ferreira Gullar appears in an afterward to face-to-face contact with the Caribbean children. This a posteriori is marked by the distance and virtuality of the image of the children in the photos. The poem carries the sugar sign in its metaphorical power generating infinite meanings. However, it is noteworthy that sugar in the subjective experience of Muniz (2007) gains poetic resonance in Gullar’s words revealing dialogic, ambiguous chains of infinite extension such as sweetness and bitterness; future and death; innocence and perversion; brightness and opacity; playing and survival; freedom and suffering; hope and frustration. In this sense, the finished artistic product appears almost as a material-semiotic translation of the lived process, where the photographs are covered with sugar, in the same way that the images of the children were captured by the pleromatic sign sugar. This sugar is collected in individual glass jars, funeral urns from the mortal remains of childhood seen by the sensoriality of Muniz. This technique unleashed a series of other series in which the photographed image is covered with materials that significantly cover the artist’s experience with the object photographed, such as Freud made of chocolate, Merilyn Monroe in diamonds, and street children covered with carnival garbage from Rio de Janeiro. For each of these images, the artist constructs a particular history, revealing how the material mediation of his arts is not instrumental/technical, but above all imaginative, semiotically produced, affectively viewed. The interplay between the particular constructs (pathway of schematization) and the production of artifacts in which the abundant presence of elements triggers different interpretations (pathway of pleromatization) contribute to the construction of the aesthetic experience, involving at the same time the historical-­ cultural values and the imaginative aspects. In the light of the tensions between the intangible and the discursively generalizable, or even, between the representative and unspeakable proper to the aesthetic experience, we aim to discuss how the relations between imagination and memory happens in a musical rapturous experience in the context of a quilombola community.

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6.4  Memory and Imagination As mentioned earlier, the split between aesthetic experience and psychology produced a psychology centered on dichotomized basic processes, without resonance with the uniqueness of the human life forms. However, as Vygotsky (2009) points out imagination as the basis of all creative activity that manifests itself in all aspects of cultural life, enabling artistic, scientific, and technical creation. In this respect, imagination would be the principle for the creation of the novelty, a “vitally necessary function” (p. 15): Imagination acquires a function of extreme importance in human behavior and development, becoming a way of expanding man’s experience, to be able to imagine what he has not seen, to be able to conceive on the basis of accounts and descriptions beyond what he has not personally and directly experienced, not enclosed in the narrow circle of his own experience, but he can go beyond its limits, assimilating, with the help of imagination, other historical or social experiences. (1990, p. 20)

Beyond the perspective of “expansion” of the experience, the imagination would be a constitutive function of subjectivity, of ongoing human actions, since it would be produced by the precedence of the semiotic condition of the psyche and culture (Tateo, 2015, 2020). As it is known, semiotic mediation is implied in the emergence of the subjectivity free from behavioral immediacy or instinctive responsiveness. Through the use of signs, the dialectical-transformative dimension between subject and culture take place in a developmental trajectory where action is always inserted in the irreversibility of time, reconstructing the past (memory) and anticipating possible futures (imagination). For this reason, imagination would be a higher psychological function. I would go even beyond this idea by claiming that imagination is a higher psychological function that enables us to manipulate complex meanings of both linguistic and iconic forms in the process of experiencing, the latter consisting of lived-by action and counteraction, that is contextual interaction with the world in the form of an experiencing subject and otherness. I understand action as a combination of behavior (or its absence, avoiding behavior) and a mental symbolic process associated to it. Imagination is a fundamental symbolic process creating signs, linguistic and iconic at the same time that represents experience, detaching it from the immediate presence, and used to self-regulate behavior in different conditions and that can be communicated to other people in different situations. (Tateo, 2015, p. 146)

Very different from a simple mediation between subjective psychic internality and external concrete objectivity, the imagination would be inherent to the intentional and prospective dimension of the ongoing actions. In the well-known article Mind the Gap: Imagination, Creativity and Human Cognition, Pelaprat and Cole (2011) elaborate a critique to the psychophysical studies that seek to reduce the imagination at the purely perceptual level and of formation images. As pointed out by the authors, even vision is not formed by the stimulus only in presentia under the ocular structures. In the opposite way, the fixation of the perceptual on the optic nerve produces its own disappearance, fading. To see, eye needs to move repeatedly, in a game of discontinuities, presence and absence producing contrasts in relation to

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the object. In this sense, imagination is fundamental to the experience of the here and now (Tateo, 2020), in which the image is above all an aesthetic construction, a “seeing as” (Wiitgenstein, 2005; Tateo, 2015). “Seeing as” implies the semiosis which guides the reconstruction of the past and the perspective of the future. This understanding does not deny the place of corporeality, whether in its sensitiveness or neurobiological substratum. With this argument we want to point out is that imagining can be considered as a virtuality, an elevation of infinite potentialities of the self, subversive of axiom concerning the nature primacy of bodies and objects.

6.5  From Vico to the Sociocultural Imagination Through the manipulation of complex systems of iconic and linguistic signs, meaning-­making process would shape, inexorably, the subjective mark of its agents, re-creating the concrete and social materiality of reality, through affectivity intensity of senses, memory and anticipations of a future that is never complete. “One of Giambattista Vico’s most important arguments was that through imagination, we build things acting as they were abstractions, and build abstractions acting as they were real things” (Tateo, 2017, p. 2). Cultural psychology of semiotic dynamics is thus based on the co-genesis inherent to self-other dualities and between past-future. According to Valsiner (2014), the irreversibility of time in the uniqueness of human experience implies an understanding of the various negotiations between these dualities, producing a quadratic unity necessary to the hermeneutics of the process of signification and the emergence of the sign. “New adaptation process takes place precisely at the intersection of the two dualities  – INNER/OUTER tension between the uncertainties of subjective and social kinds, and PAST/FUTURE tension of the uncertainties about the future” (ibid., p. 72). In this perspective, the approach to the imaginative processes necessarily dialogue with memory. Since Plato, the dominant metaphor for the conceptualization of memory has been spatial: something like a “warehouse,” or rather a wax tablet in which life experiences would leave their mark. These marks could be accessed at any moment by the man who carried them in his mind. The more reliable would be the remembrance, the better the quality of the mnemic substance (the “wax”) possessed by the individual. In a contrary sense, Frederick Bartlett proposed a temporal metaphor for the act of remembering and the memory came to be treated as a “construction,” its closeness to the imagination. Remembering is not the reactivation of innumerable fragmented, fixed and lifeless traits. It is an imaginative reconstruction, constructed from the relation of our attitude to an active mass of our past experience or organized reactions and to an exceptional detail that commonly appears in the form of image or language. (Bartlett in Wagoner, 2011, p. 134)

For this reason, memory is, above all, an activity that involves imagination, affection, and a synthesis of past experiences. Recent works (Wagoner & Gillespie,

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2013) have recurrently revisited classic authors who have spoken about memory in the most diverse areas to include in their theory the ideas that (1) as well as other forms of cognition, memory must be regarded as an action (2) consisting of several conjugated psychological processes and (3) culturally mediated. Bartlett clearly conceived remembering as a social process and, however, did not describe a social mechanism in which acts of recovering become possible. By contrast, Mead, Halbwachs, and Vygotsky (2009) argue that memory occurs through the signs or symbols mediation that carry us out of our embodied first-person perspective to the other social perspectives. It was through the concept of social memory framework that Maurice Halbwacs resumed his Durkheimian theoretical affiliation, conceiving memory as a social project. A social framework of memory is, essentially, a series of condensed images of the past and a structure that orders and gives it meaning. Such a concept will be crucial in the understanding of the Quilombo as a privileged locus of observation of the relation marked by the aesthetic-imaginative dimension of the subject with memory, as we shall see later in the text.

6.6  The Quilombo Culture Quilombo is the name by which were called the refuges that sheltered fugitive slaves in colonial Brazil.2 Despite being a basically Afro-descendant fortification, it also eventually housed Indians and poor white men. Traditionally, quilombos were away from urban centers and in hard to reach places. The subsistence economy, and sometimes trade, was practiced, with biodiversity being the foundation of everyday quilombola, crucial for “health care, spiritual practice, and to providing material for infrastructure, technology, ornaments, fuel, and source of alternative income” (Pinto et al., 2016, p. 512). Thus, quilombo meant not only a place of refuge for fugitive slaves, but the organization of a free society formed of men and women who refused to live under the regime of slavery and developed actions of rebellion and struggle against this system, as defined by Munanga and Gomes (2006). The condition of “quilombodescent,” not infrequently, is made to cross for a land issue. That is, they still today resist the pressures of landowners, real estate speculators, and even public authorities for the maintenance or reconquest of their t­ erritories, whose right is often only supported by orality, oral tradition that points out the uses of these lands by the ancestors of the community members.

2  Black slavery, whether African or Afro-descendant, was the main source of labor for at least three centuries in Brazil. It officially lasted from about 1530 to 1888, being abolished as a legal institution by the signing of the Golden Law by Princess Isabel. It covered the Colonial Period (1530– 1815), the United Kindom (1815–1822), and the Empire one (1822–1889). The first form of labor used by the Portuguese colonizers in Brazil was indigenous slavery. But this never had considerable economic value; therefore, it was not used in large scale, being abolished in the late eighteenth century by the Marquis of Pombal (de Assis Costa, 2010).

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However, before addressing the issue of “governance technologies” for the remaining communities of quilombos, we will see how the discourse on black people has historically been built in Brazil.

6.7  The Discourse on the Brazilian Negro Although the process of “quilombola” ethnogenesis has its roots in several factors that characterized the presence of the African in Brazil, for the purposes of this study, we consider the modern emergence of the “quilombola” question from the nineteenth century, with the appearance of the bleaching ideal of the population and the construction of a model of nation that denied the presence of the black as a national subject (Arcanjo, 2008). The hegemony of Catholic thought in Brazil remained unshaken until the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was precisely the arrival of the Portuguese Royal Family to Brazil, fleeing the troops of Junot, that this picture begins to change. The inhospitable land, formerly the “backyard” of the Empire, now became thirsty if its political-administrative center and, therefore, should be created the necessary conditions. Until that date (year 1808), there were no higher education institutions in Brazil. The professionals who stopped this training, as a rule, were the children of farmers or officials of the Portuguese government formed in Coimbra or another European university. However, the monarch D. João VI was convinced to create in the ex-colony a picture of production and registration of “learned knowledge,” for that, it counted on the foundation of an entire institutional apparatus in the mold of institutions of teaching and scientific production which was in Portugal, such as: the first Library, the Royal Press, the Ethnographic Museums, the Faculties of Medicine, the Faculties of Law, the Historical and Geographical Institutes. The nineteenth century was the time to make Brazil reverberate in international scientific circles and show it, in front of other nations, by its scientific production. It was the time when the first so-­ called “scientific” racial theories entered Brazil through the exchange made by local scientists, leaders of the institutions, and the main centers of scientific production in Europe. These theories were soon constructed from a Eurocentric view on Latin America, and within this perspective Skidmore (1974) analyzes this question from the critical inability of our intellectuals. For him The question of race and the related problems of climate determination were, at that time, openly discussed in Europe. The Europeans did not hesitate to express themselves in Latin American and Brazilian terms, in particular, because of their vast African influence. The Brazilians read such authors, as a rule without any critical spirit. And they were deeply apprehensive, caudate, cultured, imitative, and thoughtful – and aware of this, Brazilians of the mid-nineteenth century, like so many Latin Americans, were ill-equipped to discuss Europe’s latest social doctrines. (p. 13)

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Skidmore points out that the Brazilian elite coming from the “big house” elaborated an ideological construction that, in the period between 1870 and 1930, influenced Brazilian racial thinking. Count of Gobineau, for example, had a brief passage through Brazil, as ambassador of France. However, enough time has passed to create repulsion across the country and make some positions from extremist theoretical ones. He, who was strictly against interracial intercourse, is in Brazil a lost land, composed of an ugly people with a vicious spirit. He sees the future of the country given to a weak race of mestizo blood, in which the best qualities of the European white (hence, “civilized”) tended to be diluted. One of the Brazilian professionals and most renowned in the defense of eugenics was the Maranhão physician Raimundo Nina Rodrigues. He stood alongside those who argued that the famous psychic illnesses at the time – such as epilepsy, alienation, and alcoholism  – were inherited products of unsuccessful interracial crosses. Or even originating from the so-called “inferior races” (read: “non-white”). He played an important role in the studies on legal medicine and criminology and “proposed the revision of the Brazilian penal code for the differentiated trial, on a case-­by-­case basis, of the criminal responsibility of the mestizos”. In the late 1930s, racial theories began to be discredited. They are taken as copies of foreign models displaced from the Brazilian reality. Biological determinism will gradually give way to culturalist approaches. It is more and more certain that the course of the nation, progress, and racial perfection could be achieved through the education of the Brazilian people. A researcher who will work in this direction is the anthropologist Arthur Ramos. The student of Nina Rodrigues, influenced by the ideas of Freud, Jung and Cultural Anthropology, Ramos has as its main work a research called “Introduction to Brazilian Anthropology.” This project is a kind of bibliographical revision of the main works in anthropology that took the Indian or the black people like subjects of investigation. “The central point of this research lies in the distinction established by Arthur Ramos between the notions of race and culture”. In making such a distinction, the author shifts the problem of the black from the biological to the cultural field and, along with it, also shifts the black-white hierarchy to this new arena. He says, for example, that Afro-Brazilian religions are prelogical forms of religiosity. According to him, the progress of the nation could be achieved through the repression of such practices and the pedagogization of afro-descendant populations, so that, by detaching themselves from the more backward forms, they could assimilate more advanced cultural values. It is Brazil’s time to be taken over by a nationalist feeling. When a movement is initiated by politicians, scientists, artists, and militants in search of a Brazilian identity, an economic self-support and a cultural production of its own. It is time for literature, painting, economics, sociology, and even sports activities to turn to the construction of Brazil “country of the future.” This movement occurs in dialogue with the work of some thinkers, such as: Jorge Amado, Roger Bastide, Gilberto Feyre …. It’s very interesting to note that the sign “Democracy” is slowly shifting its significance, previously restricted to the political sphere, to take on other meanings.

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Roger Bastide, for example, will characterize it as an aesthetic form of original creation and freedom for such creation. A “typical Brazilian” reality, independent of foreign dictates, which will include popular culture, festive people, peaceful and mixed race conviviality among Brazilians. At that time, the term “racial democracy” became widely used both inside and outside academia. As a rule, it refers to a supposed absence of color line in Brazil, a society in which racial prejudice would have been extirpated. The Negro was excluded from this emerging new society, in favor of that will be its protagonist: the mestizo. The black movement itself that emerges at this time bears the mark of black’s invisibility thinking. In 1931, in São Paulo, the Frente Negra Brasileira was born. The issues of greatest relevance to militants are still in the field of education. Their current situation as victims of prejudice was said to be linked to a state of moral weakness and degeneracy. Factors that were explained by their situation of abandonment, lack of education, contact with archaic customs of minor cultural value (Sic). Frantz Fanon makes a point concerning the cultural submission of the colonized Negro – of which the process of invisibilization is only one of the possible effects – from the Antillean model. Since speaking is existing for the other, Fanon attributes to language a fundamental importance of the color-to-other dimension of the color man.3 On this subject, he writes: Black has two dimensions. One with his like and another with white. A negro behaves differently with white and with another black. There is no doubt that this ciphersomeness is a direct consequence of the colonial adventure … And no one thinks of contesting that it feeds its main vein at the heart of the various theories that made the Negro halfway in the development of the monkey to man. (…) the black Antillean will be all the more white, that is, it will come closer to the true man, insofar as adopting the French language. Every colonized people – that is, every people within which an inferiority complex was born due to the burial of its cultural originality – takes position before the language of the civilizing nation, that is, of the metropolitan culture. The more you assimilate the cultural values of the metropolis, the more the colonized will escape from your jungle. The more you reject your blackness, your weeds, the whiter you will be. In the colonial army, and especially in the Senegalese infantry regiments, the native officers are, first of all, interpreters. They serve to transmit the orders of the lord to his counterparts, enjoying for that of a certain honorability. (Fanon, 2008, pp. 33–34)

It is within this context of invisibility of the Negro that the political struggle “quilombola” is born.

3  Certainly, speaking is only one of several dimensions of language, however, primordial in a study of domination and otherness, since speech as a phenomenon presupposes some fundamental characteristics of the speaking subject, for example: “(…) being able to employ one Syntax, to possess the morphology of this or that language, but it is above all to assume a culture, to bear the weight of a civilization” (Fanon, 2008, p. 33).

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6.8  The Construction of a Tradition In 2003, the land regularization of “quilombo” remnants was delegated by Decree No. 4.887/034, to the National Institute of Colonization and Land Reform – INCRA, an organ of the Ministry of Agrarian Development – MDA. The Decree No. 4.887, of November 20, 2003, states that: “Land occupied by remnants of ‘quilombos’ communities used to guarantee their physical, social, economic and cultural reproduction” (Presidência da República, 2003). Regarding the procedure, we highlight here two extremely important parts: (1) the representative body of a document where each family declaring descendant of “quilombo”; (2) an anthropological report issued by professionals appointed by INCRA, based on an in-depth study of the ethnic, historical, cultural, and socio-­ economic group. At the end of the process of recognition and demarcation, the document of investiture is issued to the representative if it is verified that the group supplies the conformities to be categorized as remnants of “quilombos,” according to Article 2 of the Federal Decree No. 4887 of 20 November 2003: “ethnic-racial groups, according to self-attribution criteria, with their own historical trajectory, endowed with specific territorial relations, with presumption of black ancestry related to resistance to oppression historical suffering” (ibid.).4 These juridical rituals implement a process of construction of the quilombola tradition, as a way of taking the experience of the rural black, the great colonial adventure referred to by Fanon, and transforming it into a discourse of resistance. Thus, “quilombola” is more precisely the one that is aware of its claiming position of ethnic rights and the capacity to self-define itself as such, through the apparatus of power, organizing itself in movements and from concrete struggles. (de Almeida, 1987/1988, p. 88)

6.9  The Quilombo Barro Branco Once the panorama is described, let’s go to the scenario and the scene … The locus is a community named “Quilombo do Barro Branco,” located in the rural zone of the city of Belo Jardim, along the highway PE 180, near the kilometer 5. Currently, it’s composed of 86 families that have as main economic activity the Agriculture and subsistence farming. During the years 2012 and 2013, a group of researchers from Federal Institute of Belo Jardim developed a project, with members of the community, with the objective of identifying and recording the musicality of oral tradition of quilombola group. As a way of knowing how much the songs that we collected in the first phase of the project were still present in the affective musical memory of those people, we took advantage of a collective community meeting: the biannual meeting for elec4  For more information on the process of regularization of lands “quilombolas,” see de Carvalho (2016).

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tion of the board of the community association. In this situation the researchers played some music that was supposed to make part of the community culture. The afternoon already set down and the sun was already showing signs of retreat, thus softening its strong and cruel reign in the drylands of Barro Branco. The people were seated in a circle, under the cashew, as was customary in the community meeting days, staring at us. We had executed coco de roda, cirandas and toadas that we learned from the older members of the locality, but most of them – people who did not have half a century of life – reacted to our song playing in an alien way: attentive, however, as if nothing of that brought them the minimum air familiarity. The only time the whole group stirred was when we played a sequence of forros of wider circulation, instrumented by Anderson’s fife. Jandson announces the last song (perhaps our greatest asset): a work song, which was taught to us by Beauty of the Rose (older woman of the place) and would be interpreted to the chapel by him and Gutenberg. As we sing the first few verses, we hear a long sigh from someone who is moved to the bottom … It was Mr. Antônio, the only prazer still active in the community and an older member present. We finish the singing and Nena, our contact in the community, calls us attention to him. Nena: He’s remembering here. Your Antonio: I’m remembering so much, boy! Nena: Mr. Antonio, tell us a little of your memories! Antonio: With the grace of God it’s too good, but there’s something we never forget. (…) Oh! My love, if I had the words to say … One night wouldn’t be enough! I’m 80, but if I were to recover, I wanted to start over. (…) My children, they say, “I appreciate what Daddy taught us.” Sometimes they want to make a comparison I taught their children, which grandchild I have over a thousand, but do they say half What did I teach my son? (…) I ask God every day for them to have a good trail to escape, because, my friend, it is no joke, did not see, the struggle of the day by day. But let’s move the boat forward dancing and singing and talking …. Field Notes of September 20, 2013.

6.10  Discussion The brief fragment of the field diary can be taken as an interesting photograph on the differences between the psychological vocabulary on memory and the social/ discursive act of remembering (Edwards, 1997). It is important to note that if the computational metaphor implied the measurement, experimental testing, and, above all, the accuracy between information and its retrieval; the function of social dynamics proper to memory reconstruction was excluded. In the report under discussion, very different from a process of memory recovery or recognition of melodic patterns of music, an intersubjective experience takes place in which the affective ­primacy, the nonverbal face of the sign and its pleromatic indetermination are configured as fundamental traits of the experience of remembering. Body-unrelated acts of communication – verbal discourse – does not easily open the gateway into the innermost layer of the psyche (Layer III). But non-verbal means – music being one of the most pervasive ones  – might. The invention of military marches, national anthems, and the accompaniment of weddings and funerals by musical framing indicates the effort to penetrate the defenses of the psyche that are otherwise well protected by the dominant verbal discourses. (Valsiner, 2014, p. 82)

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As mentioned above, music can be thought of as a form of language, a historical-­ cultural production, with the potential to gain a subjective and embodied anchorage in the self much more intense than the verbal discourse. In this sense, at the quilombola community, the researcher reports, in his field notes, the estrangement from the songs of the tradition by the current participants of the community (under the age of 50), being the only moment of engagement when it was played songs with wide media circulation, in a process of mutual broader recognition. Thus, we could say that music is a sort of emotional excavation that simultaneously bears cultural meanings and idiosyncratic sense that allows reaching deep layers of psyche. It is not a novelty that military forces, publicity companies, and religion produce its own repertoire not only as a way of sharing their values, myths, and narratives, but above all, as a way of commotion that engages a sense of belonging, an aesthetical impact which is resistant to its verbal elaboration. In this perspective, the affective primacy, which occurs in any kind of experience, is highlighted in the aesthetic musical impact. As we can follow in the speech of the elder participant concerning the audition of and old song: “With the grace of God it’s too good, but there’s something we never forget. (…) Oh! My love, if I had the words to say … One night, it wouldn’t be enough!” The interminable dimension of non-said words or “of the words about to be said” sheds light on the intensity of the experience pointing out to the three major axes that participate in the aesthetic impact: (1) The amplification of the porosity inherent in the border between internality and subjective externality; (2) a temporal suppression of the barriers between the subject and the object; and (3) semiosis always contingent and given in an irreversible time proper to the modes of regulation, approximation, and distantiation of the subject-immersed world. The four infinites (Valsiner, 2014) entangle memory and imagination in a way that its differentiation could be thought of as an artificiality concerning the holistic subjective experience. We could say that both psychological processes share the same linguistic materiality, and so, there would not be any recall if there was not the dialogical uniqueness of the encounter between the participant, the social context, and the researcher. As we can follow in the discursive fragment, the act of recovery is indissociably attached to an affective semiosis in which the past is reconstructed imaginatively – much beyond the traditional memory vocabulary of accuracy – by signs that emerge from the surprise and confrontation with the old song. In between what is reported by the question of the researcher and the surplus of meaning triggered the pleromatic sign of the music, the participant seems to elaborate the sign of “struggle” as a field of a reconstruction of his own history. Struggle and protection seems to be one of dualities that encapsulates fight, resistance, and life learning on the one hand, and, on the other hand, protection, future, and the joy of moving forward the quilombo heritage throughout generations. “What did I teach my son? (…) I ask God every day for them to have a good trail to escape, because, my friend, it is no joke, did not see, the struggle of the day to day.” By reading this speech act, it is possible for the reader to identify a silent dimension of these words, its interminability, and the effort toward an imagined future prospected in its uncertainty. “But let’s move the boat forward dancing and singing and talking.”

