Abstract
In this article is presented the first translation into English of Lev Vygotsky’s text entitled “Contemporary Psychology and Art: Toward a Debate.” This text was published in the influential monthly journal Sovietskoe Iskusstvo (Soviet Art) in 1927-1928. Therefore, the translated text presents some of the Vygotsky’s seminal thought on aesthetics and art. In this text he deals with theories of W. Wundt, W. Köhler, E. Utitz, T. Lipps, L. Tolstoy, and V. Shklovsky. In the introductory note are given insights on the translated text, namely, on Russian and Eastern European psychology and philosophy. These texts are from the time of the Russian Revolution and are contextualized within the when Vygotsky’s article was written. The studies on theater and literature were undertaken by Lev Vygotsky during the initial phase of his scientific work, roughly until 1925. They provided him with elements for the elaboration of his theory on the development of higher mental functions during his short-lived career in Moscow. The importance he ascribed to the problems of aesthetics and art are well illustrated in the presented text.