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6.11  (In)Conclusions or Final Considerations The present chapter sought to problematize the aesthetic dimension of human experience and its relation of inseparability to the understanding of the processes of memory and imagination. Through the perspective of the culture psychology of semiotic dynamics, we aim to problematize the challenges of constructing a knowledge that rescues the holistic view of subjectivity, rewriting the tradition of studies on memory and, at the same time, recovering the other, in this case imagination, forgotten by the psychological culture. In the first part of the chapter, we have described and discussed some cornerstones of a new approach to psychology based on aesthetic experiences. We argue that it is necessary to develop a wider understanding of “aesthetic” that goes beyond the restrict field of artistic experience and draws back to the complex debate about the concepts of beauty and sublime. This will help to discover the fundamental aesthetic nature of human psychological experiences (Tateo, 2017). Second, we have tried to make explicit the relationship between imaginative and mnemonic processes. They do not happen as an individual construction, yet are part of a totality that includes the collective dimensions of activity. Imagining and remembering are based on a shared construction of affective atmospheres. Every future and past imagination or memory is colored with an affective tone, and the affective tone is emerging through pleromatic signs produced in collective activities such as making or even hearing music. We have used an empirical report as a specimen for the proposed reflection, while at the same time recovering the meaning of the Quilombo culture as relevant as little known even in Brazilian culture. We believe that the methodological and hermeneutical challenges of this chapter are a precious object for future research and scientific production. We hope that the discussion developed in this chapter may inspire further constructions in terms of methodology and analytical perspectives for a psychology committed to human uniqueness.

References Arcanjo, J. A. (2008). “Terras de Preto” em Pernambuco: Negros do osso – Etnogênese quilombola. Dissertação, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brazil. Bakhtin, M. (2013). Estética da Criação verbal. São Paulo, Brazil: Marins Fontes. Burke, E. (1767/1998). A philosophical enquiry into the sublime and beautiful. London, UK: Penguin. Citlak, A. (2016). The Lvov-Warsaw School: The forgotten tradition of historical psychology. History of Psychology, 19(2), 105. de Almeida, A. W. B. (1987/1988). Terras de Preto, Terras de Santo e Terras de Índio: posse comunal e conflito. Humanidades, 15, 42–48. de Assis Costa, F. (2010). Lugar e significado da gestão pombalina na economia colonial do Grão-­ Pará. Nova Economia, 20(1), 167–206.

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de Carvalho, A. P. C. (2016). Tecnologias de Governo, Regularização de Territórios Quilombolas, Conflitos e Respostas Estatais. Horizontes Antropológicos, 46, 131–157. Edwards, D. (1997). Discourse and cognition. London, UK: Sage. Fanon, F. (2008). Pele branca, máscaras negras. Salvador, Brazil: EDUFBA. Frayze-Pereira, J. (2006). Arte, Dor – Inquietudes entre Estética e Psicanálise. São Paulo, Brazil: Ateliê Editorial. Jahoda, G. (2005). Theodor Lipps and the shift from “sympathy” to “empathy”. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 41(2), 151–163. Lapoujade, M. N. (2014). Homo imaginans. Itinerarios de la imaginación, Vol I de los Ensayos completos. Mexico City, Mexico: BUAP. Marková, I. (2016). The dialogical mind: Common sense and ethics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Munanga, K., & Gomes, N.  L. (2006). O Negro no Brasil de Hoje. São Paulo, Brazil: Editora Global. Muniz, V. (2007). Reflex: Vik Muniz de A a Z. São Paulo, Brazil: Cosac Naify. Pelaprat, E., & Cole, M. (2011). “Minding the gap”: imagination, creativity and human cognition. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 45(4), 397–418. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s12124-011-9176-5. PMID: 21695391. Pinheiro, M., & Meira, L. (2010). Psicologia discursiva e o sujeito do conhecimento: A singularidade como questão. Psicologia em Estudo, Maringá, 15(3), 603–611. Pinto, L. C. L., Morais, L. M. O., Guimarães, A. Q., Almada, E. D., Barbosa, P. M., & Drumond, M. A. (2016). Traditional knowledge and uses of the Caryocar brasiliense Cambess. (Pequi) by “quilombolas” of Minas Gerais, Brazil: Subsidies for sustainable management. Brazilian Journal of Biology, 76(2), 511–519. Presidência da República (2003). Link: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/decreto/2003/d4887. htm Santos, L. R. (2010). A concepção kantiana da experiência estética: Novidades, tensões e equilíbrios. Trans/form/ação, Marília, 33(2), 35–76. Skidmore, T. (1974). Black into white: Race and nationality in Brazilian Thought. New York: Oxford University Press. (2), 35–76. Tateo, L. (2015). Giambattista Vico and the psychological imagination. Culture & Psychology, 21(2), 145–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X15575695. Tateo, L. (2017). Poetic destroyers. Vico, Emerson and the aesthetic dimension of experiencing. Culture & Psychology, 23(3), 337–355. Tateo, L. (2020). A theory of imagining, knowing, and understanding. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature. Valsiner, J. (2012). A guided science: History of psychology in the mirror of its making. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Valsiner, J. (2014). An invitation to cultural psychology. London: Sage. Valsiner, J. (2018). Human psyche between the mundane and the aesthetic: The sublime as the arena for semiosis. In M. Pinheiro & M. Lyra (Eds.), Cultural psychology as basic science: Dialogues with Jaan Valsiner. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Valsiner, J., Marsico, G., Chaudhary, N., Sato, T., & Dazzani, V. (Eds.). (2016). Psychology as the science of human being: The Yokohama Manifesto. New York, NY: Springer. Vygotsky, L. (2009). A imaginação e a arte na infância. Lisboa, Portugal: Relógio d’água. Wagoner, B. (2011). Meaning construction in remembering: A synthesis of Bartlett and Vygotsky. In P. Stenner (Ed.), Theoretical psychology: Global transformations and challenges (pp. 105– 114). Concord, ON: Captus University Publications. Wagoner, B., & Gillespie, A. (2013). Sociocultural mediators of remembering: An extension of Bartlett’s method of repeated reproduction. The British Journal of Social Psychology, 53, 622– 639. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12059. Wiitgenstein, L. (2005). Observações filosóficas. São Paulo: Loyola.

Part II

Self-Development and Identity Construction

Chapter 7

Constructing Continuity After Ruptures: The Role of “Anticipatory Recognition” in Children’s Self-Development Mónica Roncancio-Moreno and Elsa de Mattos

Contents 7.1  S  elf-development in Sociocultural Theories and Dialogical Self Theory 7.2  The Notion of “Anticipatory Recognition” 7.3  Co-construction of a Developmental Trajectory Through “Anticipatory Recognition”: Empirical Evidence 7.3.1  Method 7.3.2  Case Example: Giselle’s Case in Three Phases 7.3.3  Phase 1: Strong Tensions, Uncertain Future 7.3.4  Phase 2: The Emergence of New Meanings in the Self 7.3.5  Phase 3: Anticipatory Recognition Consolidate 7.4  Concluding Remarks References

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Based on cultural psychology (Rosa, 2007; Valsiner, 2002, 2006) and the Dialogical Self Theory (DST), (Hermans, Kempen, & van Loon, 1992; Hermans & Hermans-­ Jansen, 2003; Hermans & Hermans-Konopka, 2010) this chapter aims to contribute to the discussion of the process of self-development in early childhood. The main idea is to explore the role of anticipatory recognition by significant others in processes of self-meaning construction and self-regulation during the critical transition from preschool to elementary school. Using a qualitative methodology with an

M. Roncancio-Moreno (*) Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Palmira, Colombia E. de Mattos Universidade Católica do Salvador, Bahia, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7_7

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idiographic focus, one of the authors followed a group of children during their last semester at preschool and first semester at an elementary school through direct observations, semi-structured play sessions, and interviews with the selected children’s parents and teachers. Drawing in the analysis of Giselle’s case study, we propose that the self-system is continually being reconfigured through time by overcoming of tensions in Affective-Semiotic Fields (ASF). ASFs are built in child’s dialogical relations with significant others inside and outside the school setting. We highlight the idea that a special kind of dialogical relation between Self and Other – here called “anticipated recognition” – may facilitate internal processes of regulation capable of promoting significant changes at the level of the child’s self-­ system. More specifically, we suggest that “anticipatory recognition” by significant others may foster the projection of the child’s self-system into an imagined future, supporting self-development during school transition. Anticipatory recognition may also lead to the creation of flexible signs (i.e. signs that bring flexibility to the self-­ system) – and more specifically, of promoter signs – that facilitate the emergence of new self-meanings, providing for new dynamics in the child’s ASFs. Furthermore, the emergence conflicts may eventually be overcome by anticipated recognition of new self-meanings leading to new directions in dialogical self-development. This chapter is organized in four sections. The first one draws on the perspectives of cultural psychology and dialogism to highlight both the dialogical and semiotic nature of processes of self-regulation that characterize transitions. It also discusses recent approaches to the notion of anticipatory recognition in cultural psychology. The second section presents a case example that illustrates how a girl – through her transition from preschool to school  – negotiates significant meanings of herself. Moreover, this section aims to describe how the participant builds dialogical relations with significant others that anticipate the creation of a more flexible and positive version of the self in the future – as a good drawer. The third section demonstrates and elaborates on the dynamics underlying anticipatory recognition and the processes of self-regulation by the action of flexible signs, leading to a reconfiguration of the self-system during transitions.

7.1  Self-development in Sociocultural Theories and Dialogical Self Theory In this chapter, we depart from a sociocultural and dialogical perspective on self and development (Branco & Lopes de Oliveira, 2018; Hermans, 2001; Mattos, 2018; Valsiner, 2007/2012). Cultural psychology is a recent theoretical approach that takes the notions of self and culture as interdependent, aiming to understand the person as embedded in cultural systems (Valsiner, 2002, 2006, 2007/2012, 2016). This perspective regards culture as an intra-psychological mediator which allows an inclusive separation of individual and context. Along these lines, culture is viewed not as an entity but as a process, leading to the constant renovation of

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collective meanings and personal senses, through the mediating role of signs. Semiotic mediation allows human beings to synthesize new meanings, both in the reflexive and affective domains. The person is capable of simultaneously distancing and approximating herself to the surrounding environment, creating conditions for the construction of a psychological or subjective level of experience in which actions, thoughts, and feelings become self-regulated (Abbey, 2012;  Gillespie & Zittoun 2010; Valsiner, 2007/2012). Cultural psychology regards developmental transitions through the lens of semiotic mediation, i.e., as processes that allows for human beings to synthesize new meanings, both in the reflexive (i.e., through generalizations from the meaning of words) and affective domains (Valsiner, 2007/2012). Developmental transitions involve the capacity to question what-is, to imagine a possible future-to-be (as-if), and to continuously project oneself in that imaginary meaning field to orient one’s life trajectory (Abbey & Valsiner, 2004). Along these lines, Zittoun (2006, 2008)  suggests that the developing person actively participates in his/her process of development, internalizing signs that are available in the collective culture, as well as recreating them from her own personal experience (Zittoun & Gillespie, 2015). Transition processes are triggered by ruptures or discontinuities that occur when people face situations that question what they take for granted, their existing operating meaning fields (Zittoun, Aveling, Gillespie, & Cornish, 2012). Therefore, a semiotic dynamic is created to help the person overcome ruptures and reduce uncertainty. This movement helps the person deal with emerging feelings, as she negotiates, modifies, and transforms cultural and shared meanings in a personal way, creating new meaning fields to organize and (re)structure her personal path in life, knitting past and future in the present (Zittoun et al., 2012). In this way, as they face significant ruptures, people semiotically construct and reconstruct themselves, shape and reshape their life trajectories (Zittoun et  al., 2012). In this movement, self is regarded as a regulatory system that produces innovation by transforming its own elements, and by seeking integration across time, orienting the person toward the future, while allowing for and restricting the emergence of new meanings, as well as exerting flexible control over the way individuals position themselves at every moment (Valsiner, 2007/2012, 2014). Dialogical perspectives presuppose that self and other are in mutual interdependence, and through this mutuality they co-develop (Marková, 2003, p. 250). This kind of mutuality entails joint communication and meaning-making activities. Dialogism has also been associated to dynamic and multivocal movements of construction and re-construction of meanings inside the self-system (Hermans, 2001). Dialogical Self Theory describes the self-system as multifaceted and complex, endowed with multiple voices and different positions that co-exist and hold different perspectives about the world (Hermans, 2001; Ribeiro & Gonçalves, 2011; Salgado & Gonçalves, 2007). This framework can also be used to situate the self within a set of social relations and to examine self-reconfigurations that emerge through re-positionings (i.e., positionings and counter-positionings) in

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interpersonal relations, as well as through different contexts (i.e., spheres of experience) in which the person navigates. Recent approaches to the dialogical self have highlighted the need to deepen our understanding of self-development, to capture the diachronic movement of the selfsystem through time. Along these lines, some authors have suggested that the dynamically moving self is immersed in an experience of becoming (Fogel, Kroyer, Bellagamba, & Bell, 2002), capable of changing according to different situations and moments, through dialogues with oneself and others (Salgado & Gonçalves, 2007). Taking into consideration the diachronic movement of the self-system, i.e., self-changes and self-developments through time, a fundamental approach is to regard the self-system as a meaning production system (Valsiner, 2014). Self is taken as a dynamic, self-catalytic, and self-regulating system, emerging through various forms of regulatory processes and reconfiguration of relations between different positions operating in irreversible time. Valsiner calls attention for self-capacity of reproducing its own elements (I-positions), while simultaneously dealing with continuous emergence of new elements (Valsiner, 2007/2012). Some researchers suggest the need to integrate the dialogical and cultural approaches in studying self-development (Freire & Branco, 2015; Lopes de Oliveira & Guimarães, 2016; Roncancio-Moreno & Branco, 2014, 2017). Along these lines, Freire and Branco (2015) suggest that subjective transformations in children involve alterations in I-positions, through the construction of socio-affective semiotic resources integrated to contextual factors. Similar studies with children (Freire & Branco, 2019; Roncancio-Moreno & Branco, 2014), teenagers (Lopes de Oliveira & Guimarães, 2016; Mattos & Volkmer, 2020; Zittoun & de Saint-Laurent, 2015), and youth (Mattos, 2016; Mattos & Chaves, 2014, 2015) also show that the temporal organization of the self is an intensely dynamic process related to internalizations and externalizations of new meanings, emerging as people move through tensions and ambivalences between culturally shared meanings. Overall such studies highlight processes involved in children’s personal changes in self trajectories and indicate that dialogical interactions with significant others have the potential to mobilize meaning negotiations, positioning and counter-positioning, leading to the construction of socio-affective and semiotic resources that may function as catalysts for the emergence of new self positions. The notion of Affective-Semiotic Fields (ASFs) (Roncancio-Moreno & Branco, 2017; Valsiner, 2007/2012) is a relevant concept to understand the processes of emergence of new meanings in children’s self-system. ASFs are fields of meaning – i.e., semiotic devices  – with an affective quality. The self-system is organized by specific AFSs, revealing the dynamic tensions emerging in I-other relations in different contexts. ASFs originate from the Model of Affective Regulation, proposed by Valsiner (2007/2012), as more or less diffuse fields, presenting a greater or lesser degree of affective tensions (Valsiner, Branco & Dantas, 1997; Valsiner, 2007/2012). Roncancio-Moreno and Branco (2014) suggest that the greater the degree of ambivalence and tension experienced by the person, the clearer the indicators of opposing semiotic complexes in the self-system. ASFs may, however, present a more condensed or diffuse organization depending on the moment in a person’s life cycle.

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In an idiographic qualitative study with small children, Roncancio-Moreno and Branco (2014) identified that children’s self-system is organized around ASFs, marked by strong dynamic tensions involving complexes of ambivalent meaning, such as justice × injustice; beauty × non-beauty; acceptance × non-acceptance. In their analyses, they show that these ASFs are reorganized through time, as new meanings of the self emerge. Their study also suggests that small children may present more diffuse ASF than adults, since verbal language is not yet much developed. Therefore, it is possible to think that the dynamics of self-development involves both dialogical and affective-semiotic processes.

7.2  The Notion of “Anticipatory Recognition” In the current chapter, we will elaborate on the concept of anticipatory recognition (Mattos, 2018). Some studies have already highlighted the role of anticipation of competences from significant others in child and adolescent development (Iannaccone, Marsico, & Tateo, 2012; Marková, 2003; Mattos, 2013, 2018). The notion of anticipatory recognition has recently been advanced by Mattos (2013, 2016, 2018) as a form of dialogical relation in which a significant other perceives, recognizes, and validates qualities and characteristics of the self that have not yet been manifested or expressed. In anticipatory recognition, significant others provide a kind of recognition that occurs in advance, before the person takes action or produces a specific set of self-meanings. This form of recognition then facilitates the emergence of regulatory processes in the self-system, anticipating possible new ways of being or projecting the person’s self-system into alternative futures. These processes give rise to cycles of innovation and create new hierarchies of meanings. They involve the emergence of promoter signs (Valsiner, 2014) able to overcome, integrate, and differentiate ambivalent positions in the field of self. The newly created hierarchies of meanings exert a flexible control over other self-positions, and may foster the production a new self “version”, projected into the future as a form of being-in-­becoming (Mattos, 2018). These processes might be more prominent during times of transition, when children confront new spheres of experience that challenge previous configurations of dominant I-positions developed over time within family relations – as the family is the most prevalent sphere of experience during childhood. Following this line of reasoning, researchers have shown that children’s school transitions might involve a process of self-positioning and repositioning in which they seek to develop new meanings of themselves and the world as they participate in increasingly diverse spheres of life present in their social-historical context (Freire, 2008; Roncancio-­ Moreno, 2015; Roncancio-Moreno & Branco, 2014, 2017). Children’s school transitions bring ambivalence and tensions to a child’s life, demanding a movement of searching for specific forms of semiotic regulation and temporal reorganization of the self-system. Along these lines, it is possible to think that significant others may help bring multivocality to the self-system, increasing its flexibility and dialogicality

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as well as fostering development – and these might be achieved through specific patterns of recognition (Mattos, 2018). In the next section, we will focus on a case study developed by the first author, mapping the emerging tensions between I-positions and showing how these tensions evolve over time. Moreover, the role of significant others in the overcoming of ambivalences will be highlighted. We suggest that new promoting positions emerge after dialogical encounters that take the form of anticipatory recognition. Our aim is to show how microgenetic regulatory processes, occurring between self and other, in the specific moment of transition from preschool to elementary school, may facilitate the emergence of novelty in the child’s self-system and the shaping of alternative trajectories in a longitudinal perspective.

7.3  C  o-construction of a Developmental Trajectory Through “Anticipatory Recognition”: Empirical Evidence Along the life course, every human being needs to cope with rupture events. Transition periods follow moments of rupture and allow for a reconfiguration of personal identity (Zittoun, 2009). During transitions, among different processes, anticipatory recognition may be regarded as central to the configuration and transformation of the self-system. Along these lines, Roncancio-Moreno (2015) studied psychological processes taking place in the transition from preschool to the elementary school, and elaborated on how some messages from significant others become internalized and may help the child cope with tensions in the self-system, anticipating a competence the child has not yet mastered. Following one of the cases she analyzed, the next session will illustrate how anticipatory recognition in transitional periods plays a role in a child’s self-development.

7.3.1  Method Giselle was one of the three children that Roncancio-Moreno (2015) followed in her doctoral studies in Brasilia, Brazil. Data was collected in three different phases along 5 years. Between years 2012 and 2013, the researcher followed the three children in their transitional process from preschool (Phase 1) to elementary school (Phase 2). In the beginning of year 2017, there was a follow-up interview (Phase 3) with the girl and her parents. Phase 1 was developed in the last 6 months of preschool when Giselle was 5 years old. Phase 2 was developed in the first 6 months of the elementary school when Giselle was 6 years old. The data for Phase 3 was framed around informal visits to the girl and her family in year 2017 when Giselle was 10 years old. The methodological approach for all the phases was idiographic. Phases 1 and 2 were constructed focusing on the observation of children–children

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and teacher–children interactions and on the co-construction of narratives with children, parents, and teachers. Semi-structured play situations were also designed (the dolls school, a daily journal, the cube of emotions) to facilitate the construction of children’s narratives about themselves (see Roncancio-Moreno & Branco, 2017 for further information). During Phase 3, the researcher visited Giselle’s family and conducted an interview with Giselle and her parents, focusing on the development of the girl’s competence in drawing. The participant’s narratives and interactions were analyzed using microgenetic analysis (Barrios, Barbato, & Branco, 2012) focusing on the emergence of meanings related to self-construction.

7.3.2  Case Example: Giselle’s Case in Three Phases In this chapter we will focus on the development of one special competence of Giselle to illustrate how anticipated recognition of her competence to draw from the part of the preschool teacher operated in the girl’s self reconfiguration not only during the transitional process to elementary school, but as facilitating self-stabilization and providing a frame for Giselle’s experiences.

7.3.3  Phase 1: Strong Tensions, Uncertain Future During Phase 1, Giselle was 5 years old and attended preschool. She was a very sociable girl and enjoyed taking the leadership role in her group. At the beginning of the study, the researcher observed that Giselle was taking an active role among her peers, attracting their attention, organizing play activities, and interacting positively with her teacher. Teacher–child interactions were very positive as the teacher was always kind with Giselle and sometimes gave more attention to her than to other children. Most of the time, Giselle displayed joy and seemed adapted to the preschool educational routines. At home, Giselle was living with her middle-class parents and was the younger of two sisters. Her sister, Barbara, was 8 years old, 2 years older than Giselle. Giselle was attending preschool in the morning and, in the afternoon, she stayed home with her sister and her nanny. During the interviews with her parents, we analyzed that their narrative about Giselle focused on her lack of interest in academic activities (specially literacy) and her strong need to play and draw. Drawing was the activity that Giselle most enjoyed, as confirmed by interviews with her parents, her teacher, and herself. Most of her time was spent in drawing, at school and at home (information provided by Giselle’s mother, and by her teacher and herself in the interviews). In preschool, both Giselle’s mother and teacher were aware of the girl’s ability to draw. She used her drawings ability as a way to enjoy her time at school and at home. In the Excerpt 1, we can see how her mother recognized the child competence.

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M. Roncancio-Moreno and E. de Mattos Excerpt 1 (mother’s interview) Giselle likes to draw, she loves to draw, and she draws very well, have you seen? … You need to see that shopping bag that she drew … I bought one in the supermarket, she took it and started drawing it in a piece of paper and when I looked I was amazed with the details (…) so I was impressed with her drawing [ability], she made many details, that even I… I cannot draw the way she does, I cannot make that kind of detail, the design of the shopping bag was amazing. So she is able to create, to invent! (emphasis).

Even though Giselle’s mother knew her daughter was a good drawer, she mentioned that she did not promote or praise her daughter’s ability, because she did not want her older daughter to become jealous. The same situation was reported by Giselle’s father, who was aware of the girl’s drawing skills but, at the time, he did not want to encourage it. We can see this in the Excerpt 2. Excerpt 2 (mother interview) [I] cannot praise her (Giselle for her drawings), because I do not know if you have noticed, but Bárbara (Giselle’s older sister) “dies” of jealousy. All because they have very different profiles. Gisselle is extroverted, she is more for arts, for drawing, and she is funny, making grimaces. On the other hand, Barbara is more serious, more systematic, she is very good at math, very good! (emphasis), so she has a more focused, quieter profile, then she is jealous of Giselle because I think she would like to be more extroverted but she cannot.

Meanwhile, during classroom observations, it was noticed that teacher was giving direct positive feedback to Giselle on her drawings. Giselle and her teacher were in a dialogical relationship that allows the girl for internalizing meanings related to her drawing capacity. The teacher recognized Giselle in anticipation as a good drawer and motivated her to improve her drawings. The teacher also recognized the girl’s drawing abilities in front of the group. Teacher’s actions together with the mother’s narratives in excerpts 1 and 2 are indicators of possible anticipatory recognitions, which will become highlighted in Phase 2. As such, attributions from significant others about Giselle’s ability became voices that, during the process of transition, became internalized into the dynamics of the self-system. Attributions form significant others in the family, i.e., mother and father, were ambivalent in regard to Giselle’s skills. On the one hand, Giselle’s parents were aware of their daughter’s competence in drawing, but they did not explicitly praise her, because this could trigger her sister’s jealousy. On the other hand, even though the parents did not explicitly express to the girl that she was a good drawer, they took actions in the direction of recognizing her competence, such as buying the shopping bag or paper and pencils for drawing, which helped Giselle’s ability to develop. According to Giselle’s father, she loved to draw and to play, and did not appreciate much to study. He did not perceive Giselle’s drawing ability as relevant for her development. Thus, it is possible that there was a tension in her self-system produced because the parent’s actions were in ambivalence in face of their verbalizations. However, there was also the strong voice of the teacher, who was actively, recognizing and promoting Giselle’s capacity for drawing. It was observed that the teacher showed Giselle’s drawings to the other students, highlighting how well they

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were elaborated. The teacher exalted, permanently, Giselle’s ability, becoming a significant social other that explicitly communicated her possibilities as a developing subject. Thus, both the parents’ and the teacher’s meanings can be seeing as working as semiotic markers, orienting Giselle’s construction of future. During preschool, Giselle showed abilities for drawing; however, at that time, she could not recognize this competence in herself or at least she did not talk about this capacity during the interviews in Phase 1. The drawings that Giselle’s elaborated during the interviews with the researcher were complex in comparison to those created by children of her age. As Fig. 7.1 shows, Giselle’s drawing was very rich in details, but this characteristic externalized by the girl was not clearly valued by her family, probably because they did not praise her ability. Finally, in Phase 1, we noticed the rise of some tensions, all of them related to the Giselle’s capacities in literacy activities and in drawing. Sometimes, she felt she was a “smart” girl, and other times she felt as “dump.” These internal tensions reflected ambivalent adult voices emerging in Giselle’s spheres of experience as she tried to regulate her self-system. Even though preschool context was less demanding than other more structured school environments, such tensions between “clumsiness” or “smartness” were related to Giselle’s fulfilling of expectations regarding school activities. Drawing was a joyful activity, internalized by Giselle as a mechanism for development.

Fig. 7.1  Giselle’s drawing during preschool. “A family that I don’t know” (5 years old)

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7.3.4  Phase 2: The Emergence of New Meanings in the Self In Phase 2, Giselle was 6 years old and attended the first year of elementary school. Her family environment remained the same as in Phase 1. However, the school environment changed completely from preschool, as Giselle now attended a new school with some of her former classmates. There were less spaces for playing and for collaborative activities with classmates. During school time (5 hours a day), the schedule was distributed among activities in writing, reading, and math. Friday was the only day children could play freely. Is important to notice that, in Phase 1, even when children were doing “literacy” activities, these were used a way to “prepare” them for literacy, and occupied only a small part of children daily activities, as most of the time they were playing. In Phase 2, we observed Giselle’s growing interest in drawing and the new teacher also noticed the girl’s ability to draw. In the first weeks of elementary school, Giselle became more interested in drawing, certainly with the support of a context that displayed a great value for the use of paper and pencil. However, in the new school context, children had less time to play (except for recess and on Fridays), and were not allowed to play inside the classroom. Children had to dedicate much more attention to learning to read and write. Based on these new values, it seems that Giselle used her ability to draw as a resource for regulating her feelings about literacy. In Phase 1, she was struggling with some literacy activities (preparing for schooling), and her parents expected she could be more interested in reading and writing. Thus, the new school environment seemed to be challenging for Giselle. During research observations, we noticed that Giselle was worried about how to read and write. In the classroom she frequently asked the teacher for a change in activity when it involved writing. Sometimes the teacher allowed Giselle to draw instead of finishing her classwork. In the family environment, Giselle’s father reported in the interviews that he was extremely worried about his daughter’s learning abilities and he did not know if she was capable to learn. Giselle’s father based his judgment in a previous health problem (epilepsy episodes) Giselle presented when she was younger, which was already overcome. Acting this way, he was anticipating a failure about his daughter’s literacy development. It was also difficult for him to identify other competences in Giselle beyond drawing and playing. In this dialogical relationship with her father, Giselle was actively internalizing his message and expectation of failure, and she was struggling with the other perspective of the self (her father) (Marková, 2003). During research interviews and during the teacher assignments, Giselle sometimes expressed that she felt was not good enough for reading and writing. And, in our analysis, this negative self-attribution seemed to be related to her father’s expectations about her incapacity. In classroom observations, Giselle dedicated more attention to drawing than to academic classwork, and the drawing activity was accepted and validated by her new teacher. It can be interpreted that, for Giselle, drawing was a symbolic resource for coping with negative feelings emerging in the transitional process, which was recognized and promoted by the teacher. During

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classes, it was observed the teacher talked with other children about Giselle’s ability for drawing. Occasionally, she even asked Giselle to help with her own drawings during the classes. In this kind of situations, we can see how the teacher was communicating messages to Giselle messages not only recognizing her ability, but also creating situations for the whole class to appreciate Giselle’s skills. In this phase 2, the confrontation between the father’s voice and the teacher’s voice created a tension in Giselle self-system as the adults were anticipating different developmental trajectories for the girl. While Giselle’s father was anticipating her failure, the teacher was promoting the development of her drawing skills. In this scenario, the girl had to deal with this tension and make decisions, leading Giselle to increase drawing as a daily activity. In Phase 2, Giselle was confronting a new environment, and new experiences which could transform and reconfigure the self, to repositioning the self (Mattos, 2018). In interviews with the researcher in this second phase, Giselle was interested and motivated to draw. Figure 7.2 shows one of Giselle’s drawing. Along these lines, it is possible to think that her drawing skill worked as a cultural resource to promote self-regulation and to mediate the relationships that the girl was developing with the teacher, her classmates, and her family. In fact, Giselle usually gave letters with drawings to her classmates, using them to communicate her affectivity. Drawings were a powerful resource for Giselle self-development and repositioning. Moreover, Giselle explicitly mentioned that she was a good drawer and also said that people usually appreciate this ability she displayed, e.g., she said, “I can draw very well!” or “I prefer to draw” (more than doing classwork). It can be interpreted that this recognition emerged from Giselle’s active internalization of orientations coming from different adults (in the family and at school) and the demands of the

Fig. 7.2  Giselle’s drawing during the first year of primary. A journalist in a house on fire (six years old)

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new school context. Some significant others in Giselle’s spheres of experience (such as her preschool teacher, her elementary school teacher, and her mother) acted as social promoters of these meanings. When the preschool teacher praised Gisselle’s work in front of her classmates, she actually projected a “possible future” for her, presenting an image of Giselle in the future, of some qualities she was not yet presenting, but that she could develop. The preschool teacher made an anticipation of the girl’s ability for drawing. This facilitated Giselle’s later self-recognition of Giselle as a good drawer. At this point, it is possible to expect that drawing may become, in time, a sign capable of regulating Giselle’s projections of herself in the future. Finally, in Phase 2, Giselle was struggling with the new demands in the school context. In her dialogical relationships, she was actively internalizing messages of multiple voices – father, mother, teachers – for configuration and reconfiguration of the self. Also it is possible to say that these processes were more prominent because she was young and still in transition (Mattos, 2018; Roncancio-Moreno, 2015).

7.3.5  Phase 3: Anticipatory Recognition Consolidate Phase 3 of research took place in March of 2017, when Giselle she was initiating the fifth grade of elementary school. The researcher visited Giselle and her family and interviewed them. This encounter took place after an interval of approximately 4 years without any contact by the researcher. However, when the visit was proposed, the family promptly accepted and was available to collaborate. In 2017, the researcher visited Giselle’s house. She had a new sister, Madeline, who was 2 years old. The family received the researcher and was very comfortable with the interview. They continued living in the same house as the beginning of the research, the parents were still working in the same jobs, and the children had another nanny. Giselle’s routine has not changed much since she was in the first year of elementary school – she went to school in the morning and came back home in the afternoon. The researcher asked questions about Giselle’s development  – how she was doing in school, socialization, etc. The first comment from the father to the researcher was she is drawing very well, and he asked Giselle to go get her drawings and bring them to the researcher (Fig. 7.3). Her mother also highlighted Giselle’s fine ability for drawing, and even her sister, Barbara, who did not recognize Giselle’s ability in the past, now mentioned she was an amazing drawer. When Giselle brought her drawing, she showed a set of designs to the researcher, which included a kind of comic book (made by herself) with different characters and other several drawings. Most of the drawings portrayed Giselle herself together with her friends. The theme depicted in the drawings was related to friendship, relations between boys and girls, love, family life, and relationship breakups. Each of the drawings depicted a story, and Giselle wrote part of the stories inside bubbles. Giselle was very proud of her drawings and she talked to the researcher that she enjoyed very

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Fig. 7.3  Giselle’s drawing during the fifth grade. Pool party (ten years old)

Fig. 7.4  Giselle’s drawing during the fifth grade. My mom working in her office

much to draw. Giselle also mentioned that drawing helped her to externalize her feelings: I like to draw because I can say many things about me and my friends, about my feelings, about love. In Fig. 7.4, she wrote: I love to draw. During this meeting, we observed the meanings related to drawing were positive and it seemed that everybody in the family was promoting the development of Giselle’s drawing ability. It is possible to think that, in Phase 3, all family members

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aligned and recognized Giselle’s ability in drawing. They also gave less relevance to her academic achievements than to her drawing ability. They were not so worried about Giselle’s underachievement at school. Drawing was working as a sign or a semiotic marker, which anticipated a positive perspective of Giselle’s future. During the conversation with the researcher, Giselle’s father was insisting on the extraordinary capacity of his daughter for drawing; he also promoted the development of this ability, buying drawing materials and giving positive feedback to the girl about her skill. Both, her mother and sister, were openly proud about Giselle’s drawing skills. Giselle seemed to be very comfortable with this situation. Figure 7.4 depicts a drawing of Giselle with her friends in a pool party. Finally, it is possible to say that significant others in Giselle’s spheres of experience were doing an anticipatory recognition of her skill and providing new meanings that facilitated self-regulation. In Phase 3, Giselle’s drawing skill was consolidated as a dominant position in the Giselle’s self-system. A positioning I as a good drawer could help Giselle’s overcoming of tensions. In Phases 1 and 2, there was a permanent tension in her family, as parents were ambivalent about the development of Giselle’s reading and writing skills. However, drawing ability emerged as a helpful resource to deal with the tensions. Giselle as an active subject transformed dialogical relation within her family, and internalized a position as a good drawer.

7.4  Concluding Remarks In this paper, we have explored the processes taking place within the self-system of a child during a significant school transition, highlighting how a special kind of dialogical relation with significant others – anticipatory recognition – may contribute to the operation of cycles of meaning construction leading to the emergence of flexible signs and producing new perspectives for the self. We have also explored how emerging tensions and ambivalence can be resolved through the creation of new meanings in the self-system. The idea was to contribute to the understanding of self-regulatory processes through semiotic mediation. The case study of Giselle was used to illustrate the condition of self-regulation in which anticipatory recognition by significant others of Giselle’s ability become progressively internalized and allow for more dialogicality within the self and a projection of the self in the future. A new synthesis within the self-system is promoted by the action of flexible signs such as good drawer, and Giselle could create a new and strong self-position. Expanding previous ideas on the role of significant others in people’s trajectories (Mattos, 2018; Mattos & Chaves, 2014), here we suggest that significant others may anticipate new meanings for the self-system, promoting the emergence of self-­ regulatory internal processes. Significant others provide anticipated recognition of a possible becoming (of the self) in the future, and therefore facilitate the emergence of flexible signs/positions, as well as promote the emergence of positive feelings. At the same time, they validate or legitimize new meanings that are produced in the field of self into a broader context. These ideas expand previous research on the

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concept of recognition (Honneth, 1995; Taylor, 1994), and specially on Marková’s (2003) notion that recognition implies a form of trust. In our view, anticipatory recognition can also be regarded as a form of trust, in the sense that initial ambivalences in relations with significant others is later turned into trust, as the self progressively internalizes other’s perspective. Results shows that dialogical relations with significant others  – specially around patterns of recognition  – that involve anticipatory recognition by significant others of future becoming seems to play a positive role in children’s developmental transitions. Specifically, Giselle shows how some anticipation provided by the Preschool teacher, in Phase 1, contributed to the co-construction of a specific dialogical relation that could be later internalized and help develop the self-system. Flexible signs – such as I as good drawer – emerged as anticipatory recognition by the preschool teacher, and later confirmed by the elementary school teacher, allowed for Giselle’s distancing from the here-and-new flux experiences, facilitating differentiation and promoting new changes in her self-system when the new context required them. Flexible signs enabled the construction of an alternative self version – as a good drawer  – a being-in-becoming that projected Giselle into the future. What results from this semiotic regulation process – operated by flexible signs – is therefore a new dynamic inside the child’s Affective Semiotic Fields (AFSs), leading to new directions in dialogical self development.

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Chapter 8

Dynamics Between Past, Present, and Future: The Role of Constructive Imagination in a Musician-Teacher’s Life Trajectory Angela Uchoa Branco and Tatiana Alves Tatiana Melo Valério

Contents 8.1  8.2  8.3  8.4  8.5  8.6 

 emory and Life Trajectory Narratives M Imagination: Reconstructing the Past and Anticipating the Future Ruptures and Transitions Along Life Trajectories Felipe’s Cultural Context Analysis of Felipe’ Life Trajectory The Catalyst Role of Special Social Others 8.6.1  Alberto 8.6.2  Paulo 8.6.3  Others 8.7  The Military: Major Bifurcation Point Leading to a Rupture 8.8  The Interplay Between Rupture, Transitions and Shadow Trajectories 8.9  Self-Positionings: “I-Musician,” “I-Teacher,” “I as a Musician-Teacher” 8.9.1  I-Self Position as a Musician 8.9.2  I-Self Position as a Teacher 8.9.3  Merging of Positionings: The Self as a Musician-Teacher 8.10  The Imagined Future 8.11  Conclusion References

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A. U. Branco (*) University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] T. A. M. Valério Federal Institute of Pernambuco, Belo Jardim, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7_8

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Cultural psychology, in association with a Trajectory Equifinality Approach (TEA, Zittoun & Valsiner, 2016), consists of a very productive theoretical and methodological approach to make sense of human diverse trajectories within cultural historical contexts. Our study is about the life trajectory of Felipe, a musician born and raised in a poor town, located in the countryside of Pernambuco, a Northeastern state of Brazil. The aim of this investigation was to identify and analyze indicators in his narrative  – obtained during four consecutive interviews  – concerning the ontogenesis of hypergeneralized signs the participant considered as fundamental guides during his life trajectory. For Felipe, music turned out to be his utmost hypergeneralized sign, leading him to become a musician. However, life’s financial circumstances made him to choose a career as a teacher as well, and, as a result, Felipe developed a double self-positioning that we can designate as a Musician/Teacher (hybrid) or as a Musician-Teacher (dualistic) positioning. Our focus is upon how personal values – as well as other significant events and memory reconstructions guided by imagination – progressively oriented Felipe’s trajectory during developmental ruptures, bifurcations, and transitions along his life experiences. In this longitudinal study, data were constructed from the narratives of the participant during four interviews carried out by the same researcher (the second author) in different occasions. In the research, we also video-recorded the participant’s actions in real situations as a saxophone player (a wedding ceremony), and some events from this video recording were used to elicit his narrative during the fourth interview. We analyzed Felipe’s continuous memory reconstructions (Wagoner, 2012) as the participant mobilized his fertile imagination, while revisiting his past experiences, feelings of failure and success, and anticipation of a possible future (the achievement of his dreams). As we identify and analyze some of the events and experiences of the participant in his life narratives, we elaborate on the dynamic quality of individual’s self-positionings vis-à-vis the active internalization of meanings that, ultimately, play the role of personal values orienting his actions, choices, efforts, and self-evaluations. We highlight factors that may have influenced his experiences, bringing to the foreground bifurcation points he suggests in his narratives; and, last, but not least, we discuss aspects related to his non-lived, though imagined, life trajectories (Zittoun & Valsiner, 2016). In the following sections, the reader will find, first, the theoretical framework within which data are constructed. Next, we analyze Felipe’s discourse interpreted from a cultural semiotic perspective. Excerpts from his narratives illustrate the major theoretical arguments hereby elaborated, as they reveal the operation of specific powerful affective-semiotic signs we can infer from his narrative. In the final section, we draw conclusions stressing the importance of longitudinal studies to provide empirical evidence to developmental research, as we argue for the role of imagination in bringing together the past, the future, and the present during human development (Valsiner, 2014, 2016).

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8.1  Memory and Life Trajectory Narratives In the context of autobiographic interviews, personal memories transform into narratives, namely, stories that address a particular audience  – the interviewer. Interviews are the most appropriate method to study human life trajectories, but researchers must be aware of the co-constructive nature of interviews. This means that what people remember – and how memories are reconstructed and organized in the format of personal stories – significantly depends on the specific interlocutor, the context, and the individual’s disposition at the moment of the interview. No doubt the stories told by someone depend on the quality of the relationship, or the interaction, with the listener (or interviewer), as well as on how the social other is perceived by the speaker. Along the interview, the communicative partners co-­ regulate (Fogel, 1993) their actions and co-construct (Madureira & Branco, 2001) the contents of the messages and the way people exchange information. The relational situation within which stories are narrated strongly guides the selection and reconstruction of memories, what grants memory with its social quality (Wagoner, 2012). Life narratives consist of constructive experiences of remembering the past and better understanding one’s own emotions, choices, preferences, and values. As persons elaborate on those aspects of their lives, they can better understand themselves (Fivush & Nelson, 2004) and the flux of their self-­ development through the emergence, transformation, and extinction of their various self-positionings along life trajectory. According to Smorti and Fioretti (2016), narratives “transform memory from an emotional point of view. Providing a narrative structure to memory, promotes more complex emotions, evoking new feelings and new points of view about the past life event” (p.  313). The authors elaborate on the relations between autobiographical memories and narrative, which mutually construct each other. As they conclude, “Remembering is a trade-off between the need to be consistent to the self-scheme and the need to respect the corresponding reality” (p. 315). The relevance and the quality of autobiographical memory are determined by its emotional valence, and emotions are derived from the goal attainment, that is, from the extent to which a self-relevant aim has – or has not – been accomplished. Self-­ relevance, consistency, and congruency (Levine & Pizarro, 2004) are fundamental guidelines of autobiographic narratives. Therefore, the affective dimension of the semiotic processes plays a crucial role in the continuous reconstruction of the past and the imagination of the future, what turns out in bringing together the relevant aspects of the irreversible time to a particular individual, at a certain moment in the present (when the person narrates). Hence, the notions of past, present, and future can be conceived as distinctive though intertwined through the dynamics of feed-­ back and forward processes (Valsiner, 2016). The effects of affective-semiotic processes upon human development, therefore, cannot be overestimated, and they particularly operate in the higher mental function of imagination.

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8.2  I magination: Reconstructing the Past and Anticipating the Future The investigation of imagination, conceived as a higher mental function, has not received the same attention scientific psychology has provided to other functions such as memory, language, or cognition. Zittoun (2015), analyzing imagination as a sociocultural phenomenon, argues that it is “the process by which our stream of thought disengages from the here and now of our immediate, or ‘proximal’ experience” (p. 129). She adds that Imagination can be described as a “loop” of consciousness that allows exploring distal experiences in which the rules of physical time and of causality do not apply – imagining being on a sunny beach when we are in a snowy town, imagining how daily life would be on an island or on Mars, or enjoying traveling back in time to undo past events. (p. 129)

As other higher mental functions, imagination makes use of semiotic resources acquired and developed along ontogeny, which are constructed and reconstructed as one brings elements from the past, and creates new and alternative events, and realities, not bound to the actual norms and constraints of actual existence. As experiences and conditions are imagined, the person frees her/himself from factual events and experiences and wanders across an illusory reversible time that unites the past – continuously constructed and reconstructed (Bartlett, 1932; Wagoner, 2012; Zittoun & Cerchia, 2013) – the present, and the anticipated future, which can include both a probabilistic come-into-being experience and/or a totally unrealistic existence. Imagination, therefore, opens new developmental possibilities as it creates new resources to face actual problems and to establish new goals and motivations toward the accomplishment of new advances in human knowledge and life realities. Imagination and creativity consist of two closely related psychological functions, but as imagination flies freely across time and impossibilities, creativity demands a physical expression – a poem, an artful craft, a symphony – of the original human generated novelty. Hence, imaginative and creative processes mutually feed each other (Glaveanu, 2016), as they open new venues for human development, enabling the emergence and interplay of positionings and perspectives toward an infinite of future possibilities. Wagoner (2016) revisits and analyzes the fundamental contribution of Bartlett, as he highlights the constructive nature of memory. We do not remember the facts and experiences “as they actually happened,” for both – particularly experiences – are subject to cultural interpretation. Historians certainly know that meaning constructions of historical events are open to alternative interpretations. Physical events do take place, but elaborations of their causes and impact are always subjected to the interpretation of a specific community of scientists, politicians, namely, those who write the history. Our memory, as argued before, is highly affected by powerful affect-laden experiences and social relationships. In addition, new affect-laden experiences and relationships are experienced in the present and anticipated in the future, all contributing to the nature of our experiences and our sense of reality. The integration of past-present-and-future experiences (Valsiner, 2016), thus, guides the

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affective-semiotic reconstruction of our memories in the present, as well as it guides the affective-semiotic construction of future experiences, through the operation of our imagination. Remembering can be conceived “as an imagination of the past,” says Zittoun (2012, p.  520). An example well illustrates the reconstructive nature of memory. Sarah, as a young child, learned how to play the piano after her mother – encouraged by her brother – arranged for the girl to take lessons with a piano teacher not related to the family. Later on, Sarah’s uncle became a famous musician. As an adolescent and young adult, Sarah followed a carrier as a bank accountant, and never actually thought much of her early musical experience. After getting married, she felt bored with her job in the bank, and her husband encouraged her to become a pianist. Therefore, she decided to dedicate herself to this project, and became a well-known performer. When interviewed, later on, about her life trajectory, Sarah told numerous stories about her childhood memories of her relationship, and musical experiences with her uncle, which never happened because he had left the country and lived elsewhere during the time in which he would have, supposedly, supervised her. Sarah, however, was not lying: when finally confronted with the facts, she was shocked by how her memory played an unfair trick at her, because she could remember “very well,” in her mind, the images of her uncle teaching her how to play the piano! A possible explanation to Sarah’s false, or illusory, recollection could be the integration, as time went by, of the affective value of music, family relations, and cultural expectations, all leading to her convictions and vivid remembering of past experiences.

8.3  Ruptures and Transitions Along Life Trajectories A person birth takes place in a certain moment of history (of the group within which he is born), and from that moment on, his/her life will unfold as time goes on. It also takes place in a family, with its beliefs, located in an area of a town, in a country that has current policies, that is, in a social, material, and symbolic environment. (Zittoun, 2012, p. 515)

The major characteristic of human life trajectories is multilinearity. This means that there are many pathways leading to relatively comparable developmental results. The Trajectory Equifinality Model  – TEM (Sato et  al., 2007; Sato, Hidaka, & Fukuda, 2009) – takes this into account as it proposes a methodology to analyze ontogenetic processes  – human life trajectories  – according to a longitudinal research design, which allows for the identification of ruptures, transitions, bifurcation points, and shadow trajectories. More recently, Valsiner and Zittoun have advanced the perspective, suggesting what they designated as a Trajectory Equifinality Approach (TEA, Zittoun & Valsiner, 2016). Along life trajectories, all sorts of events contribute to the occurrence of redirections of previously imagined pathways and TEA provides the tools for their analysis. Those events of objective or subjective nature, which have a significant impact over the individual’s trajectories, are known as ruptures. As Zittoun (2012) points

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out, ruptures are what life-course researchers call turning points or critical moments, and usually consist of bifurcation points. They demand substantial intransitive changes that initiate active adjustment or adaptation to the new conditions whereby generated, provoking significant affective-semiotic reconstructions of the past and the creation of new perspectives concerning the future. Such reconstructions are, thus, fundamental to allow for a relative consistency and coherence of self-­narratives regarding the new perspectives of self-development and self-meanings that arise from the new direction assumed in life’s trajectory. Next, we will present and analyze the story of Felipe via his life trajectory narratives, obtained during four individual interviews, carried out by the second author. Felipe tells the story of his life, explaining how he became a musician and a teacher: in his autobiographic account, he refers to and evaluates the role of significant others, his carrier choices, doubts and frustrations, and his goals and dreams concerning the future.

8.4  Felipe’s Cultural Context Pernambuco is a Brazilian Northeastern state. It has a territorial extension of 98,312 km2, 8,796,448 inhabitants (BRASIL, 2010), and many people live in poor families in the countryside. Felipe was born to one of these families. He was 30 years old by the time of the interviews. He was born in a small town in the agreste micro-­ region, and still lived with his parents. In the region where he lives, music bands are one of the most meaningful forms of art expression. In the state of Pernambuco, 183 music bands were active in their communities: twenty-two are centenaries and four sesquicentennials (Holanda Filho, 2010). Under the denomination of Musical or Philharmonic Societies, music bands function as small conservatories in several cities, and are characterized as non-formal education institutions (Trilla, 2008). According to Sousa (2015, p. 6), “the bands function as though they were school institutions, serving children, young adolescents and adults belonging to many social segments.” They fulfill the function of music technical schools, although they are not recognized as formal school because they neither graduate, nor certify the training they offer. The bands are out of the reach of public education policies and, therefore, do not receive educational financing support from public departments. The musical formation offered by the bands adopt a traditional pedagogical work that implements an old-school methodology consisting of repetition and memorization, as well as a strong emphasis on musical instrument mastering and a concern to prepare the kind of professional performance demanded by the military career. The tradition of teaching musicians for the military (Navy, Army, and Aeronautics) and auxiliary forces (Military Police, Civilian Police, Fire Brigade, and others) is very popular among the professionals and apprentices, since alternatives to make a living in poor contexts such as Felipe’s home village and surrounding areas are very few.

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Music bands, thus, play an important role in the preparation of musicians for bands of various military corporations (Sousa, 2015).

8.5  Analysis of Felipe’ Life Trajectory Our study focused on the life trajectory of a recently graduated musician (degree in popular music) in the country area of the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Felipe was born and raised in a town located in Pernambuco countryside. He began his musical training with the village’s music band, which suggested to its members to apply to a career in the military as a military musician, for it would allow them make a good salary, promotions, and professional stability. Felipe mentioned his early childhood as the moment when he became involved with music. His grandfather collected vinyl discs and played clarinet at the town’s bus station. He introduced young Felipe into the musical world, particularly by encouraging the kid to listen to Brazilian folk music during moments of expressive affection: In grandpa’s place…He loved me, and put me to sleep on his lap while listening to music, I was very young. Then I grew up listening to a lot of music, he had all the performances by Luiz Gonzaga, Angela Maria, Dalva de Oliveira, Núbia Lafaiete, he was a Nelson Gonçalves’ fan, a lot of instrumental music, chorinho, music band’s music, Abel Ferreira. So, I grew up listening to all this, Dilermando Reis, right? So I grew up listening to music!

When he was about 12 years old, Felipe joined his town’s musical band, and started a more formal relation with music. For him, joining the band represented a possibility to study and learn music. During high school, he and his peers played in a rock band. Later on, playing with the band allowed him to get enough money he needed to get by as a bachelor, and his passion for music is always present in his narratives, as follows: Every weekend I won some money and by the end of the month I had some, and as I didn’t have a family commitment, you know, I was doing what I like, I was passionate about it, doing music (…) and then, when I was 18, I was working professionally with music.

According to Zittoun and Valsiner (2016), it is possible to utilize the TEA model at different levels of analysis, from microgenesis to mesogenesis to ontogenesis. As our information comes from four interviews, we take an ontogenetic perspective to make sense of Felipe’s life trajectory. In Fig. 8.1 we can find a depiction of his trajectory constructed from his narratives, where we highlight four possible bifurcation points – which admitted alternative directions (actually not pursued) – and one significant rupture, which occurred when he failed the entrance exam to join the military corporation (the Army).

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Irreversible Time Past Age . . . . 5 . . . .

Present 10 . . . . 15 . . . . 20 . . . . 25 . . . . T1

T2

T3

T4

T5

Future

30 T6

Time 1 (T1): He meets Alberto and joins the music band, Time 2 (T2): Bifurcation Point: He fails the exam to the Brazilian Army; Time 3 (T3): He meets Paulo and decides to go to college (ends up succeding the entrance exam); Time 4 (T4): He enters the Undergraduate Music Course at UFPE: Time 5 (T5): He changes the institution and enters to the IFPE Undergraduate Music Course Time 6 (T6): Interviews.

Fig. 8.1  Anchor points throughout Felipe’s trajectory of life

8.6  The Catalyst Role of Special Social Others According to Felipe, “I talk a lot about this; they were my tripod, my grandpa, Alberto, and then Paulo” (fictitious names). Below we find his own comments on the magnitude of their relevance. His grandfather’s role was made explicit when he spoke about his initial interest in music. It seems that being born in a region of the state of Pernambuco where playing music was part of the collective cultural values (Holanda Filho, 2010; Moreira, 2013), and his early introduction to a world by his grandfather had a relevant effect in canalizing Felipe’s motivation toward music and its instruments. Among those who influenced his goals and aspirations, the grandpa certainly was the first person worth mentioning, and Felipe recognized that, with pride and admiration. Later, Alberto (his first teacher) and Paulo (his good friend) are those who Felipe permanently remembers and talks about as the most important people in his life. In the fourth interview, after mentioning the crucial role of Alberto in his life, Felipe ponders, R: What about Paulo, do you think he was another, another big… F: He was a breaking point R: A rupture, breaking point? F: Yeah, a breaking point, because there he was a kind of a watershed, saying “No way, man, you must be a musician, it’s a fantastic profession!”

8.6.1  Alberto F: I went to the band and my first teacher, right, was Alberto. He was my great master, right, great musician. He lived here for many years, started a family, had a family there, and with his activities with the band, being a talented musician, he prepared many musicians, you know, who today are…all of these guys studying here in the Institute, they were Alberto’s students, they started out with Alberto. R: Those from X… F: Those from X, all of them, right, José, Luís, Pedro, all graduated now with me. I started to study music in the philharmonic band of X, I mean, able to read the sheet music,

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all about music bands and stuff. I began when I was, like, 12 to 13 years old, 12, and my first instrument was a requinta, which is an E sharp, an acute instrument, and then I became fascinated with music. I already had, you know, a thing for singing, listening. I was already into music without knowing it. My grandpa used to bring me into music as we listened to a lot of music, then I was in the band, right, when I was 12, and so I followed my way… Many excerpts underline Alberto’s role: Until I was 15, I was a bit lazy with music. I’d make music for fun, but one day Alberto said, “Look, I was told you are missing your obligations,” yes, I missed to go play soccer, “and you are a terrible player, then what? You won’t be a professional player, just forget it, but, music, you are, you have a big potential here. So, commit yourself to music, man!” He just gave me…that was worse than beating me up, you know? Alberto is right, then I will be a musician very well, at 15, I made up my mind. I want to become a musician. I started to study for hours in the band (…) I started to work as a musician. I played during carnival. I made money with music. After I graduated in high school, I was kind of doing whatever, till Alberto said, “Look, the Fundação Música e Vida [Music and Life Foundation] is an excellent place,” he knows the saxophone teacher there (…), he said, “Go study there, man!” Alberto, he was a highly level musician, but never opposed you going after other teachers, you know. Alberto … was the one who… you know… who gave me, Alberto made me understand music. We listened to music together, he took us to listen to music…

Alberto again plays a central role when he expels Felipe from the band (“You are forbidden from now on to play with the band, man”). In Felipe’s narrative, Alberto did that to allow him to actually develop as a musician. What would not have happened if he stayed in his small town, playing with the band: “Man, go away, time is up! You have, with your talent you should already be…go to Y [another city].” This happened when he was about 18 years old. Felipe admired, and was very proud of Alberto, who taught him the value of dignity. In his narrative, he described an offensive event that made Alberto and the group feel very bad. They had been invited to play by the City Hall, and when a trash truck came to pick them up, Alberto rose up to his feet: “The band won’t go! Go back there and tell them the band won’t go. The band will go when they send a fair transportation to the musicians. Go back and tell this to the mayor!”

8.6.2  Paulo Felipe describes with enthusiasm his first meeting with Paulo, I went to another room, and there was Paulo, playing some solos [with his guitar], I went, “this guy knows what he’s doing…” then I was there, looking, he talking to people…and then what happens? He asked me, “Hey, are you going to study guitar?” I said, “No, I just came to see…” “Oh, but what do you play?” “I play the sax.” “You play the sax? Where is it?” “It’s in my place.” My place was kind of close. “Go get it, let’s play!” I got the sax, my place is close to the school, I got it, then I said, “I like to play choro” [a kind of folk music]. He said, “What choro do you play? Play something!” Then I started playing and we went along. Then it was that musical chemistry, man, and he said, “Do you want to play with me in a group I have in Z? The Z choro quintet?” [he laughs]. It was Paulo, Cristiano, in the piano, Denis in percussion, and myself. I said, “I’ll go!”

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Felipe explains how Paulo became important to him, and had a central role for his entrance in the university: “I played with Paulo everywhere (…) our friendship getting stronger day by day, and he always doing the entrance exams to go to the university, very persistent …”. After Paulo was approved in the exam, Felipe became worried: “Oh God, I’m lost, I lost my friend…with whom am I supposed to play now? I’ve got to follow this guy, no way…”, and then concluded, “I’ll do this stuff, too. That’s it!” Grateful to Paulo for his role in instigating him to become a composer, he adds: “I give thanks, again, to my friend Paulo …”.

8.6.3  Others Many were the social others mentioned in his interviews. Among them, Felipe often mentioned “the girls,” in the plural. He said they encouraged him to play the saxophone (the instrument was “cool”), and playing sax made it easier to have girlfriends (Wow, Felipe is playing the sax!). They also encouraged him to study for the university entrance exam: “Felipe, why don’t you do the exam?” “Why would I do that?” “You’re a guy who likes to read, you play music and stuff…”. They also invited him to study with them. He did that, enjoyed to study with them, and had a special crush on one of the girls. Felipe does not tell us about his mother. He refers to his father, though, in the fourth interview only, and he was associated with strong, negative-laden emotions: F: In fact, I, I suffered a lot because of those (family) issues until I was like 26, 27 years old. Sometimes I got back from college at night, the whole day studying, and my father was, he created a big trouble, sometimes was taken to the hospital, things like that… R: Difficult… F: Difficult. I think this, this made me develop a lot, like, due to the conflicts we had. And music as well, because it was my refuge, music was my big refuge.

Felipe had a very conflictual relationship with his father, and he was the reason why Felipe did not go to Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro when he had a chance. This happened because he had to stay and provide for the family, due to his father’s frequent drinking problems. As mentioned before, he provided no further elaboration on such negative memories, and gave no emphasis to conflict episodes with his father. Later we will see that when we analyzed his possible shadow trajectories, he rationalized and minimized the fact of not being able to go to the South and try different life trajectories in Brazil’s richer cities, which traditionally offer a number of opportunities to young people from the Northeastern states.

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8.7  T  he Military: Major Bifurcation Point Leading to a Rupture Playing with the band helped Felipe to prepare to participate in the public entrance exam to become a professional musician in the military. This was his utmost dream, because it would allow him to bring together his passion for music and a financially secure professional occupation. When I was twelve (I started playing), encouraged especially by my grandpa, and also by an uncle who is professional musician [in the military]. Today he is sub-lieutenant in the (state) police, in A.: “Felipe, how is your music doing?” (…) “because in the future, maybe, you can enter the military…” Well, it is a profession, isn’t it?

According to Sousa (2015), the professional profile developed by playing in musical bands is the one required by the music career in the military. Consequently, music band apprentices are constantly experiencing, in contact with cultural practices and artifacts related to the military, such as uniforms, marching, performance of military hymns, all of these associated with rigid discipline and hierarchy. The repetition of such rituals over-and-over again instigate the emergence and internalization of particular signs that canalize meaning constructions about music, the future profession, and the development of a self-positioning – or a personal identity  – as a musician. As Felipe reconstructs his memories about the time he was playing with the band, he demonstrates how deeply rooted is his admiration for the military world and for music, all along those years: When I was…about to be 18, a friend of mine joined the Army, and for us, people with relatively low income, what are the odds? We can only make it by studying, right, by getting a federal job, right, it’s not easy, see, it’s important. Then I wanted to enter the Army by enlisting myself, and what happens? I failed… and I was so very disappointed … because I’d put so much faith in that. I did believe it was that. I thought music, with a formal contract, only in the military, that would be my only chance to make a living with music, like, to have a stable job, only as a military, I thought. X is a very small town and I still there…. But, then, I realized we can get a degree, you know, there is a different perspective, but, look, this was 12 years, 10 years ago.

Smorti and Fioretti (2016) also explain why Felipe does not talk much in detail about his memories and feelings related to his frustration in failing that exam. They muse, “The typical way of recalling with a general level of specificity during the autobiographical retrieval helps to avoid recalling specific, negative, and painful details” (p. 302). They argue that “on some occasions, people prefer to forget or to remember in terms of generic (gist) memory, which is a compromise between the need for forgetting and remembering” (p. 315). Hence, how does Felipe elaborate on his frustrations, life transitions, new perspectives, and his dreams for the future?

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8.8  T  he Interplay Between Rupture, Transitions and Shadow Trajectories Ruptures and transitions are naturally part of most individuals’ life trajectories. Moreover, life trajectories consist not only of lived-through experiences but also of alternative pathways that did not take place, even though they were imagined by the person. In Felipe’s case, this shadow pathway was a life as a military, the carrier he failed to follow. In the narratives Felipe produced about his life trajectory, it is clear that his own expectations, as well as his family, Alberto’s and everyone else’s expectations were that he would enter the military to become a professional musician. This would bring him many important advantages, such as a good salary, work stability, and a successful carrier. However, he failed the entrance exam when he was 17 years old as mentioned earlier. This failure consisted of a rupture, or bifurcation point, according to Felipe, a moment in his trajectory marked by an event that interrupts the expected and desired course of Felipe’s life. He talks about his sad, disappointment feelings I wasn’t approved… and felt very disappointed… because I had faith. I did believe I’d succeed. I thought music was just that… (and that). I’d only be able to work with music, as in a formal job, if I were with the military…

During his narratives, when asked to think about it, he reconstructed his memories in order to rationalize and minimize the impact of the negative emotions associated to his failure, showing an effort to provide coherence to his discourse (Smorti & Fioretti, 2016). Notwithstanding, his narratives about the issue were impregnated with ambivalence. First, he briefly mentioned the failure event itself, and did not elaborate on any of the circumstances surrounding the test. Secondly, he tried hard to downplay a possible (shadow) life as a military. He seemed to reconstruct his self-evaluation concerning his profile and personal characteristics when he produced a reasonable justification for not caring much about the failure to his interlocutor. After failing the Army exam, Felipe recalled Alberto’s words about the importance to join the military: “He said, ‘Look, don’t do what I did’. If you have a chance to join the Army, go grab it because it’s important!” Then, he added, “I grew up with that idea, I was 18, the age to join the Army, but it didn’t work out, so I was disappointed…then I realized that to be a professional musician, to work with music is…the military is just one of many ways you can go.” In other words, he tried to find alternatives to move on. Zittoun (2012) argues that the dynamics of transitions set forth by ruptures entail the emergence of new learning, new identity (or relatively stabilized self-meanings), and a new sense making in general. However, he did not develop copying resources to help him take a distance from the frustrated experience (Zittoun, 2012), transforming his memories to adapt to a new life perspective. The elaboration of his failure experience did not immediately bring about such meaning reconstructions. For a period in his life – he later mentioned in his

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narrative  – he just had fun, felt a bit lost, and the idea to enter the university to become a music teacher only came to him with the suggestions and crucial incentives by Paulo and the girls. He ended up following a different direction, away from a military career, but until the interview that missed opportunity to follow this career still seemed to operate as a shadow (not lived) trajectory that conveyed ambivalences concerning his self-narratives. When he talks about the past frustration, he does not clarify that it took him a long time to find out a new project for his carrier. This is because memory processes are not just reproductions of past experiences, but a permanent construction and reconstruction (Wagoner, 2016) that takes into account the past and the anticipated future from the perspective of the present (Valsiner, 2016). Another example can illustrate this point: along the interviews, Felipe’s narratives about the rupture event do reveal a significant amount of ambivalence whenever the researcher asked him to further elaborate his failure to join the military. Throughout his reconstructions, reflections, and evaluations, he talks about his past disappointment and present conditions conveying a certain degree of ambiguity that the interviewer tried to explore without much success. At the time of the interviews, he was a music teacher and a musician, but his words subtly suggested a degree of discontent with his professional situation, leaving the interviewer with the feeling that he would have been happier if he actually was a musician in the military. According to Zittoun (2012), “identity (or what a person think she is, or how others recognize her) is stabilized by recurrent sets of beliefs and meanings about herself” (p. 522). In order to grant consistency and coherence to his self-narrative, Felipe rationalized his experience of failure by minimizing the negative impact of his frustration feelings over his self-meanings. He reconstructed the whole memory of that powerful negative affective event into something positive – his present and future carrier as a teacher – and insisted that he “did not have the profile to be a military.” The ambivalence in his narratives, though, persisted: I realized that [the military] was not the only way, but just another nice way to go that I’d suggest. I do suggest it to everyone. For instance, I don’t have the profile to be a military, but my friends fight me back, “Hey, you’ve never been there, so how can you know?” Man, I don’t have the profile. I don’t like to shave all the time. For instance, I’m like…sometimes I’m kind of weird, you know. I know, I know myself, I won’t commit to something…but I say to a student, to a friend, “Look, if you can go (to the military), if you have the profile, if you’re going to be happy there, don’t only think about the money, if it will make you happy, go, because it is a professional environment that values you, like, grants you stability, you’ll have a health plan, you’ll have a salary that is, well, very good, and you’ll play. If you don’t stay, you may use it as a bridge, but go. It is a nice way to go. And there are other ways you can go as a musician. Now I see it, one more possibility among others, not the only one…”

In different moments during the interviews, he does reflect upon the matter, and seems to talk to himself as well as to the researcher: I realized that music (in the military) is much more than going to the barracks, to march and play. I realized it’s also very cool you go to the barracks to be a military, if you have a perspective of music, so, how many subjects, for example, in society…changed their lives, support their

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family, because they had the opportunity to have a decent job… […] So you also have to take that into account. Then I’ve changed my speech, because we are here to try to evolve too. We are unfinished, aren’t we?

Felipe introduces in his discourse new elements that would or should convince the interlocutor – and himself – that joining the military was, after all, a good idea. But, again disclosing his ambiguities concerning the subject, we notice that Felipe’s dialogue with the researcher unveils a simultaneous inner dialogue between two (or more) self-positionings regarding his present-day life vis-à-vis the lost, or gone possibility of a shadow trajectory not available to him anymore: F: I have my convictions and, sometimes, the…some aspects of militarism scare me, you know? Like… R: Why? F: I don’t know. I don’t deny it. I guess when we think about the time of the dictatorship in Brazil, that was so bad for us, you know? R: If you’d succeeded in the exam… F: If I’d joined… R: If you’d joined, how do think things would have been for you? F: I…I’m made of, made of water sometimes, without losing my sense of self. I don’t know, maybe I would stay for a while, but maybe I’d have used it as a bridge, and today I’d (not clear) a teacher, and work… R: Hu-hu. F: But I cannot, I cannot say for sure because it could turn out that I, due to the economic circumstances of my life at the time, I don’t know, this is impossible to know. But the tendency is I wouldn’t go on, (…) because, from my present explanations to you, it would be a contradiction to say that I’d move on with the carrier, of course not.

At a certain moment, Felipe conjectures: “But there were many (militaries) who were against it (military dictatorship) in the barracks…” His process of constructive remembering of one disruptive event in his trajectory – his application and failure in the exam to become a military musician – is, therefore, marked by ambivalence. Even when new reconstructions occur during his narrative, strong ambivalence operates in his meaning constructions about the “military life of a musician”: Is it the best way for a musician? Is it just one option among so many options? Do musicians just march and play? After all, the military musician has a decent, good, and stable job, and is able to support a family. Does militarism really scare him, or there are good guys inside the barracks? He muses, Afterwards, I realized that it is also very nice to go to the barracks, to be a military, if you want to be a musician…many, how many, for instance, in the society…guys changed their lives, constructed a family, because they got the opportunity to have a respectful job? For the musician, who suffers a lot of prejudice in this country…

When asked about alternative pathways, he did not follow in his trajectory, which in one way or another could have emerged during certain possible bifurcation points, he considered: R: F: R:

Was there another way to go, beyond those two (military and teacher)? Yes, there was. What was it?

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F: I have family in São Paulo, and then I’d go. There was a time I was struggling with some issues. I was going to São Paulo, like, to work there… R: You did not go…Why? F: I had issues with my family, right, also my relationship (with girlfriend) didn’t work out. I was upset, you know. My girlfriend, I still was very naïve, then I wanted…It could be an option, but then I was caught by the circumstances and stayed here, at that time …

His answer to the question “what do you think you would do if you ended up failing the university entrance exam,” he concluded, “I guess I’d be gone to, to São Paulo (…) or even Rio de Janeiro (…) to work with music…”. In the last interview, he rationalizes over the way things have finally turned out in his life. He justifies it by saying I think, I think there are things you do not change along the way…I don’t know, because, there are coincidences that carry you away, then you say, “Wow, I could have been (a military) but I was not becaus…” Yes, you were not because you were not meant to go, so you did not go. I do not regret (he laughs), no longing. I mean it. This, I guess, was something that happened in my life story and didn’t work, I went elsewhere…

8.9  S  elf-Positionings: “I-Musician,” “I-Teacher,” “I as a Musician-Teacher” In this section, we illustrate, by bringing to the readers’ knowledge, Felipe’s narratives concerning his dual I-Self positionings, which sometimes were kept separate, or somehow independent from each other, depending on the context, and sometimes were considered as mixed together in a sort of hybrid I-Self positioning, as we next explain.

8.9.1  I-Self Position as a Musician Below, the reader can find excerpts of Felipe’s narrative that indicate his positioning as a musician: F: Because our options are very few, from where I come…well…I guess it is, it is…music, it’s the best thing I have, so, it’s what I like the most to do, then, you’ve got to put together what is useful to what is pleasant, then, I felt that, what he (Alberto) mostly made me feel at that moment was trust, right? R: Trust in what? F: That I should indeed chose music and devout myself to it.

He provides other information compatible with the centrality of music, as a hypergeneralized affective semiotic sign all along his life experiences and choices: I became somebody else in school after music. Music is my life! After I joined the band, it was a watershed in my life. I can even one day not be a musician anymore, go to another profession, but music was fundamental in my life!

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Yes, I’ve experienced, I’ve been on stage (…) as someone who was on the stage, or I lived a fantastic experience, in Leão do Norte, in 2013. Something I’ll carry with me forever, in three different aspects. There were two environments in which I played. It was too powerful. I played in a project in the Hospital of Clinics, in Recife, in the Intensive Care…and here, with Professor Rafael, in Z Hospital, music therapy, and then in the mad house…fantastic experiences…you can see the power of music. It is… it’s like something fantastic. As for the stage itself, well, I was a performer, like, playing an instrument, a composer, that was in Leão do Norte, in Petrolina. [Leão do Norte is a Project to support music composers in the state of Pernambuco] Man, in that contest, guess which music won the contest? And it became the official hymn of the school S in X, the school I attended for my whole life! I started to compose…this is just I can tell you what made me go to Leão do Norte. It was this composition stuff…I started to compose…and Paulo knew my music. We have music together. Then an opportunity came about, and he presented the material to people from SESC-Recife. They liked it, that’s it. He does Leão do Norte. I did. 2013. What happens next, we did Petrolina city, in the SESC Theater, and, in the same year, I was selected to participate of the Humanity Frevo Festival, the frevo called “From Recife through the Capiberibe” [a river], that I composed when I lived in Recife.

8.9.2  I-Self Position as a Teacher The failure to enter the military and the need to make a living out of his musical expertise led Felipe to become a teacher. After saying he had good teachers, but had not thought about becoming one until his college education, Felipe mentions his first experiences related to be a teacher: “When I was in high school, I attended for one year to the teacher training (modality), and experienced an internship, I liked, I like this thing, to be a teacher, right?” When asked about his present thoughts about being a teacher, he says, It is a profession that I especially like, otherwise, I wouldn’t have chosen this course, I know exactly (…) Above all, it’s…challenging, challenging, because you’re a person in permanent construction, all the time. I’m perfectly cool about it, very cool…I even feel happy because I’m following my principles, that you find in the bible, that man is not, is not, he isn’t born ready…Even Aristotle…people construct themselves with other people, everything…

However, Felipe also elaborates on bad experiences as a teacher, what never happened when he profusely spoke about his life experiences as a musician. He mentioned a day a student displayed an obscene gesture in the classroom. His emotional reaction was “very strong, then I had to show a firm attitude.” “How did you feel at that moment?” the interviewer asked. “I felt… I felt… mostly sad, right? I mean, sad, and I reconsidered my way to lead the class, right? Because I wanted to engage the student into class. How will I do this? It is very difficult to do this.” In addition to the difficulties in motivating and controlling the students, he referred to his disquieting feeling when students asked questions to which he did not know the answers. When asked about how he felt as a teacher, Felipe describes his feelings:

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Jumpy is the word, but kind of under control… then immediately…this is the advantage of music. I get the guitar and that’s it. I start singing with them. I saw a show, at that moment I improvised and something happened, but not as I wished had happened, then I realized what a challenge it is to teach. It’s challenging and, at the same time, it’s pleasant, because you saw the improvisation worked out. I wrote that down in my class notes. I wrote as an observation, and that, for me, man, was absolutely awesome, an awesome experience!

At some point in the interview, the researcher tried to clarify if, and how, his activities as a student interfered with his life as a musician. He answers: F: We play less in the night. If you want to do a good job at the music course. You have this good intellectual gain, either in music as in pedagogy, related to the activities as a teacher. You have to let something go, like the music practice, especially play in the night… R: Do you remember, like, any episode, you had to go play, but you… F: No, I did not go. In São João (a folk celebration), many, many times I had to refuse to go play with the band during São João. This São João, now in 2015, I didn’t want to go…and I was in need of money. But I, I was in PIBID (a scholarship). I had a nice scholarship. I don’t have a child to raise. Great, I will study. To play… R: And the opposite, ever happened? Has your life as a musician interfered in your life as a student? F: Never! On the opposite, I always tried to unify both. When I entered college to become a teacher…I was pretty much sure. I had no doubts. I never had doubts, was always sure, had no doubts. R: So, was there any sort of conflict? F: None. I think if I go check out my records. I missed just a few classes. I missed only when I was sick. Even when I had a surgery in my leg, I went with crutches. I went to study, no way…

8.9.3  Merging of Positionings: The Self as a Musician-Teacher Above, Felipe made explicit that he “always tried to unify both (musician and teacher positionings).” Felipe explained that, as a teacher, he felt challenged to motivate his students, and found out that his skills as a musician were extremely helpful, so he started to use them to instigate their curiosity, their motivation, to develop a trust relationship with them. Boundary crossing events occur when a skill from one sphere of experience is used in a different one (Grossen, Zittoun, & Ros, 2012), and this worked very well with Felipe. Rhoda Bernard (2004), of the Boston Conservatory, investigated music teachers who were also performers, and worked in regular schools. She defined them as “musician-teachers.” The purpose of the investigation was to know how they viewed themselves and their work as music performers and music teachers. The six study’s participants of her study (three men and three women, between 20 and 50 years old) expressed the tension between performance and teaching activities in three different ways: “(a) as entirely separate from one another, (b) as two activities that they approach in very much the same way, and (c) as one activity (performance) that provides them with a particular experience that they hope to bring to their students in their teaching” (p.  287). The author relates the first way  – a  – to the earlier

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findings by scholars in the field of music teacher education and elementary general music education “who either ignored the musical lives of music educators or argued that music educators must choose teaching music over making music” (p.  295). Tension experienced according to the other two ways (b and c) was consistent with the results of recent studies about music teachers’ ​​ education, which emphasize making music and music teaching as closely related activities. These studies confirmed the existence of a tension between making music and music teaching, which is daily negotiated by the musician-teachers, and suggested that teachers could find great satisfaction in the career when engaged in both activities. In a study about youth transitions, Zittoun (2012) discusses the plurality of spheres of experiences as she mentions the story of Marc, who, in similar way as Felipe, connected two different spheres of experience bringing his music expertise to the school context. According to the author, either integrated or multifaceted self-­ definitions can be good, or not. In Felipe’s account of his own positionings – musician and teacher  – it was possible to infer that these positionings were either integrated, as a hybrid, or separated, somehow independent of each other, giving rise to a duality where either the musician, or the teacher prevailed in specific contexts. He was very consistent about the prevalence of such complex arrangement of his self-positionings: The hybrid musician-teacher positioning emerged in the context of the classroom, and the musician positioning dominated whenever he was performing. R: How do you see yourself, as a musician, as a teacher, how do you see yourself? F: I see the presence of the two. There’s a balance between the two… R: When you’re performing, does Felipe, the teacher, go to the stage? F: No, no way… R: Why not? F: No way, the profile is different. It’s something else, right? Then you have to separate. When I say I don’t separate, it’s because I can’t see a music teacher who is not a musician himself, but I can see a musician who is not a teacher all right.

He further clarifies his experiences and point of view about possible self-meanings and identities of teachers and musicians: I don’t believe a person who is not a musician can become a music teacher. It does not enter my mind. It is like a surgeon who doesn’t open a body, you see?

Felipe also explains to the researcher how difficult he thinks it is to be a musician and a teacher at the same time. He seems very proud to be able to be both: F: Music is something very specific. To be a teacher has many other specificities, and if you don’t know how to deal with those, you make a big mess, for in the end you’re neither a teacher nor a performer, you know? R: In your our last interview, you told me you did a good job with a class, but you felt very nervous in another class. You said you “got the guitar and started playing with them,” and that worked. How did you feel when you solved the problem? F: I felt relieved. R: You were nervous and then relieved. F: Total relief. So big a relief I even felt satisfied. R: How do you make sense of all this? F: An enrichment experience, literally. Because to teach is to learn, right?

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R: Who was there, at that moment, Felipe the teacher or Felipe the musician? F: Both. R: Both. Right.

8.10  The Imagined Future When asked about how he imagined himself in the future, Felipe spells out what I/Self positioning actually prevails concerning a sense of identity. He clears up what we could infer all along his four interviews: he sees himself, above all, as a musician who not only performs other musician’s compositions, but who is able to compose his own music. I … in the future I think I’ll be working to my best as a music teacher…but I am, no way to deny it. I am a musician! I am a musician. I compose, it’s not…then… I have this goal, a clear goal to achieve in my future, like…the time… I will try to make the best with my time, so I can have a goal and get there, but it is to record my own CD. I think that a recorded CD is the best legacy I can leave, after I’m gone. I want to leave a CD.

The researcher further explores his ideas and dreams for the future, asking him if there were experiences not yet lived as a musician he would like to experience, and, again, he speaks about the record. F: The experience I didn’t yet experienced as a musician? (he pauses) Man, it’s to record my CD. R: Did you record other people’s CD? F: Yes. R: Well, if you’re going to record your CD today, recording it now, how would you feel? F: A dream coming true. Because I think this will be my most important legacy… well, I don’t want to die now (both laugh) (…) Now I am here, but later I will go. I want to leave a record. Because there will be where people will find me, you know, whoever wants to meet me again, just listen to my CD…

Felipe also wants, somehow, to be able to pay back to the people of his hometown some of the fundamental support he himself received during his young years: When I get my life all right, I (would like to) come here (town’s name) during my vacation to. For instance, I committed myself to teach a girl here who’s learning saxophone. We may have a class here at school next Thursday, this sort of things, you know? When something like this comes up, I am very glad I can do something, because people have done that for me, and still do…

8.11  Conclusion The analysis of Felipe’s narratives made possible to confirm the fundamental role played by significant social others in his life, either provoking or participating with a crucial role at the bifurcation points of his life trajectory. Such “others” – especially grandfather, Alberto and Paulo, acted as catalysts (Cabell & Valsiner, 2014)

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during significant moments of his life, and played a central role in Felipe’s active internalization of specific meanings – through affective-semiotic processes – that led to the emergence of specific values, which, consequently, generated his particular dialogical self-positionings dynamic configuration along irreversible time. This study demonstrates that the experience of remembering is, also, intertwined with imagination processes (Tateo, 2015) that actively unites the past, present, and future along constructions and reconstructions of life experiences. Such continuous reconstructions take place through affectivity, language, and narratives, and occur within social frames situated in particular cultural contexts (Wagoner, 2012). According to Wagoner (2012), “Remembering is not a context-free faculty or skill but, rather, a social and culturally embedded activity” (p.  1054). It is especially noteworthy in the study how the co-constructive nature of the interview (McAdams, 2008) allowed the participant to elaborate on his own dual self-positionings as a musician and as a teacher. The simultaneous existence of both a hybrid self-­ positioning (musician and teacher intertwined positionings) and a core, dominant self-positioning as a musician, was made explicit by the participant during the interview co-constructive process. Hence, we may say that depending on the specific cultural context, either a hybrid (or dual) configuration dominated or a singular predominant “performer versus teacher” prevailed. In both case, though, Felipe’s I/ Self as a musician was deeply internalized. Bruner (2002) argues that the human capacity to organize and communicate experience as narratives cannot be overestimated. Language and narrative not only allow us to create history and culture, but it is essential to our sense of self and identity (Bamberg, 2011; Brockmeier & Carbaugh, 2001) along ontogeny. Valsiner (2014), on the other hand, especially adds to this picture the relevance of affectivity in semiotic processes in general, arguing for the complex nature of higher mental functions such as memory and imagination. Branco and colleagues, from a cultural psychology approach as well, stress the role of motivation, values, and beliefs as a fundamental dimension of dynamic co-constructive processes at play along dialogical self-development (Branco, 2015; Branco & Freire, 2017; Freire & Branco, 2016; Roncancio & Branco, 2016). Therefore, much has to be done, especially  further investigation on how I/Self configurations emerge and change during ontogeny. In short, studies of complex affective-semiotic life experiences that encompass bifurcations and transitions consist of promising endeavors.

References Bamberg, M. (2011). Who am I? Narration and its contribution to self and identity. Theory and Psychology, 21(1), 3–24. Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Bernard, R. (2004). A dissonant duet: Discussions of music making and music teaching. Music Education Research, 6(3), 281–298.

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Branco, A.  U. (2015). Values and their way of guiding the psyche. In J.  Valsiner, G.  Marsico, S.  Sato, & V.  Dazzani (Eds.), Psychology as a science of human being: The Yokohama Manifesto. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Branco, A. U., & Freire, S. F. (2017). Dynamic self conceptions: New perspectives to study children’s dialogical self development. In M. Han & C. Cunha (Eds.), The subjectified and subjectifying mind (pp. 267–288). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. BRASIL (2010). Censo demográfico IBGE2010. Access at: https://www.censo2010.ibge.gov.br. Brockmeier, J., & Carbaugh, D. (2001). Narrative and identity: Studies in autobiography, self and culture. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Bruner, J. (2002). Making stories: Law, life, literature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Cabell, K., & Valsiner, J. (2014). The catalyzing mind: Beyond models of causality. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Fivush, R., & Nelson, K. (2004). Culture and language in the emergence of autobiographical memory. Psychological Science, 15(9), 573–577. Fogel, A. (1993). Developing through relationships. London, UK: Harvester Wheatsheaf and University of Chicago Press. Freire, S. F., & Branco, A. U. (2016). A teoria do self dialógico em perspectiva. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 32, 25–33. Glaveanu, V. P. (2016). The Palgrave handbook of creativity and culture research. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Grossen, M., Zittoun, T., & Ros, J. (2012). Boundary crossing events and potential appropriation space in philosophy, literature, and general knowledge. In E. Hjorne, G. van der Aalsvoort, & G. de Abreu (Eds.), Learning, social interaction and diversity  – Exploring school practices (pp. 15–33). Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Sense Publishers. Holanda Filho, R.  P. (2010). O papel das bandas de música no contexto social, educacional e artístico. Recife, Brazil: ONG CCB. Levine, L., & Pizarro, D. (2004). Emotion and memory research: A grumpy overview. Social Cognition, 22, 530–554. Madureira, A. F., & Branco, A. U. (2001). Pesquisa qualitativa em psicologia do desenvolvimento: Questões epistemológicas e implicações metodológicas. Temas em Psicologia, 9, 63–75. McAdams, D. P. (2008). The life story interview. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University. Moreira, M. S. (2013). Mulheres em bandas de música no nordeste do Brasil e no norte de Portugal (Doctoral dissertation). Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. Roncancio, M., & Branco, A. U. (2016). Desenvolvimento do self dialógico nos primeiros anos de vida. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 31, 425–434. Sato, T., Hidaka, T., & Fukuda, M. (2009). Depicting the dynamics of living the life: The trajectory equifinality model. In J. Valsiner, P. C. M. Molenaar, M. C. D. P. Lyra, & N. Chaudhary (Eds.), Dynamic process methodology in the social and developmental sciences (pp. 217–240). New York, NY: Springer. Sato, T., Yasuda, Y., Kido, A., Arakawa, A., Mizoguchi, H., & Valsiner, J. (2007). Sampling reconsidered: Idiographic science and the analyses of personal life trajectory. In J. Valsiner, A. Rosa, & A. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of sociocultural psychology. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Smorti, A., & Fioretti, C. (2016). Why narrating changes memory: A contribution to an integrative model of memory and narrative processes. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, 50, 296–319. Sousa, B. S. A. (2015). A educação musical em instituições não-formais: Caminhos da formação de músicos e musicistas no interior de Pernambuco. Paper presented at the XI Congresso Luso-­ Brasileiro de História da Educação, Porto, Portugal. Tateo, L. (2015). What imagination can teach us about higher mental functions. In J.  Valsiner, G.  Marsico, S.  Sato, & V.  Dazzani (Eds.), Psychology as a science of human being: The Yokohama Manifesto. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

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Trilla, J. (2008). A educação não-formal. In V. A. Arantes (Ed.), Educação formal e não-formal. São Paulo, Brazil: Summus. Valsiner, J. (2014). An invitation to cultural psychology. London, UK: Sage. Valsiner, J. (2016). The human psyche on the border of irreversible time: forward-oriented semiosis. Invited lecture at the 31st international congress of psychology, Yokohama, July 27. Wagoner, B. (2012). Culture in constructive remembering. In J. Valsiner (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 1034–1055). York, UK: Oxford University Press. Wagoner, B. (2016). The constructive mind: Frederic Bartlett’s psychology in reconstruction. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Zittoun, T. (2012). Life course: A socio-cultural perspective. In J. Valsiner (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 513–535). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Zittoun, T. (2015). Studying higher psychological functions: The example of imagination. In J. Valsiner, G. Marsico, N. Chaudhari, T. Sato, & V. Danzzini (Eds.), Psychology as the science of human being: The Yokohama Manifesto (pp. 129–147). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Zittoun, T., & Cerchia, F. (2013). Imagination as expansion of experience. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 47(3), 305–324. Zittoun, T., & Valsiner, J. (2016). Imagining the past and remembering the future: How the unreal defines the real. In T. Sato, N. Mori, & J. Valsiner (Eds.), Making of the future: The trajectory equifinality approach in cultural psychology (pp. 03–19). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Chapter 9

Being in the World: The ACT of Making and Striking Out Personal Self-­Constructions Elisa Krause-Kjær

Contents 9.1  I ntroducing the Complexity of Constructions – An Example of Carnival Constructions 9.2  The Land of Musicians – Terra de Músicos 9.3  The Study of Being a Musician – The Flux Between Being and Not Being a Musician 9.4  From a Blank Sheet of Paper to an Emotional Musician 9.5  What If Self-Identity Is Threatened by Oneself? 9.6  The Moving Body 9.7  To Self-Construct or to Be Constructed by Others 9.8  Final Comments – The Dynamic Self-Construction References

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9.1  I ntroducing the Complexity of Constructions – An Example of Carnival Constructions Musical dedication as well as a long musical history is associated with many Brazilians. Every year the world-famous celebration of carnival takes place all over the country to the beats of Samba, Frevo, Coco, and the like. Every area in Brazil has its own carnival construction through the way of hosting the carnival with different cultural artefacts such as costumes and decorations, musical beats, traditional meals, etc., which separates the many carnivals from one another. Nonetheless, each carnival also consists of specific uniting elements that indicate the celebration of carnival and not the celebration of a different festival such as São João, which is another traditional celebration in Brazil also with dancing, costumes, and music. There is something unique about each carnival all over Brazil (and the rest of the

E. Krause-Kjær (*) Aalborg University Denmark and Psychologist at Educational Psychological Services (EPS), Aalborg, Denmark © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7_9

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world) but at the same time also something unique about each carnival in the same area, which despite the same location also differs from year to year. This ongoing adjustment could, e.g., be by new carnival elements like decorations or new musical explorations, as when “Trio Eléctrico” started as part of some carnival constructions in the state of Bahia back in the 1950s (Góes, 2000). However, each year also includes prominent elements from other events that have taken place outside the carnival celebration during the past year as well as key persons like politicians or central persons from the Medias. Even more, the experience of celebrating carnival might also relate to the particular group of people with whom the event during the particular year is shared, or with whom the celebration continuing has taken place with throughout the years. In this sense there are many aspects to comprehend when trying to understand the diverse meanings of carnival, which among others seem to include time, location, relations, and cultural artefacts as well as a certain amount of expectations based on remembering or reconstructing past lived experiences leading to future-oriented imaginings of experiences yet to come. Attempting to measure the individual carnival dedication therefore seems rather complicated, implying a complex understanding of the personal meaning of being part of the particular carnival, which might include self-constructions such as: I am a dancer, I am a musician, I am social, I am enjoying fancy costumes, I am traditional, etc. Hereby, it seems reasonable to assume that it is challenging to understand the individual value of each self-construction beginning with “I am...” someone or something. Approaching a minimal understanding seems to be a prolonged process that demands much time and research with the possibility that the individual understanding of the construction changes during the study. An easier and perhaps less demanding methodology of measuring personal valued self-constructions will be presented in this chapter in relation to the construction of being a musician in a Brazilian city named Belo Jardim. One key focus in the methodology is the creation and re-creation of personal constructions that sheds light on the affiliation to the given construction. The creation is based on remembering past personal experiences that leads to the understanding of a personal biography or identity and then the re-­ creation follows when interrupting these understandings of oneself by imagining the loss of each restrictively chosen personal construction in a future oriented perspective. In this sense, imagination here bridges a gap between past and future-­ oriented experiences.

9.2  The Land of Musicians – Terra de Músicos The current study took place in the north-eastern part of Brazil in the state of Pernambuco, where a rather small Brazilian agricultural city is located only a few hours’ drive away from the metropolis, Recife, which is the capital of Pernambuco and one of the largest cities in Brazil. This agricultural city is named Belo Jardim that means ‘Beautiful Garden’. Known as the Land of the Musicians (Terra de Músicos), Belo Jardim welcomes everyone at the entrance of the city with these

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words printed on a sign together with a sculpture of three manufactured musicians. This physical sign-construction of ‘Belo Jardim as the land of musicians’, perhaps not surprisingly, generates different understandings of the city to those who only pass by and those who live and maybe grew up in Belo Jardim. Even among those who live in Belo Jardim, the meaning is different. Attempting to measure and further analyse these diverse meanings will prospectively be done in relation to the meaning of being a musician. Belo Jardim host a long history of cultivating musical seeds from one generation to another, and throughout time has the musical roots been deeply grounded among the inhabitants for more than 100 years. The current study took place in May and early June 2014, where many Brazilians were hyped on the fact that Brazil was going to host the FIFA World Cup later in June  – some very excited and proud, while others were fearing the financial consequences. Following this upcoming international event, the official FIFA World Cup song, ‘We Are One (Ole Ola)’ by Pitbull featuring Jenifer Lopez and the Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte, was frequently played at radio stations all over Brazil. However, many of the musicians in Belo Jardim, younger as older, apparently did not even know of this song. The music played in Belo Jardim, as in many other Brazilian cities, depends on the choice of the radio station that plays. The music varies among older and newer Brazilian pop music as well as some international tracks. Nonetheless, another specific local sound of music at times flows in the streets of Belo Jardim. It is the sound of flutes, drums, trumpets among other instruments, in the spirit of marching music. This marching music has a great value and pride in Belo Jardim, where most of the inhabitants have either a direct or an indirect relation to one of the two marching bands that both have existed for about 100 years and currently still actively play. Each band has a specific day every year, where they celebrate the anniversary of their band by playing certain marching musical tracks associated with the sound of their band, while marching through the streets of Belo Jardim dressed in uniforms associated with the appearance of their band. From having briefly introduced the complexity of constructions with the example of mutual individual constructions related to the individual understanding of carnival, the current chapter aims to further analyse the complexity and diversity of personal constructions. By studying a sample of participants who either have played or still are playing instruments in one of the two main bands in Belo Jardim, the focus concerns the self-construction of being a musician.

9.3  T  he Study of Being a Musician – The Flux Between Being and Not Being a Musician In a city with such a massive affiliation to music, and in this case to marching music, the intention with the current study is to illuminate the value encompassing the personal self-construction of being a musician. The sample consists of six

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Table 9.1  The six participants, their ages and if they currently are active as musicians in either Banda Cultura or Banda Filarmônica Participants Banda Cultura Female, 22 Active musician Male, 37 Not current active musician Male, 70 Not current active musician

Banda Filarmônica Male, 22 Active musician Male, 48 Active musician Male, 78 Active musician

different musicians both currently active and previously active in the two main bands of Belo Jardim, Banda Cultura, and Banda Filarmônica. Both bands have a long history of playing marching music and educating musicians through many decades. Banda Cultura was founded in 1935 and Banda Filarmônica in 1887. By dividing the six participants (Table 9.1) into three different age groups, ranging from 22–70 years in Banda Cultura and from 22–78 years in Banda Filarmônica, the intention was to sense potential age similarities or age differences related to being a musician. Additional tasks related to measuring the personal value of being a musician in Belo Jardim were also part of the original study. These included memory reconstructing tasks dealing with feelings and thoughts related to pictures of the two bands in current and past time and feelings as well as thoughts related to the sound of own music, music from the opposite band in Belo Jardim, and a third musical track of the current FIFA World Cup song. Furthermore, exposing the participants to a task of playing some of their own band’s typical music firstly with their bare hands and secondly with their preferred instrument, as well as asking the participants a number of questions about both bands also contributed with valuable information. Everything was video recorded, which gave the opportunity to further analyse visual non-verbal activity through the reactions of the body. Despite the various tasks intended to measure personal value, one task seemed more powerful than the above mentioned, namely the task of eliminating self-constructions, which therefore is the focal point throughout this chapter. It became clear that there is a big difference between being a musician with relation to Banda Cultura and being a musician with relation to Banda Filarmônica. Some of the oldest participants remembered how the two bands years ago used to organize music battles between each other in the streets of Belo Jardim, where each band took turns of playing instrumental songs all night until the other band withdrew most likely because of exhaustion. Despite the battles no longer are taking place, the strong affiliation to one’s personal band remains in the small city.

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9.4  From a Blank Sheet of Paper to an Emotional Musician A possible way of understanding some of the previously experiential impacts in relation to the current interest of analysing the personal value of being a musician in Belo Jardim could be by including a thorough background analysis of the given person involved. Even though such an approach might be quite valuable, contributing with rich details and information, it might also require a lot of time, accuracy of details as well as reservations for inaccurate remembering (Wagoner & Gillespie, 2014). Less time demanding but nonetheless very expressively clear, the methodology inspired by the cognitive therapeutic direction called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) also turned out to be powerful. From a cultural psychological perspective, this task allows analysing the immediate meaning-making process both verbally and non-verbally followed by disturbances of personal (and cultural) understandings of self. Throughout the chapter, the referring of this task will be as the completion of the seven sentences. Each sentence here represents one self-construction. By using this task inspired by the thoughts of ACT a relatively easy, simple, dynamic, and effective way of analysing personal values and meanings related to self-constructions is introduced. Active or previous active musicians fulfilled or completed the seven sentences on behalf of their own individual choice of self-constructions. Strikingly, most of these constructions relate to the musicians’ affiliation of their own specific band and music. Past experiences and memories were assumed to occur in the making of some of the seven sentences among the participants through current behavioural outcome such as crying or smiling. These emotional outcome or reactions possibly indicated personal value and affiliation in relation to the given self-construction. Expressing past experiences also occurred through narrative elaborations in terms of reconstructions. However, the narrative elaborations also expressed future-oriented imaginings of experiences (or constructions) that might be. The current chapter will refer to narrative elaborations as imaginative elaborations that link the past with the future through the process of both remembering and imagining as further explained in the chapter. The dynamic time aspect of previously, current, and future-oriented experiences as well as the adapting dimension of a given context related to constructions yet again put awareness to the complexity of constructions. Describing ACT as a relational frame theory of language and cognition based on functional contextualization with a focus on continuing context specific acts further supports this point of view (Hayes, 2004; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999). Three main issues are of interest in ACT, which includes spirituality, values, and self. Values are understood as qualities of actions and there is a possibility of instantiating them in behaviour without possessing them as an object. Hayes (2004) elaborates in this respect further: ‘The issue is the presence of any particular event, but in its contextually established function and meaning. Finally, the foundational nature of goals in contextualization is reflected in the ACT emphasis on chosen values as a necessary component of a meaningful life (and indeed a meaningful course of treatment)’. (p. 647)

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Table 9.2  An illustration of one of the participant’s seven constructions and the following part of striking out Cultura, 22 years Seven constructions all beginning with ‘I am…’ 1. I am a determinated person (… uma pessoa determinada) 2. I am somebody that loves what I do (… alguém que ama o que faz) 3. I am a musician (… musicista) 4. I am a person that has moral values (uma pessoa de valores morais) 5. I am someone who is very connected to God (… alguém muito ligada a Deus) 6. I am a fulfilled person (… uma pessoa realizada) 7. I am someone who search for dreams (alguém que busca sonhos)

Striking out each of the constructions all beginning with ‘I am…’ 1. I am a determinated person (… uma pessoa determinada) 2. I am somebody that loves what I do (… alguém que ama o que faz) 3. I am a musician (… musicista) 4. I am a person that has moral values (uma pessoa de valores morais) 5. I am someone who is very connected to God (… alguém muito ligada a Deus) 6. I am a fulfilled person (… uma pessoa realizada) 7. I am someone who search for dreams (alguém que busca sonhos)

As written, ACT highlights chosen values as an important component in a meaningful life. These values are in this case related to self-constructions and the hereto dynamically time aspect that combine the remembering of past experiences, the immediate contemporary behaviours of the body, and the imagining of future-­ oriented actions as well as goals. On behalf of the focus on values, the current study aimed to clarify and examine these chosen self-constructions further. In particular, the intention was to survey the personal understanding and affiliation of the construction of being a musician in Belo Jardim. This was done by analysing the individual responses, feelings, and thoughts when asked to eliminate each of the seven chosen self-constructions. The example below is where one of the participants was asked to complete seven sentences all beginning with “I am…”1 and then instructed to strike out one sentence by another with a pencil (see Table  9.2). The participant in the below-­ mentioned example is a 22-year-old female musician from Banda Cultura. Like most of the other participants, she did not find the part of completing the personal descriptions or self-constructions that difficult. However, when the following part of striking out the self-constructions one by one was demanded, some of the participants including this participant started to feel quite uncomfortable and a bit upset (see Table 9.3). The purpose with this specific task was firstly to investigate what kind of self-­ constructions these musicians would choose, when asked openly, with no further explanation, to complete seven sentences all beginning with ‘I am…’. Of interest

 The constructions were in Portuguese all beginning with: ‘Eu sou..’.

1

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was if they, as assumed due to currently or due to previously being musicians, wrote I am a musician as one of the seven self-constructions. Secondly, the purpose was to investigate the following responses. On behalf of verbal and nonverbal responses from the participants, when making and striking out the constructions, it seemed clear that each construction varied in importance, and hence in personal value. This difference is illustrated below in relation to the emotional reactions provoked by the participants, when striking out each of their seven self-constructions (see Table  9.3). Each participant completed seven “I am…” constructions and was afterwards asked to strike out each construction one by one, while expressing feelings and thoughts combined with this task of imagining what it would be like to be without the specific self-construction. As indicated in Table 9.3 every participant in both bands expressed some degree of discomfort during the task of imaging being without many of the personal constructions. Interpreted, as a feeling of discomfort, were specific statements such as ‘I feel like an empty person’2, ‘I feel alone, no meaning…’3, and ‘I feel bad… It’s an essential part of my life... I am only here because I am patient…’4. Of less emotional and perhaps more neutral estimated constructions were, e.g., those where the participants expressed either that they felt the same or they did not have difficulties striking out the given self-construction without any further elaboration or noticeable reaction. When erasing some of the sentences, only one of the participants expressed direct pleasure and comfort. This was the 78-year-old male and still active musician at Banda Filarmônica who elaborated: ‘To me it is not like destroying, it’s the opposite… it’s only symbolic… I cannot destroy and I am enjoying this.’ Another apparent tendency seemed to be that the youngest participants in both bands expressed most discomfort when striking out their self-constructions. Some of the participants completed the task within approximately 10 minutes, while others spent more than an hour. This was mainly due to the different amount of what here is described as imaginative elaboration of each personal construction, which in this study is based on immediate non-verbal, bodily reactions as well as immediate thoughts and feelings that emerged when striking out. Imaginative elaboration includes both remembering and reconstructing concrete situations from the past as well as describing and imagining future dreams and objectives in life related to the concrete self-construction. In the study, this process of imaginative elaboration seemed to guide the participants at constructing future understandings of self.

 22-year-old female musician at Banda Cultura erasing: ‘I am a person that has moral values.’  37-year-old male musician at Banda Cultura erasing: ‘I am good company....’ 4  22-year-old male musician at Banda Filarmônica erasing: ‘I am patient.’ 2 3

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Banda Filarmônica 6

Emotional reaction

5 4 uncomfortable

3

neutral

2

comfortable

1 0 22

48

78

Age

Banda Cultura 8

Emotional reaction

7 6 5 4

uncomfortable

3

neutral

2

comfortable

1 0 22

37

70

Age

Table 9.3  Emotional reactions when striking out the seven personal constructions ranging from the youngest participant to the oldest participant in both bands

9.5  What If Self-Identity Is Threatened by Oneself? The use of striking out immediate self-constructions appears powerful. Making these constructions in terms of fulfilling the seven sentences all beginning with “I am…” was to many of the participants a bit difficult but feasible. What instead emerged as rather challenging and unexpected was the following demand of striking out (eliminating) these personal characteristics – one by one. In addition to classical rating scales, this task suggests an alternative, also simple, and potentially more adequate way of surveying and interpreting the varying degree of personal affiliation to self-constructions. This might be due to the verbal and non-verbal reflections and elaborations upon both the constructing and deconstructing aspect of each of the created self-constructions. In a critique of the use of

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rating scales, Wagoner and Valsiner (2005) point out that: ‘[…] the process of construction of meaning remains hidden behind the responding process’ (p.  198). Extending this point of view this task regarding striking out immediate created self-­ constructions in fact seems to open the meaning-making process through the immediate non-verbal responses as well as through imaginative elaborations. The unease of striking out personal constructions of which might have been present during most of one’s life thus seems reasonable to assume. This could be the case of the youngest participant in Banda Cultura, who in one of her self-constructions describes her affiliation to ‘God’. It could also be the case with the oldest participant in Banda Filarmônica when striking out his self-construction dealing with his full name including his status of being the conductor of Filarmônica for decades. These kinds of constructions seem to dig deeply into the individual self-understanding as strong markers of identity. In other words, the value of these constructions seems to increase during the irreversible time frame by having past experiences moving towards the making of a new present based on anticipating the future (Krause-Kjær & Nedergaard, 2015). As indicated there seems to be a difference among the participants in how difficult it is to strike out and eliminate personal self-constructions. Besides the time-­ aspect, it could also be due to, whether the construction is a peripheral, additional construction (secondary construction) in continuation of a greater and more valuable self-construction (primary construction). This might be the case in the construction of being a teacher of music as the youngest participant in Banda Filarmônica chose and did not find severe difficulties striking out, whereas the other construction of him as being a musician was impossible to even imagine himself being without. Here being a music teacher appears as a secondary reinforcing construction of a more valuable construction of being a musician. This relationship between what in this approach describes primary and secondary self-constructions is by others described as a dialogue between positions. It therefore seems relevant to include the thoughts of the Dialogical Self Theory (Hermans, 2001b) and the related methodological approach by Hubert J.M. Hermans (2001a) regarding the Personal Position Repertoire (PPR). Based on individual ratings of different positions, PPR assesses the dialogical interchange between internal positions (social and personal) and external positions (voices of others) within the self, which emerges constantly through the person-world interactions. The multivoicedness and dialogicality of self explains a matrix of internal and external positions. Hermans (2001a) elaborates further: Usually internal positions differ to the extent in which they are prominent in relation to a variety of external positions […] the same idea applies to external positions: a particular external position is more or less prominent in relation to a particular internal position. (pp. 326–329)

This highlights the dynamic interaction between internal and external positions in the innovation of self. Furthermore, Hermans suggests the inclusion of perhaps also a third input when using the method of PPR in terms of cultural positions, assuming that the self is culture-inclusive.

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Hermans elaborates: Cultural positions have the power to influence a large variety of social and personal positions from the beginning of life and thus, to a large degree implicitly, influence and organize the position repertoire as a whole. (p. 360f)

It seems beneficial to include this dynamic aspect of the interrelated connectedness between self-constructions as constantly in a triadic dialogue between self, other, and culture. Building upon these thoughts the current study offers an alternative way of approaching this interrelatedness through the task of eliminating self-chosen self-constructions. The process of firstly constructing oneself in terms of, e.g., ‘I am a musician’ and secondly deconstructing oneself as a musician, thus instead adapting to ‘I am NOT a musician’, as an immediate (new) construction needs further elaboration. This tension is closely related to the border of ‘me’ vs ‘not-me’ by simply asking the participants to erase what they just have described as their personal self-constructions. Both ‘me’ vs ‘not-me self-constructions emerge together simultaneously according to Josephs, Valsiner, and Surgan (1999) who describe them as mutually deterministic in the sense that one cannot exist without the other. As pointed out the effect of striking out self-constructions was most powerful. Here the participants were making self-constructions by remembering personal experiences in life. Through the action of striking out each construction, they were constructing new meanings and understandings of the given self-construction by adding the element of imagining being without each construction in a future-oriented perspective. In this sense, measuring personal value of each construction became possible. One way of describing this process of (re)constructing meaning seems related to the notion of meanacting. Josephs et al. (1999) describe meanacting in the following: […] a flexible process, with both flexibility and rigidity as potential outcomes. Meanings are constructed and reconstructed immediately; some of them are overcome rather quickly (our notion of takeover), others maintained and stay in a harmonious relationship or enter into a state of rivalry with other meaning complexes. (p. 274).

Fig. 9.1  Meanacting directions on behalf of the given self-construction

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Following the task of striking out the seven self-picked constructions, consequently the personal understanding of each of these constructions led to three potential meanacting directions as illustrated in Fig. 9.1. Each of the seven constructions is of matter to the individual person; however, some constructions are clearly more valuable than others. The notion of imaginative elaboration strongly relates to the process of meanacting. Direction 1 in the meanacting process figure illustrates the less-valuable constructions interpreted on behalf of less emotional response both verbally and non-verbally when striking out the constructions as explained earlier. Direction 2 and 3 indicate two potential new mediated constructions of which apparently seem to take over the original construction when striking out, thus creating a new understanding of self. Direction 3, which was the least occurring of the three directions, had the potential to change the perspective most radically from an ‘I am’ construction to an ‘I am NOT...’ construction. Yet, the observation of another outcome appeared during this task of erasing self-­ constructions as illustrated in Direction 2. It was the case where the participants expressed inability to imagine themselves being without the specific construction, which made them add more awareness and reinforcement to the current self-­ understanding. The focal point here changed from an ‘I am…’ construction to an ‘I AM…’ construction, emphasizing the self-construction as an identity root now digging even deeper into the ground of a personal meaningful life. Despite expressing an inability to imagine being without the specific construction, the process of imagining is nevertheless suggested as taking place in relation to the understanding of the semiotic loop. Zittoun (2017) explains this process of the semiotic loop in the following: This work of sense-making, which is always socially guided, is however deeply personal and truly unique to each of us; it occurs through loops which allow us to explore the real and what could be, and thus enrich our present experience. (p. 88).

As argued, the process of the semiotic loop could not take place without the use of imagination. The participants although stating an inability to imagine, what it would be like to be without each self-construction, somehow perhaps very shortly, do imagine the possibility. The imaginary process happens as the participants for a brief moment follow the potential trace of exploring the possibility of ‘I am NOT…’ here with the result of rejecting this suggestion and instead move towards the now deeper marked self-construction by stressing ‘I AM…’, as Direction 2 in the meanacting process figure indicates. Strikingly, three of the participants who described themselves as being currently active musicians all ended at the outcome of Direction 2; ‘I AM a musician’; however being a musician in Belo Jardim clearly differs among the participants. The oldest participants who experienced the rivalry between the two bands in the past at first hands both mention these music battles, whereas the two youngest participants instead highlight the relation to a given conductor (dead or alive) of their band. Imaginative elaboration related to the process of remembering covers current and past experiencing in varying degrees as expressed through this narrating element. Michael White (2001) explains in this regard: “People make sense of the

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world by taking their experiences of life into narrative frames, by locating these experiences in familiar stories of their life” (p. 13). This was, e.g., the case with the youngest participant at 22 years in Filarmônica who, when elaborating on his experience of erasing; I am a student of Carlos Oliveira5, included a story of his first time where the conductor Carlos explained and taught him about music. Moreover, this concrete example as well included the value of teaching music as perhaps a secondary construction of the musician’s primary construction of being a student of Carlos Oliveira. Imaginative elaborations were important in the sense of potentially revealing past experiences’ impact on the chosen self-construction. Another example is the youngest participant in Banda Cultura who described the fifth of her sentences as most difficult to erase: I am someone very connected to God. When elaborating on feelings and thoughts related to erasing the construction she explains: it’s, missing a part. Further, she describes it as a rather big part. It seems like she keeps a connection to the well-known past conductor, who passed away a few years earlier. She mentions him frequently during both the interview and the different tasks as a close relation and even states that she sometimes feels the deceased conductor looking down at her while acknowledging her performances of playing music. Therefore, having difficulties erasing herself as very connected to God might also indicate difficulties erasing her as closely connected to the deceased conductor, where perhaps her musical dedication keeps the relation alive. There seems to be a strong relation between the oldest and the youngest participants in Banda Filarmônica, where both currently are active musicians. For example, one of the young participant’s constructions directly describes him as the student of the older participant. The most difficult construction for him to erase was the second one saying, I am a musician. After striking out this construction, he verbally expressed, Of all of them it is impossible to erase this… I don’t know what, who I am if I am… if I weren’t a musician. He further elaborates by saying that he had learned to play music (by the older participant at 78 years) and therefore must teach and show what he can do to help others in the same way. Even more he finishes by saying that he does not know who he is if he is not a musician since everything he does practically and in relation to his work is connected to music. His construction, I am a musician thus strongly relates to his relationship to the oldest participant in Banda Filarmônica and the act of teaching music. Another example that also illustrates the difficulties of erasing self-constructions emerged through imaginative elaborations from the oldest participant in Banda Filarmônica. His most difficult sentence to erase was his first sentence, where he besides from his name describes himself as the conductor of Banda Filarmônica. He explains this difficulty by describing how the band (which includes the youngest participant) means everything to him. He finds erasing this one very problematic due to the immediate process of remembering which he describes as the presence of other memories brought into his mind. He starts narrating about a group of adolescences in Belo Jardim and their addiction to drugs if they did not play in his

 The name Carlos Oliveira is a fictive name. The author knows his real identity.

5

9  Being in the World: The ACT of Making and Striking Out Personal Self-Constructions 161

band, and how he really wants them to succeed in life as he did despite coming from a poor family. At a specific moment when he was describing the relevance of the band for keeping the adolescences away from drugs, he began to cry. Here his construction of being a conductor of Banda Filarmônica also includes relational bonds likewise as with the youngest participant in the band; however, the participant at 78 years also strongly relates this self-construction to succeeding in life both personally and by creating the same opportunities for the adolescences in Belo Jardim.

9.6  The Moving Body Through the different kinds of immediate self-constructions that came to mind, when asked to fulfil seven sentences, in a setting that beforehand was addressing the two bands in Belo Jardim, these constructions clearly indicate the six participants’ varying relation to their joint link of all at some point being musicians either past or present. In the given task, the body was used as a physical eraser of personal self-­ constructions, which some of the participants felt very contradictory about even though they here were able to influence and control the actions of their body – in potential contrast to when some of the participants at moments started to cry during the interview. It seems valuable to put more awareness to the understanding and influence of the moving body (Krause-Kjær, Nedergaard, & Valsiner, 2019) containing past experiences as well as creating new experiences and future opportunities through the constant interaction in the dynamic border zone between the individual body and society. Highly emotional non-verbal outcome such as crying, smiling, and frowning appeared among the musicians; however, the current analysis points at more distinct and widespread emotional verbal outcome than non-verbal. Nonetheless, considering both emotional verbal and non-verbal outcome seems crucial when analysing experiences, justifying the potential of a greater understanding of the given experience. Non-verbal outcome through the body always relates to a given experience, and the human body plays a major role in the process of remembering past experiences as well as creating new ones (ibid). When moving our bodies, we produce certain behaviours that tend to trigger certain self-constructions – some intentional and others less intended. E.g. playing music might trigger or reinforce the self-construction of being a musician (Boesch, 2007). Given the construction of the city, Belo Jardim, as the ‘Land of musicians’ as mentioned earlier, it seems reasonable to assume that constructing oneself as a musician is quite accepted and valued among the inhabitants. Assuming that it might be less valued among those with no relation to Belo Jardim also seems reasonable. This might have been the case that day when the participant at 22 years from Banda Cultura was marching through Belo Jardim while playing music with her band. Here she faced a person who constructed her as a ‘vagabunda’, which in this setting was rated as a negative and rather offensive self-construction by the

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musician. Nonetheless, despite this unpleasant episode of invasive voice of others, it did not stop her from playing music and construct herself as a musician. The following section aims at further discussing the powerful influential voice of others when dealing with self-constructions by including a dynamic cultural perspective of two case studies.

9.7  To Self-Construct or to Be Constructed by Others As argued throughout the chapter, self-constructions are valuable. Some have a quite strong effect as well as consequences in certain societal perspectives. The above-mentioned episode with the musician illustrates how the voice of others interferes with the musician’s own understanding of being a musician similar as when eliminating the concrete self-construction. In this concrete example, the musician is among a majority of people, who seem to share the musician’s own understanding of playing marching music in Belo Jardim as something valuable and not as something related to being a ‘vagabunda’. Here the musician continued playing music and constructing herself as a “musician” and not as a ‘vagabunda’. However, when being among a majority of persons who disagree with one’s own understanding and experiences related to a given self-construction, the outcome might be quite different. The latter example is described in the case studies by Windholz (1985) that took place in Tsarist and Soviet Russia at the end of the nineteenth century. Here the outcry was about the self-construction of I am Jesus which two men claimed themselves of being due to what they described as religious experiences. Authorities claimed their behaviour to be illegal, thus diagnosing them by psychiatrists as paranoiacs (another construction) as well as involuntarily committing them. One of the dissenters, Malevannyi, described an ascent during a prayer of which, ‘he is certain that the Holy Ghost resided within him […] In addition Malevannyi considers himself as Jesus Christ, the “Saviour of the World […]”’ (Windholz, 1985 p.  331). Strikingly, on behalf of the same incident Malevannyi moved from an I am Jesus Christ construction to another construction by society as mentally ill. Later Malevannyi’s construction made by others changed yet again. The behaviour was still the same; however, the new point of view released him from the psychiatric hospital with an agreement that the behaviour and thus the construction instead were related to a religious conviction. This construction change was crucial in terms of potential deprivation of liberty. The article presents through the voice of Pavlov different perspectives for and against Malevannyi as mentally ill with Pavlov arguing against it. Pavlov seems to raise awareness to the discussion of constructions as dynamic cultural entities that among some are considered as right (accepted) constructions, whereas the same construction is wrong (not accepted) among others. Pavlov continues in the following the discussion of right and wrong constructions with the psychiatrists in relation to the second dissenter, Patient Pr:

9  Being in the World: The ACT of Making and Striking Out Personal Self-Constructions 163 Take another Orthodox clergyman, he believes in miracles, but he will never say he makes them, but he will say “it happened thanks to God,” “thanks to the power of his words,” “thanks to the prayer” the miracle took place. Where is here a systematized delusion? Prove it to me! I tell you, that was a mere believer. Try it prove it, otherwise all believers are paranoiacs! (ibid, p. 33).

Pavlov very importantly puts awareness to the different interpretations of the same behaviours or actions of a person resulting in different constraining ‘either or’ conclusions instead of perhaps ‘both and’ assumptions. This raises the question of whether any construction might be deadlocked without the possibility of removing it from identity? There might not be a straight answer. However, the current chapter views it as critical to address self-constructions as static entities. By doing so, one leaves out or denies the imaginary aspect of imagining the actual possibility of being without specific constructions or understanding them from different point of views. The difficulty and unwillingness to let go or even imagine the loss of specific constructions might relate to the personal value and the perhaps deeply inherited meaning aspect of these constructions. Constructions might, in this respect, leave scars in the skin as more or less visible memory devices of given personal experiences that connects the personal past with the anticipated future (Nedergaard, 2016). Another view of Malevannyi’s construction of being Jesus Christ might as well exist. It is the possibility that Malevannyi, due to concrete inexplicable experiences (most likely hyper-generalized) and in search of meaning, imagines and thus accepts the possibility of being Jesus Christ. He even has first-hand experiential proofs supporting this self-construction. The distinction between paranoiac delusion and religious conviction was germane to the case of these two dissenters, and their story clearly puts awareness to the power of the constructing other. Likewise, the distinction and meaning between ‘being a musician’ and ‘being a vagabunda’ was crucial in the current study in terms of future possibilities along the life trajectory of the musician. Similar tendencies also appear in another study within a Danish elementary school in relation to the understanding and possibilities associated with the construction of ‘being Danish’. The constructing other is also present among those individuals who after have been given a particular diagnosis (and in contrast to the dissenters presented above) actually personify and relate to clinical dysfunctions such as ADHD, depression, antisocial personality, narcissism, and this like. Among some individuals, these diagnostic constructions become newly accepted identity markers and providers of social representational meaning-making structures of the individual. This has the consequence of reducing uncertainty of oneself but also the possibility of suppressing other valuable and important self-constructions (Hermans, 2003; Hermans, Konopka, Oosterwegel, & Zomer, 2017). As pointed out throughout the chapter, any social construction is of dynamic and adapting character related to time and place. Hereby clinical diagnostic labels and diagnostic criteria are historically situated as well as institutionalized (Hermans et al., 2017). Another example of the constructing other and the tendency of adding involuntarily constructions to individuals is when specific assigned constructions affect specific behaviour patterns. In Denmark, observations of this phenomenon took

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place in elementary schools regarding the construction of ‘being Danish’ or ‘NOT being Danish’. A study by Gilliam (2010) dealt with children of different ethnic backgrounds of which some were bilingual children. Constructing themselves as either ‘I am Danish’ or ‘I am NOT Danish’ had a huge effect on their behaviour in school. Gilliam describes the phenomenon as cultural hegemony and further elaborates ‘[…] some cultural understandings and practices manifest themselves as the obvious and ideal and define the norm of behaviour and knowledge as well as acknowledgement in school’ (p. 128). Cultural hegemony or the constructing other resulted in bilingual children with, e.g., Muslim background considering themselves as ‘I am a troublemaker’ and ‘I am less talented’ than those peers who did not have Muslim relations or were bilingual, thus behaving as troublemakers and less-­ talented children. Here being a Muslim child was in school contexts both by teachers and among the children, regardless of the ethnic background, considered less valued than being a Danish child. The study by Gilliam emphasizes that cultural hegemony in school and marginalization, as these ethnic minority children experience, provide the creation of specific cultural configurations (constructions) of being Muslim and of being Danish as it happens today and also will happen in future perspectives (ibid.).

9.8  Final Comments – The Dynamic Self-Construction Constructions appear as guidelines regarding certain behaviour, and conversely certain behaviour induces certain understandings and constructions of one(s) self. Paying attention to the cultural influence in the imagining process of a given construction is crucial in order to avoid potential deadlocked or fixed understandings causing marginalization and less beneficial (maybe even inhibitory) behaviours in a societal perspective as in the example of cultural hegemony in school (Gilliam, 2010) or the involuntarily committed dissenters described by Pavlov (Windholz, 1985). The current study of the Brazilian musicians analyses this meaning-making process through the imaginative elaborations of the musicians when facing an intruding understanding that deviates from their own. Constructions here relates to the process of remembering previous experiences either supporting or deviating from the suggested (new) understanding or construction along with imagining the actual possibility of not accepting it as part of ones understanding of self. This puts awareness to self as a cultural dynamic instance constantly negotiating and adapting to cultural input based on one’s own past experiences leading to future dreams and expectations as well as cultural input from the voices of others with different cultural backgrounds. When constructing oneself, one imagines what the specific construction consists of on behalf of elements from past, present, and future experiences in relation to the concrete construction through an imaginative loop (Zittoun, 2017). Even though some elements appear the same when constructing oneself, as in the case of I am a musician, the construction changes due to the irreversible time aspect likewise as

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the exemplified carnival construction from the beginning of the chapter changes due to the influence of many elements such as time, location, social relations, cultural artefacts, the anticipated future, etc. To be able to construct oneself as something or someone inextricably links to the process of imagination. Children are very well at doing so when asked what they want to be when they grow up with the inspiration related to experiences of adult role models. One cannot construct oneself without imagining oneself experiencing or behaving in certain ways related to a personal understanding of the given construction as indicated by the participants in the current study through imaginative elaborations when they fulfilled their personal constructions. The construction of being a musician appears to some of the participants so deeply rooted and valued that they are not willing to let go of it – not even imaginary. The contrapuntal aspect here is that by constructing oneself as I am a musician one also constructs I am not a musician due to the meanacting process (Josephs et al., 1999). When dealing with reinforcement of specific constructions, it appears important to highlight two powerful aspects in terms of the influence of the constructing other as well as the individual experiences through time. These two aspects are not separated but constantly influencing one another as described by Valsiner (2014) in the individual-socioecological model. This model explains how external guidance through goal-oriented others such as persons and institutions influences cultural phenomena such as the given cultural phenomena of local affiliation to a certain kind of marching music as presented in this chapter. It seems relevant to mention yet another influencing aspect when dealing with personal experiences and self-constructions in terms of the briefly mentioned moving body. The moving body bridges the gap between the individual and the society’s mutual (re)creation of self-constructions through the body’s constantly inhaling and exhaling of experiences. Some experiences (and self-constructions) might stick to the individual like ‘experiential tar’ with a strong body remembering effect that from time to time becomes visible through certain behavioural patterns, whereas other experiences are inhaled and exhaled unnoticeably without leaving any immediate trace of existence (Krause-Kjær et al., 2019). By paying attention to self-constructions as dynamic, individual, and intrinsically guidelines of individuals in their life trajectory, it might benefit to understand future-oriented behaviours, also when some constructions might have grown very deeply onto the individual self-understanding. To survey how valued or seemingly fixed personal constructions might appear to the individual in an easily accessible, however efficient way was of interest. The making and striking out technique seems to fit the current interest through surveying and understanding the self-construction(s) of ‘being a musician in Belo Jardim’. The current survey emphasizes that we might never understand the complete diverse meanings of being a musician in the city of Belo Jardim due to the ongoing adaptation of constructions in an irreversible time frame (Krause-Kjær & Nedergaard, 2015). Nonetheless, the making and striking out technique does, by including the immediate experiences (reactions) of imagining the possibility of being without a given construction, suggest some degree of understanding of the personal value related to the actual construction. Many of the

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participants could not see themselves without several of the constructions, regardless of whether they related the act of removing the values as pleasant or unpleasant. By imagining the loss, some of them began to reflect on future-oriented actions that might reinforce the construction even further such as creating more opportunities for playing music in Belo Jardim and keeping the two bands alive. Every participant except from one (Cultura, 70 years) describes one or more of their sentences in relation to music in their everyday life, which clearly highlights music as an important part of and within Belo Jardim. It further draws attention to the sign-construction of Belo Jardim as the ‘Land of Musicians’ as another potential reinforcing element and value related to the construction of being a musician in Belo Jardim. The current chapter intends to stress the point of self-constructions as dynamically embedded within and by society as well as through the actions of the moving body. Constructions are determined by others but continuously renegotiated by the individual with the possibility of reconstructing it. Reconstructions relate in this study to the verbalised imaginative elaborations through the means of both imagining in a future-oriented perspective as well as remembering in a previously experienced perspective. Self-constructions thus are of great value to both the individual and the dynamic developing society. Acknowledgement  I would like to thank Maria Lyra and Tatiana Valério for arranging and organising everything in Belo Jardim as well as everyone in Recife and Belo Jardim who took part of making this study possible. I would also like to thank Jaan Valsiner for extraordinary support and inspiration.

References Boesch, E. (2007). The sound of the violin. In W. J. Lonner & S. A. Hayes (Eds.), Discovering cultural psychology (pp. 177–195). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Gilliam, L. (2010). Den utilsigtede integration: Skolens bidrag til etniske minoritetsbørns muslimske identitet og fællesskab. I K. Lippert-Rasmussen, & N. Holtug (red.), Kulturel Diversitet: muligheder og begrænsninger (s. 123–141). Odense: Syddansk. Universitetsforlag. University of Southern Denmark Studies in History and Social Sciences, Nr. 2, Bind. 383. Góes, F. (2000). 50 Anos do Trio Elétrico (p. 168). Salvador: Corrupio (Ed). Hayes, S. C. (2004). Acceptance and commitment therapy, relational frame theory, and the third wave of behavioural and cognitive therapies, original research article. Behavior Therapy, 35(4), 639–665. Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change (p. 304). New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Hermans, H. J. M. (2001a). The construction of a personal position repertoire: Method and practice. Culture & Psychology, 7(3), 323–365. Hermans, H. J. M. (2001b). The dialogical self: Toward a theory of personal and cultural positioning. Culture & Psychology, 7(3), 243–281. Hermans, H. J. M. (2003). Clinical diagnosis as a multiplicity of self-positions: Challenging social representations theory. Culture & Psychology, 9(4), 407–414. Hermans, H.  J. M., Konopka, A., Oosterwegel, A., & Zomer, P. (2017). Fields of tensions in a boundary-crossing world: Towards a democratic organization of the self. Integrative Psychology Behavioural Science, 51(4), 505–535.

9  Being in the World: The ACT of Making and Striking Out Personal Self-Constructions 167 Josephs, I. E., Valsiner, J., & Surgan, S. E. (1999). The process of meaning construction: Dissecting the flow of semiotic activity. In J.  Brandtstädter & R.  Lerner (Eds.), Action and development: Origins and functions of intentional self-development (pp. 257–282). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Krause-Kjær, E., & Nedergaard, J. I. (2015). Single case method in psychology: How to improve as a possible methodology in quantitative research. Integrative Psychological and Behavioural Science, 49(3), 350–359. Krause-Kjær, E., Nedergaard, J.  I., & Valsiner, J. (2019). The moving body. In G.  Jovanovic, L. Allolio-Näcke, & C. Ratner (Eds.), The challenges of cultural psychology (pp. 284–300). London and New York: Routledge. Nedergaard, J. I. (2016). Theory of semiotic skin: Making sense of the flux on the border. Culture & Psychology., 22(3), 387–403. Valsiner, J. (2014). Needed for cultural psychology: Methodology in a new key. Culture & Psychology, 20(1), 3–30. Wagoner, B., & Gillespie, A. (2014). Sociocultural mediators of remembering: An extension of Bartlett’s method of repeated reproduction. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53, 622–639. Wagoner, B., & Valsiner, J. (2005). Rating tasks in psychology: From static ontology to dialogical synthesis of meaning. In A. Gülerce, A. Hofmeister, I. Staeuble, G. Saunders, & J. Kaye (Eds.), Contemporary theorizing in psychology: Global perspectives (pp. 197–213). Toronto, Canada: Captus Press. White, M. (2001). Folk psychology and narrative practice. Dulwich Centre Journal, 2, 3–35. Windholz, G. (1985). Psychiatric commitments of religious dissenters in tsarist and soviet Russia: Two case studies. Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes, 48(4), 329–340. Zittoun, T. (2017). Imagining self in a changing world – An exploration of “studies of marriage”. In M. Han & C. Cunha (Eds.), The subjectified and subjectifying mind (pp. 85–116). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Chapter 10

Co-constructing Past and Future in Times of Uncertainty: Students’ Positions During the Brazilian Teachers’ Strike in 2012 Gabriel Fortes Cavalcanti de Macêdo and Ignacio Brescó de Luna

Contents 10.1  T  heoretical Framework: Positioning in Time or an Agentive Understanding of Temporal Experience 10.2  Empirical Study: Positioning on the University Teachers’ Strike of 2012 in Brazil 10.2.1  Participants 10.3  Analytical Proposal 10.4  Analysis and Discussion of Cases 10.4.1  Epistemic as Commitment/Duty: Fighting for What People Know Is Right 10.4.2  Power Relations: From Certainty to Uncertainty 10.5  Conclusions References

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Times of change, crisis and struggle bring to the foreground different narratives through which people can interpret the world and reduce future uncertainty. Narratives play a key role in providing some directionality to people’s actions. In uncertain times, individuals try to link the past to the present as well as to different imagined or anticipated futures. However, this does not always take the form of a linear narrative – where the past weighs on the present, thus constraining the future. On occasion, the past is narratively (re)constructed in relation to different imagined futures, which can, in turn, be conceived as a utopia, an extended or improved present, a threat, etc. This chapter sets out to explore the interwoven nature of remembering and imagining, as processes through which people (re)construct and position themselves vis-à-vis the past, present and future, thus assuming an agentive G. F. C. de Macêdo (*) Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, Chile I. Brescó de Luna Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7_10

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understanding of temporal experience. Through an analysis of both deontic (e.g., must, should, ought, etc.) and epistemic (e.g., know, believe, guess, etc.) modal verbs, we examine how individuals position themselves when facing a period of uncertainty, struggle and change such as that prompted by a university teachers’ strike in Brazil in 2012. Teachers’ strikes were part of a national movement established in several higher education institutions in all the Brazilian states. Both public (Federal and State institutions) and private universities took part, although the latter were significantly less represented. The main demands raised by those supporting the strikes were a better career progression system, better retirement plans and a gradual wage increase scheme similar to that existing in other Brazilian public sector careers, such as the judiciary career system. After several months of negotiation, various university teacher unions called for a general strike to pressurise the federal government to stick to the 2011 agreements on improving salaries and working conditions. It should be noted that although the 2012 strikes involved mainly teachers’ demands, university student involvement in political issues in Brazil is very high. In this particular case, students had a strong presence in the protests in support of teachers’ demands. However, the strikes had a major impact on the students’ lives as no classes were given during the protests and the whole semester was cancelled, thus forcing all students to redo the first and second semester of that year. For the students, this meant not knowing when they were going to graduate or what they would be doing in the near future, as they could not apply for jobs or internships due to the changes in the academic calendar. In sum, protests not only disrupted the academic year at university, but they also affected the students’ prospects.

10.1  T  heoretical Framework: Positioning in Time or an Agentive Understanding of Temporal Experience Strikes are an interesting phenomenon. They imply putting a stop to our work, rupturing the flow of our day-to-day activity. Time seems to be held in suspense and new spaces emerge for groups (students, workers, teachers, etc.) to imagine other possible paths to take in the future. That is why these moments are usually laden with controversy and debate. Decisions on what strategies and lines of action should – or should not – be taken (viz., to finish or continue the strike, stand down and negotiate, etc.) are pretty much framed by how the past is remembered. Lessons learnt from similar events in the past could lead to different strategies in the present (viz., not to start negotiating until the other party accepts some of our claims, resorting to violence might be counterproductive, etc.). However, it is also sometimes the case that the kind of past used in order to legitimise certain actions in the present is reconstructed in light of certain imagined futures (e.g., the expectation of forcing

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the government to fall, of taking control of the trade union, etc.).1 In short, strikes offer a particularly advantageous window to study the way in which different imagined futures are articulated vis-à-vis various ways of reconstructing the past and how this results in certain ways of positioning in time. Formulated in Koselleck’s (1979/2004, pp. 258–9) terms, strikes allow us to examine how horizons of expectations (the future made present, whether in the form of hope or fear, utopias or dystopias, fatalistic resignation or rational analysis) and spaces of experience (the past incorporated into the present through remembering and tradition) dynamically co-­ construct one another and provide guidance and agency to social and political movements (see also Brescó, 2018). In looking at this mutual articulation between past experiences and future expectations, it could be argued that, on the one hand, the past weighs on the present, thus constraining the future. However, humans do not passively react to stimuli. As in the case of strikes, individuals and groups can also react against the conditions, discourses, routines and injustices imposed upon them. When this happens, they change from being actors subjected to ready-made scripts to being authors endowed with agency to struggle and decide on which road to take. In fact, humans are constantly constructing other possible worlds (Bruner, 1986) and imagining new futures that can alter our own present (Zittoun & Saint-Laurent, 2015). This approach is in line with one of the key assumptions of cultural psychology, namely that we are goal-oriented beings and, as such, we use different cultural tools (Wertsch, 2002) to interpret the world and imagine bridges towards what is not yet given (Abbey & Bastos, 2014). In so doing, we guide our actions towards the future, thus reducing its inherent uncertainty (Valsiner, 2007). As Zittoun and Cerchia (2013) point out, imagination is necessary to human and cultural life as it can potentially expand what is possible in a given state of socio-historical constraints (p.  307). According to these authors, imagination involves a kind of a loop out of the here-and-now – a loop that allows us to explore new alternatives, to reread the past in light of other possible futures and/or to re-imagine the future in light of different past events. In that regard, strikes constitute a paradigmatic case of how such a loop can take form due to the opportunity they bring for imagining (and negotiating) possible new worlds. The foregoing poses some problems with respect to the traditional linear concept of time, based on efficient causality, in which events are inevitably pushed from the past into the future (Morselli, 2013). By contrast, as in the case of utopias (Brescó, 2018), we see imagined future scenarios pulling the present towards the future through a certain way of reconstructing the past. Along these lines, authors working on life-course studies (de Saint-Laurent, 2016) highlight the role of “memory as a future-oriented action done in interaction with others and mediated by cultural resources” (p. 267). In this respect, narratives have traditionally been understood as key meaning-making cultural tools through which past, present and future can be

 See Brescó (2017, 2021) for the notion of prolepsis, defined by Cole (1996) as the process by which an imagined final cause acquires pragmatic force for current action.

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meaningfully articulated (Wagoner, Brescó, & Awad, 2019; Wertsch, 2002). According to Brockmeier (2009), this narrative standpoint assumes that “our concepts of time are neither universally given entities nor epistemological preconditions of experience, but outcomes of symbolic constructions that are by their very nature cultural and historical” (p. 118). In telling stories about ourselves – be it in the first-person singular or plural – we dialectically co-construct our past experiences and future expectations through a “self-woven symbolic fabric of temporality” (p. 118). As Brockmeier (2009) acknowledges, this view is at odds with the Newtonian ontological assumption according to which time is an absolute and homogenous system; a fixed objective background against which any event can be spatiotemporally localised as a point on a continuous line, regardless of the person who is experiencing, remembering or imagining. According to Koselleck (1979/2004), time cannot be understood independently of the experiences and expectations of active human agents. Individuals, understood as agentic and future-oriented beings, position themselves in time and thus experience it in manifold ways. On occasion, time seems to flow smoothly. In such cases, the experience accumulated in the past may act as a guideline telling us what to do in the present as well as what kind of futures we can expect or aspire to. In some other cases – for instance, as a result of a crisis – the rupture with the previous state of things, together with the uncertainty surrounding the future, makes past experiences insufficient for interpreting the present situation. In such cases, there does not seem to be much of a horizon beyond the present day, as past becomes of little use in order to plan the future which, in turn, becomes more and more difficult to envisage. Sometimes the future calls upon us to act. As in the case of certain utopias, the present then becomes nothing but the eve of a better tomorrow, something that should – and indeed must – be sacrificed. The future may also be felt as something threatening, so we may feel tempted to go back in time to an idealised past, a past that is gone for good (Hakoköngäs, 2016). In turn, nostalgia can also involve looking back to the past in search of those futures that never came true (Bradbury, 2012). The ‘could have’ or ‘should have’ of hindsight can move us beyond the confines of an idealised past, felt as something completed and fulfilled, and thus prevent us from experiencing the present as a kind of epilogue (Nietzsche, 1873–76/1957) deprived of any future expectations. In short, the articulation between past and future  – between experience and expectations – can adopt different verb tenses (i.e., imperative, subjunctive, indicative, future perfect) and modal verbs (i.e., must, should, can), thus showing different types of agency as well as ways of positioning and orienting action within time. Along these lines, De Luca Picione and Freda (2016) have examined the use of modal verbs in narrative accounts of oncological patients. In the face of an illness – understood as a rupture in one’s life that calls for a new articulation of one’s goals and future expectations – the study of modal verbs can cast light on how subjects give meaning to their actions vis-à-vis their particular experience of time. To that end, these authors analyse the way in which patients position themselves in time through the experiential categories of need, opportunity, obligation, permission, will and knowledge. In other words, according to these authors, modal articulation

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allows for the description of the fundamental characteristics of the narrator’s subjectivity: affectivity, positioning, action orientation, social relationships, and meaningful connections between past, present and future (De Luca Picione & Freda, 2016). Research on modal verbs has recently turned to be the distinction between epistemic and deontic modalities (see Heritage, 2012; Stevanovic & Peräkylä, 2012), whereas ‘epistemic reasoning is concerned with the truth value of the purported states of affairs, deontic reasoning is concerned with what one may, should, or must not, do in a given set of circumstances’ (Stevanovic, 2015, p. 1). Within this framework, different studies (see, for instance, Stevanovic & Peräkylä, 2014) have focused on the relationship between deontic and epistemic modalities, looking at how people use these two modalities when expressing their respective positions on their own and each other’s deontic rights and responsibilities in light of certain knowledge (or lack thereof) in a particular domain of action. Along these lines, the study that follows aims to capture university students’ positions in relation to the teachers’ strike of 2012 in Brazil, in terms of their deontic and epistemic orientation towards this issue. Taken as a moment of rupture and uncertainty in students’ daily lives, the strike of 2012 provides a particularly advantageous case to examine how students imagine, negotiate and ponder different interpretations of the past, as well as different possible lines of action to be taken in the future, or to put it in other words, how epistemic aspects related to students’ past experiences interplay with their deontic orientations towards different imagined futures.

10.2  E  mpirical Study: Positioning on the University Teachers’ Strike of 2012 in Brazil The corpus analysed in this chapter was obtained in the wake of the university teachers’ strike held in 2012.2 The focus group took place 4 months after the strikes, when their outcomes had started to become evident to the students. After the series of strikes, the students had to undertake two academic semesters in 5 months, some of them overlapping with their summer holidays – a period in which students normally apply for future jobs or projects. In this respect, the focus group was a chance for participants to evaluate different aspects of the protests, i.e., their past experiences during the strikes and their present experiences regarding the negative outcomes of the protests. Most importantly, the focus group was also an opportunity to rethink and re-evaluate past and future actions concerning similar events. The focus group of three students was implemented by the first author. It consisted of a one-hour session in which participants discussed their present positions over the teachers’ strike by offering different arguments, whether for or against it. Participants were also asked about the past, namely about the positive and negative

2  The data used in this paper comes from the data bank provided by the Argumentation Research Centre (NuPArg) of which the first author forms part as a doctoral student.

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aspects or events caused by the strike. The future dimension was brought into the discussion by asking students about their stance on how their demands could be achieved in the future – whether by resorting to strikes or to other alternative means. The focus group was organised as a non-structured discussion on the subject with minor intervention by the mediator. The proposed theme was the benefits and harm of the university teachers’ strike. No techniques of discussion regulation were used. In a free speech group discussion, the role of the mediator was limited to posing questions throughout the conversation and encouraging the involvement of the three participants.

10.2.1  Participants This study was carried out with three students, directly affected by the strikes, in their last year of the psychology bachelor program. The participants were part of a longitudinal study conducted by the Argumentation Research Center (NuPArg) from Pernambuco Federal University, Brazil. Pseudonyms were used to ensure the participants’ anonymity: • Sofia (21 years old): A pacifist and left-winger, at various points this participant stated her concerns about global warming, vegetarianism and non-violent methods of social change. At first, she was in favour of the teachers’ strike, mostly because of the adherence of her peers. However, she opposed the violent methods used by some students during the protests. She is well known among her classmates for being a good student and for taking a leading role in social activities. • Paulina (21 years old): Also a left-winger, this participant was more energetic in her position and commitment to the protests. Her support for the strikes was due mainly to her discontent with the overall Brazilian political scene. She is known in class for her artistic and creative side, as she combines her career as an actress with her studies in psychology. • Bernardo (22 years old): His position is closer to the centre of the political spectrum. Unlike Sofia and Paulina  – more concerned about political and societal issues – Bernardo showed more interest in the scientific side of the discussion. Like Sofia, he is known for being among the high achievers of his class, but mostly for his inclination towards scientific thinking.

10.3  Analytical Proposal Drawing on the distinction between deontic (duty, commitment) and epistemic (certainty, knowledge) modalities (Heritage, 2012; Stevanovic & Peräkylä, 2012), the study aims to examine how the participants’ past, present and future positions

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regarding the strikes are reorganised during the focus group discussion. Against this backdrop, the focus lies in the discursive elements that show how these dynamics take place and how they may affect the way in which students reorganise their own self-positions towards the university teachers’ strike. The main point is to understand how moral commitments and state of knowledge are discursively constructed, recounted and negotiated in times of conflict and uncertainty. As for deontic modality, the focus is placed on how verbs – such as can, should, must and ought – are used to create the effect of duty or moral commitment (or lack thereof) vis-à-vis the strike. As for epistemic modality, the stress is placed on verbs which show states of knowledge or degrees of certainty and doubt, as well as students’ beliefs.

10.4  Analysis and Discussion of Cases 10.4.1  E  pistemic as Commitment/Duty: Fighting for What People Know Is Right An important dynamic observed during the focus group discussion revolved around how participants combined the following three dimensions: (1) past and future goals (evaluative dimension); (2) knowledge statements (epistemic dimension); and (3) a sense of responsibility (deontic dimension) in relation to the protests. In the discussion, participants’ accounts of the events that arose during the protests conveyed a strong evaluative stance, thus showing students’ positioning not only towards what happened in the past but also towards the future yet to come. In this sense, the axiological standpoints used by the students to justify their actions and re-evaluate their positions is established in such a way that their commitments towards rightful actions – even when they disagree with them – are supported by the collective orientation of achieving a greater goal. Epistemic modal operators (knowledge statements and beliefs) are shown in italics, whereas deontic operators (reflecting subjects’ positioning or commitment) are underlined. Let us look at the case of Sofia: Extract 1 (Sofia): ‘I am not particularly in favour of protests, especially when they resort to violence in order to generate social change. But I understand the demands raised by the protesters [the teachers] and I agree with them. So, in a certain way, I’ll support future strikes if the majority thinks it’s the right way to act and everyone is engaged in the same fight. If I believe in the goals of that fight, then I must help out too’ [our emphasis].

As we can see in Sofia’s extract, knowledge statements when reflecting on a situation of crisis – such as the teachers’ strike – are not neutral and constitute more than just logical viewpoints on a matter. In this case, knowledge and beliefs are rather discursively used as an epistemic ground for legitimising possible future actions and ways of positioning. No less important in this extract is how the dynamics between group and individual actions are reported by Sofia’s epistemic take on the situation, that is, by her knowledge and beliefs regarding the goals of the strikes. The belief

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that one should let go of their own position in favour of that of the group is used as a way to articulate Sofia’s support of the protests (viz., the goals and demands behind the strikes) and her disagreement with the way in which the fight is conducted (see also Extract 5 below). If we look closer at the statement, ‘I am not particularly in favour of protests’ in Extract 1, we can see how Sofia creates a frontier between her personal position and that of the others involved in the protests. However, further on we can see how her understanding and acknowledgement of the demands raised by the protesters call for a series of actions she might not agree with. Therefore, the obligation to act (I must help) is operationalised exclusively by her ‘epistemic’ status in respect of the situation. In this sense, it seems that the epistemic dimension (viz., to understand what is at stake in the fight) brings with it the moral burden of a deontic orientation (viz., acquiring some kind of responsibility towards the known object: the protesters’ demands). In short, once you know what is at stake and what is the right thing to do in order to defend what you deem just, then there are no excuses for not getting involved in the fight. By the same token, not knowing or being in doubt creates the opposite effect, namely, avoiding taking a stand, or even transforming knowledge into duty. As we can see in the case of Bernardo: Extract 2 (Bernardo): ‘I don’t know if I am for or against the strikes, you know? I know that the strike seems necessary. These guys [the teachers’ union] always say that they only strike when they run out of alternatives. So you see, it’s necessary. Now, on the other hand, it’s like Sofia said, it’s not efficient. So it’s hard. Therefore, it’s the strike plus something, but I don’t know what that something might be’ [Our emphasis].

Once again what is at stake here is not the mere ‘meaning’ or how the student refers to the past, present or future of the protests. Looking closely at the extract, we can see how trust, knowledge and morality are discursively interwoven. In Bernardo’s case, not knowing leads him to question his own actions, whether those taken in the past or those imagined in the future. What is important here is the dynamics of justifying one’s position when it comes to committing or avoiding commitment vis-à-­ vis these experiences. What we can infer from Extracts 1 and 2 is a dynamic relationship between epistemic statements, evaluative positions on the world and the creation of an agentive commitment towards action. As knowledge grows, so too does ownership of one’s own position on the current state of affairs, thus resulting in a reconfiguration not only of how subjects refer to the past but also how they orient themselves towards the future. Along these lines, Bernardo’s comment on the inefficiency of the strike is not so much a statement about the future (viz., the appropriateness of continuing to use strikes as a fighting tool) but a way of showing his lack of commitment towards something he does not really know, and therefore, something for which he does not want to be responsible. Overall, as can be inferred from the two cases above, uncertainty seems to call for epistemic positioning, be it towards action or towards doubt. In either case, these dynamics hinge on how claimed knowledge of the current situation is discursively used as a tool whereby participants can achieve some certainty with respect to their position as moral and responsible agents. In this regard, it can be said that claimed

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knowledge acts as a mediational tool for grounding participants’ experience both in moral and temporal terms.

10.4.2  Power Relations: From Certainty to Uncertainty In the above section, we have examined the role that modal verbs play in Sofia’s and Bernardo’s speech. We have seen how their respective positions regarding the strike are discursively articulated by means of epistemic and deontic statements. In this section, we address how personal positions change throughout the focus group discussion. To that end, some extracts of our third participant – Paulina – will be discussed in this section. By analysing Paulina’s discourse we will show how the way in which she speaks about the strike changes as the discussion unfolds, and how this change in turn affects the way in which she perceives both the teachers’ fight and her own role in it as an agentic actor. Paulina has a particular way of perceiving the strike, not as a tool for transformation but as a way to re-signify her relationship with teachers’ authority. Following below is an extract of Paulina’s initial understanding of the strikes and the teachers’ position: Extract 3 (Paulina): ‘... I really thought about it, I thought about the teachers and the disrespect they have to face, you know? I think it’s valid, damn, I think I can sacrifice vacations and everything so that there can be a real possibility of change.’

Once again, the reflective dimension involved in the discursive construction of Paulina’s position on the strike comes from her knowledge of the subject. Nevertheless, it is important to note that she is speaking from the perspective of someone who knows the outcomes of the strikes – hence her emphasis in saying ‘a real possibility of change’. The discursive dynamic of past, present and future used by Paulina may highlight the fact that her evaluation of the past is already marked by her discontent with the teachers’ positions at the end of the protests (see Extract 4 below). Nonetheless, as we can see, Paulina builds her position in favour of the strike in conditional terms, that is, on the actual possibility of change. In other words, the very possibility of a real change would account for Paulina’s belief in being on the ‘right side’ of the fight. Let us look at how she reports her evaluation of this ‘real possibility of change’: Extract 4 (Paulina): ‘The strike came to an end right at the time when they [the government] threatened to suspend the teachers’ salaries. That disgusted me because here at the university when it’s time for the teacher to persecute a student, to create terror in class, like, I can’t even find the proper words for it…’ [our emphasis]

For her, the outcome of the strike became representative of the power play between teachers and students. In decisive moments, it is the latter  – that is, the weakest group – who has to put up with the consequences. In Extract 3 above, Paulina was certain that the strikes were motivated by a rightful cause. Now in Extract 4 she seems to point not only to the futility of the teachers’ fight (which dissipated as soon

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as they were threatened with the salary suspension) but also to the power relationship between teachers and students. The conditional that she used in Extract 3 is now materialised in the use of the operator ‘when’ in Extract 4. The possibility of change mentioned in Extract 3 turns out to be thwarted in Extract 4 due to the teachers’ position, thus making this participant reconsider what is at stake when you fight for an authoritarian class (the university teachers). If she was once certain about how to react in a scenario defined in terms of class struggle – viz., siding with those facing disrespect (Extract 3) – now she redefines the weakest party within a scenario marked by teachers’ abuse of power over students (Extract 4). Paulina’s statements take the discussion in a new direction by laying bare the unbalanced power relationship between students and teachers in a university context. This opens up a new angle from which to look at the strike and the students’ positioning therein. If the students were once ‘united’ with the teachers under the same cause, Paulina’s remark in Extract 4 seems to problematise the role of the different actors involved in the conflict (the media, the government, the teachers), as well as the power relations within both these actors and between them and the students. As the weakest actors in the game, students turned out to be the most harmed by the teachers’ fight, not to say the only collective who ended up losing something as a result of the strike. What is brought into the discussion is the distinction between I as a person, We as students and Them, the teachers portrayed as “unfair” power representatives. This articulation reconfigures how the strike is perceived by students and therefore how certainty is no longer warranted by ‘fighting for the right cause’. If we come back to Sofia’s comments in Extract 1, we might say that underlying her support for the strike was the students’ identification with the teachers’ demands. However, after Paulina’s reflection, the We embracing both students and teachers falls apart inasmuch as teachers become part of Them. In other words, when power relations are brought to the fore, they start acting as defining markers through which students come to understand themselves in the conflict; i.e., as a collective that no longer stands alongside the teachers but pretty much against them. This shift in the students’ way of positioning vis-à-vis the teachers brings with it a change in the way the teachers’ struggle is perceived. The ‘uncertainty’ related to power relations that Paulina mentions seems to lead the discussion to another stage, namely how to avoid the reproduction of old models of rebelling against power, both in the past and in the future. At this point Paulina and Sofia start to disagree on the methods they should use. The following extract shows how Sofia’s individual beliefs about humanity and progress lead her to condemn and support different lines of collective action. Extract 5 (Sofia): ‘But I have some principles too, I have some ideals, and one of my ideals is that I believe in the good of humanity, I believe in human evolution, I think people have reached such a level of dialogue, communication, globalisation… that it should be possible to find new strategies for claiming rights other than armed ones, armed fighting, planting bombs.... Anyway, I think there must be another way and this is what I think about both teachers’ and young people’s demands’ [our emphasis].

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What we can draw from this extract is how certainty and uncertainty can be considered through the use of different modal verbs that relate to the temporal dimension of discourse. Here, we can see how Sofia plays with ‘opposites’ to somehow sort out the problematic relationship between what she wishes and the reality of the situation; how humanity has evolved and yet how old ways of claiming justice are still used. If we look at the dynamics between epistemic and deontic modalities, we can see how Sofia is using her claimed knowledge about human evolution (its level of dialogue, communication, globalisation…) in order to underpin her own moral position on how people should fight for their rights. However, she is not talking about the real present, or even an ‘epistemic present’ (related to what she knows about the here and now); instead, she is referring to an ideal (hopeful, wishful) present, an imagined present in which humanity’s development should yield to non-­ violent ways of protesting. One last point worth highlighting is the way in which Sofia goes from ‘should be possible’ to ‘must be another way’. In looking at how she shifts from the conditional (wishful but uncertain) to the imperative mode, we can say that there is a growth of certainty about the existence of non-violent ways to claim social class demands. It is important to highlight the fact that the struggle between certainty and uncertainty is also a way in which to project possible direction towards the future. In other words, when using deontic statements, the participant seems to engage in an agentive stance towards knowledge use. As we have seen in this section, discussion among the three participants shows more than a simple display of argumentative competences. What we see is three participants trying to justify and make sense of their commitments, beliefs and knowledge regarding the teachers’ strike of 2012. In Sofia’s case, knowledge of, and beliefs in, what was at stake during the protests pave the epistemic way for putting forward her deontic orientation towards the teachers’ strike. Conversely, in Bernardo’s case, not knowing or being in doubt as to what the strike was about create the opposite effect, namely, avoiding taking a clear stand vis-à-vis the protests. Finally, Paulina’s belief in the unequal power relations between teachers and students ends up compromising her initial favourable position regarding the teachers’ claims. In sum, through the discursive use of deontic and epistemic modal verbs, we have shown how claimed knowledge and beliefs of teachers’ demands affect the three participants’ moral commitment to the protests. Modal verbs have also shown the participants’ positions in time as agentic actors from both a deontic and epistemic perspective. Through the experiential categories of need, opportunity, duty, will and knowledge, we have seen how the participants discuss their positioning towards the teachers’ strikes, as well as towards similar protests experienced during their student lives, thus making meaningful connections between past, present and future.

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10.5  Conclusions Yes we can! If only we could go back to the old days, we must fight for our rights, we are the people! We should leave the EU, we shall prevail… as Levinger and Lytle (2001) point out, ‘action is prefigured in the realm of imagination, and thus it is in the realm of political imagination that an analysis of nationalist action must begin’ (p.190). Although political imagination, in the form of utopias and promised lands, has often led to tragic endings, Glăveanu and de Saint-Laurent (2015) remind us that “without imagination, particularly political imagination, human agency would be impossible since the assertion of one’s agency is, itself, a political project” (p. 562). Political imagination allows us to think of other possible worlds and different future scenarios. Conversely, in a no-future society “the present is the only ‘playground’ that matters” and “the very concept of responsibility falls” (Morselli, 2013, p. 307). Imagination seems to be all the more necessary in times where, in face of the world’s increasing complexity and unpredictability, we seem to move towards a pensée unique, regarding the current system as the best and only possible way to structure society. In a current world so enslaved to the present that no other viewpoint is considered admissible (Hartog, 2003/2015), perhaps it is time to claim back imagination, or more specifically, political imagination (Bottici & Challand, 2011). Imagination not at the service of utopias or ultimate ends, but as a tool for us to see beyond the ends of our noses; to be able to imagine the future in light of our actions carried out in the present and the past, and to imagine other possible presents in light of those past episodes we want to avoid and those future scenarios we would like to build. Acknowledgements  The first author would like to thank the financial support of ANID’s Chile Scientific and Technological Research Fund (FONDECYT) for his postdoctoral project (3190488).

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Index

A Abduction, 22 Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), 153 contextualization, 153 language and cognition, 153 self-constructions, 154 thoughts, 153 Adaptation process, 97 Adolescence, 14 behaviors and processes, 14 classroom environments, 15 deterritoriality, 16 economic and political consequences, 15 psychological component, 16 puberty, 15 school transitions, 15 sociomoral values, 15 subjectivity, 14 transition process, 16 Aesthetic experience, 93 affectivating, 91 beauty, 91 forgetfulness, 90 human singularity, 91 imaginative processes, 90 knowledge, 91 meditation, 92 metaphysical, 92 positivistic quest, 89 psychological process, 90 psychology, 89, 92 ravishment, 90 spiritual experiences, 90

sublime, 91, 92 Aesthetic experiences, 105 Affectivating, 91 Affective-semiotic fields (ASF), 110, 112 Affective-semiotic processes, 113 Affective-semiotic sign, 7 Anachronism, 79 Anchorage, 73 Anticipated recognition, 110 Anticipatory recognition, 113, 114 attributions, 116 classroom observations, 116 competence, 115 conversation, 122 cultural systems, 110 dynamics, 110 family environment, 118 interviews, 119 literacy activities, 117 research interviews, 118 research observations, 118 role, 109 school environment, 118 self-attribution, 118 self-regulation, 110 semiotic markers, 117 transitions, 114 Anxiogenic factors, 16 Argentine military, 78, 79 Artistic product, 95 Attributions, 116 Autobiographic interviews, 129 Avenues of Directive Meaning (ADM), 3 Axiological standpoints, 175

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. C.D.P. Lyra et al. (eds.), Imagining the Past, Constructing the Future, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64175-7

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Index

184 B Bartlett’s theory, 38 Being a musician ACT, 153 background analysis, 153 instrument, 152 memory, 152 music battles, 152 self-construction, 151 Bernardo’s case, 176 Biannual meeting, 102 Biological determinism, 100 Blade Runner 2049, 31 Boston Conservatory, 143 Brazilian culture, 105 Brazilian educational system, 15 Brazilian professionals, 100 Brazilian public sector careers, 170 Brazilian states, 170 C Carnival constructions cultural artefacts, 149 dedication, 150 imagination, 150 meanings, 150 methodology, 150 musical explorations, 150 Chronotope concept, 4 Circular movements, 57 Classical rating scales, 156 Cognitive processes, 75, 93 Collective memory, 72 Collective remembering, 76, 78, 79 Communication, 103 Conception stresses, 7 Conceptual confusion, 63 Consensual universes, 75 Construction of meanings, 35, 36 Constructive remembering, 140 Contradictory, 80 Conventionalization, 2 Cultural hegemony, 164 Cultural heritage, 76 Cultural psychology, 97, 110, 111, 128 Cultural schemata, 37 Culture definition, 71 environment, 76, 77 individuals, 72, 84 as memorials, 72 mental world, 77 social construction, nothingness, 74

D Democracy, 100 Deontic and epistemic modal verbs, 179 Deontic modality, 175 Deontic orientations, 173 Developmental perspective, 2 Developmental transitions, 111 Diagnostic constructions, 163 Dialectical-transformative dimension, 96 Dialogical and cultural approaches, 112 Dialogical chronotope idea, 5 Dialogical epistemic genre, 4 Dialogical perspectives, 111 Dialogical relationships, 120 Dialogical self, 112 Dialogical Self Theory (DST), 109 Dialogical viewpoint, 4 Dialogicality, 6 Dialogism, 111 Durkheimian theoretical affiliation, 98 Dynamic adaptation, 37 Dynamic movement, 93 Dynamic remembering-imagination, 63 E Element and atom, 63 Emotional connectedness, 74 Emotional tension, 23 Empirical study corpus, 173 one-hour session, 173 Epistemic modal operators, 175 Epistemic positioning, 176 Epistemic reasoning, 173 Ethnic-racial groups, 102 F Fear, 25 Fechner’s inductive aesthetics, 92 Felipe’ life trajectory musical training, 133 TEA model, 133 Felipe’s cultural context expression, 132 music technical schools, 132 musical formation, 132 Fertile imagination, 128 Fictional narrative essay, 14 Financial circumstances, 128 Forgetting, 71, 72, 76, 81, 83 Free speech group discussion, 174 Future-oriented experiences, 153

Index G Goethe’s conception, 2 Governance technologies, 99 H Historical perspective, 91 Holism, 2 Human development, 22 Hypergeneralized signs, 128 I Idiographic qualitative study, 113 Idiographic science, 22 Imaginary text, 23 Imagination, 25, 32, 33, 52, 55, 61, 62, 96, 97, 128, 130, 131, 171, 180 ambiguity, 35 ambivalence and tension, 17 axiomatic foundation, 20 blocking, 36 border zone, 20 circumvention, 36 concepts, 62 conceptual presentation, 36 creative activity, 17 dialogue, 64, 65 disagreement, 62 dynamic forms, 35 dynamic process, 20 empirical studies, 33 and figurative memory, 17 final synthesis, 62 intrapsychic movement, 19 Kant’s perspective, 16 learning, 36 linguistic and iconic contents, 53 living conditions, 18 loop, 59, 65 meanings, 34 mediation, 16 memory, 19, 33 mental function, 17, 53 mental images, 54 mental process, 36 ontogenetic development, 18 phylogenesis, 18 process of meaning, 35 psychological function, 34 psychological life, 17 psychological mechanism, 17 psychological processes, 33

185 reconstructive remembering, 19 resistance, 35 scientific concept, 54 semiotic processes, 18 theoretical question, 55 transformation, 34 Imagination and memory, 23, 90 Imaginative elaboration, 156–159 Imaginative process, 59, 60 Imaginative reconstructive, 2 Imagining, 26 Implausibility, 59 Indigenous people, 78–81 Induction and deduction, 22 Inferior races, 100 Intern–extern relationships, 4 Interpretation, 27 Interviews, 139 J Juridical rituals, 102 K Kantian philosophy, 91, 92 L Life trajectory, 138 affective-semiotic processes, 129 autobiographical memory, 129 imagination, 129 interviewer, 129 remembering, 129 self-development, 129 Longitudinal study, 128 M Meaning-making process, 73, 75, 80, 81, 83, 93, 164 hypergeneralized feelings, 2 remembering and imagining, 1 symbolization and embodiment, 2 theoretical background, 1 Mediation, 96 Mediator imagery, 56 Memory, 37, 97, 130, 131 cognitive system, 37 collective memory, 72 in-group, 72 social representations theory, 72

Index

186 Memory and imagination, 18, 104 Mental image, 55, 57, 61 Mental life, 17 Mental maps, 72, 81, 82 Mental process, 2 Method and data analysis microgenetic analysis, 56 questionnaire, 55 Microgenetic analysis, 6, 56 Microgenetic approach, 6 Microgenetic regulatory processes, 114 Military, 137 Modal verbs, 179 Multilinearity, 131 Music band apprentices, 137 Musical dedication, 149 Mutual articulation, 171 N Narrative, 24, 27, 138 Newtonian ontological assumption, 172 Nothingness, 74, 77, 78, 80 O Objectification, 73 Ontogenesis, SR, 75 Ownership, 76 P Personal experience cultural signifiers, 75 meaning-making process, 75 nothingness, 77 past experiences, 76 Personal Position Repertoire (PPR), 157 Physical and social environments, 37 Piagetian constructivism, 48 Playtime, 39 Pleromatization, 93, 94 Political imagination, 180 Positioning, 171, 173, 175 Positioning and orienting action, 172 Power relations, 177, 178 Prolepsis, 7 Psychological experience, 93 Psychological function, 21, 96 Psychological sciences, 90 Psychological systems, 18 Psychology, 89, 92 and arts, 91

Psychology bachelor program, 174 Psychotherapeutic attendance, 32 Psychotherapeutic intervention, 42, 43 Q Qualitative methodology, 109 Quilombo culture, 98 black movement, 101 education institutions, 99 language, 101 learned knowledge, 99 medicine and criminology, 100 quilombodescent, 98 Quilombola community, 95 Quilombola group, 90 R Racial democracy, 101 Reconstructions, 139, 166 Reflective dimension, 177 Remembering, 37, 38, 41, 42, 54, 57, 64, 129, 131, 150, 153 accuracy and inaccuracy, 51 and imagination, 59, 62 and mental images, 48 characteristics, 56 collective and individual level, 71 complex process, 76, 84 conventional links, 52 and forgetting, 72 human existence, 50 imagination, 50 internalization, 49 learning process, 49 literature, 51 meaning-making, 48 memory, 50 memory and imagination, 47, 50 mental and sensory images, 52 mental functions, 49 mental images, 51 picture writing, 51 power struggles, 84 scientific concepts, 49 sensory images, 52 sociocultural psychological, 48 theoretical approaches, 48 warehouse, 51 Remembering and imagination, 7, 14 Remembering process, 40 Remembrance and imagination, 62

Index Resignification, 14 Ruptures and transitions, 138 S School environment, 26 Scientific concepts, 48, 49 Scientific definition, 64 Self positioning, 141, 145 Self-construction, 156–158, 160–163, 165, 166 Self-development, 132, 146 Self-narratives, 132 Self-picked constructions, 158 Self-system, 112 Semiotic cultural psychology, 33 Semiotic dynamism, 94 Semiotic element, 25 Semiotic loop, 159 Semiotic mediation, 60, 96, 111 Semiotic processes, 25 Semiotic regulation, 113 Semiotic resources, 112 Sensory-motor apparatus, 18 Social and political movements, 171 Social relationships, 28 Social representations (SR) anchorage, 73 constructive process, 74 epistemic force, 73 objectification, 73 ontogenesis, 75 positive representations, 73 representing process, 74 role, 73 social groups, 73 sociogenesis, “Argentine Conquest of the Desert”, 78 sociogenetic processes, 73 Social representations theory, 72 Social-historical context, 113 Sociocultural and dialogical perspective, 110 Sociocultural context, 23 Sociocultural environment, 5, 77, 83 Sociocultural imagination adaptation process, 97 iconic and linguistic signs, 97 metaphor, 97 social memory framework, 98 Sofia’s support, 176 Specific Internship, 39 Spiritual experiences, 90 Strikes, 170 Sublime, 91

187 Supervised practice, 32 Supervised psychology intervention, 39 Symbolic action theory, 4 Symbolic coping, 73 T Teacher–children interactions, 115 Tensions, 25, 95 Theoretical framework, 170 articulation, 172 causality, 171 cultural resources, 171 deontic orientations, 173 goal-oriented beings, 171 humans, 171 memory, 171 modal verbs, 172, 173 narrative, 172 narrator, 173 socio-historical constraints, 171 strikes, 171 utopias, 172 Theoretical presentation, 32 Theoretical reflection, 90 Thinking society, 75 Traditional memory, 104 Trajectory Equifinality Approach (TEA), 128, 131 Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM), 131 Transform memory, 129 Transformation, 57, 59 and transference, 56 Transformation and imagery, 58 Transition, 13, 111, 128, 131 Transmutation, 94 U Uncertainty, 178, 179 crisis and struggle, 169 narratives, 169 strikes, 170 Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), 39 V Vagabunda, 162 Vitally necessary function, 96 W Wundt-Brentano controversy, 90