Vern W. McGee

Bio: Vern W. McGee is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Human science. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 4 publications receiving 9519 citations.

Speech genres and other late essays

Abstract: Note on Translation Introduction by Michael Holquist Response to a Question from the Novy Mir Editorial Staff The Bildungsroman and Its Significance in the History of Realism (Toward a Historical Typology of the Novel) The Problem of Speech Genres The Problem of the Text in Linguistics, Philology, and the Human Sciences: An Experiment in Philosophical Analysis From Notes Made in 1970-71 Toward a Methodology for the Human Sciences Index

Speech Genres and Other Late Essays

Abstract: Note on Translation Introduction by Michael Holquist Response to a Question from the Novy Mir Editorial Staff The Bildungsroman and Its Significance in the History of Realism (Toward a Historical Typology of the Novel) The Problem of Speech Genres The Problem of the Text in Linguistics, Philology, and the Human Sciences: An Experiment in Philosophical Analysis From Notes Made in 1970-71 Toward a Methodology for the Human Sciences Index

Speech Genres and Other Late Essays

Abstract: consciousness, theoretical constructs, and rare books, the new, real unity and integrity of the world became a fact of concrete (ordi­ nary) consciousness and practical orientation, a fact of ord inary books and everyday thoughts. These facts were l inked to permanent visual images and became a graphically visual unity. Visual equivalents could be found for things that could not be d i rectly perceived wi th vision . The immensely growing real material contact (economic and then cul­ tu ral ) with almost all of the geographical world and technical contact with complex forces of nature ( the visible effect of the appl ication of these forces) played an extremely large role in this concretization and visual clarification . Such a thing as Newton's law of gravi ty, in addition to its d irect significance in natu ral and phi losophical sciences, made an exceptional contribution to the visual clarification of the world. I t made the new unity of the real world and i ts new natural l aw almost graphically visible and perceptible. The eighteenth century, the most abstract and antih istorical cen­ tury, was in fact a time of concretization and visual clarification of the new real world and i ts history. From a world of the sage and the scholar, it became the world of the everyday working consciousness of the vanguard . The philosophical and publicistic struggle of Enl ightenment th ink­ ers against everything that was otherworldly and authoritarian , that nourished outlooks, art, dai ly l ife , the social order, and so on , played an i mmense role in this process of purification and condensation of re­ al ity. As a result of En lightenment crit icism , the world , as it were , be­ came qual i tatively poorer in the most immediate way; there turned out to be much less that was actually real in it than was previously thought; it was as if the absolute mass of real i ty, of actual existence , had been compressed and reduced; the world had been made poorer and drier. 24 The Bi/dunJ;.rromfln But this abstract negative cri ticism of Enl ightenment thinkers , by d is­ persing the residue of otherworldly cohesion and myth ical unity, helped real i ty to gather i tself together and condense into the visible whole of the new world. New aspects and infinite prospects were re­ vealed i n this condensing real i ty. And this positive productivi ty of the Enl ightenment reaches one of i rs h igh poinrs in rhe work of Goerhe. This process of finally rounding our and complemenring the rea l world can be traced in the biography of Goethe as an artist. This is not rhe place ro discuss it in any detai l . To find a good map of rhe moun­ tains of Europe was sti l l an event for him. There was a very large pro­ portion of travel accounts, other geography books ( the i r proportion was great even in Goethe's father's l ibrary), archeology books , and books on h istory (especially the history of art) i n Goethe's working l ibrary. We repeat that this p rocess of concretization, graphic clarification , and completion was just coming to an end. That is the reason why a l l th is is so fresh and prominent in Goethe . The \"historical rad i i\" from Rome and Sicily were new, and this very feeling of the fu l lness of world history (Herder) was new and fresh. In Goethe's novels (Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre) , the inregri ty of the world and l ife i n the cross section of the epoch are relegated for the first t ime to th is new, concretized , graphically clarified , and comple­ mented real world . Behind the whole of the novel stands the large , real wholeness of the world in history. Any importanr novel i n any epoch of this genre's development was encyclopedic. Gargantua and Pantagruel was encyclopedic, Don Quixote was encyclopedic, and the important baroque novels were encyclopedic ( i t goes without saying that Amadis and Palmerin were). But in Renaissance novels, late chiv­ al ric tales (Amadis), and baroque novels it was an abstract and bookish encyclopedici ty, which was not backed by any model of the world whole . Therefore , even to select what was essential and round it out into a novel i stic whole was a d iffe rent project before the middle of the eigh­ teenth century (before Field ing, Sterne, and Goethe) from what it later became. Of course , this essential condensation of the whole of l ife, which the novel (and the large epic in genera l ) should be, is by no means a con­ cise exposit ion of this ent i re whole, a summation of al l i ts parts. That is out of the question. And, of course , no such summation can be found in Goethe's novels. There , action takes place on a l imited sec-

Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The emergence of learning activity as a historical form of human learning 3. The zone of proximal development as the basic category of expansive research 4. The instruments of expansion 5. Toward an expansive methodology 6. Epilogue.

Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization.

Abstract: Cultural-historical activity theory has evolved through three generations of research. The emerging third generation of activity theory takes two interacting activity systems as its minimal unit of analysis, inviting us to focus research efforts on the challenges and possibilities of inter-organizational learning. Activity theory and its concept of expansive learning are examined with the help of four questions: 1. Who are the subjects of learning? 2. Why do they learn? 3. What do they learn? 4. How do they learn? Five central principles of activity theory are presented, namely activity system as unit of analysis, multi-voicedness of activity, historicity of activity, contradictions as driving force of change in activity, and expansive cycles as possible form of transformation in activity. Together the four questions and five principles form a matrix which is used to present a study of expansive learning in a hospital setting in Finland. In conclusion, implications of the framework for our understanding o...

Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition

Abstract: We propose that the crucial difference between human cognition and that of other species is the ability to participate with others in collaborative activities with shared goals and intentions: shared intentionality. Participation in such activities requires not only especially powerful forms of intention reading and cultural learning, but also a unique motivation to share psychological states with oth- ers and unique forms of cognitive representation for doing so. The result of participating in these activities is species-unique forms of cultural cognition and evolution, enabling everything from the creation and use of linguistic symbols to the construction of social norms and individual beliefs to the establishment of social institutions. In support of this proposal we argue and present evidence that great apes (and some children with autism) understand the basics of intentional action, but they still do not participate in activities involving joint intentions and attention (shared intentionality). Human children's skills of shared intentionality develop gradually during the first 14 months of life as two ontogenetic pathways intertwine: (1) the general ape line of understanding others as animate, goal-directed, and intentional agents; and (2) a species-unique motivation to share emotions, experience, and activities with other persons. The develop- mental outcome is children's ability to construct dialogic cognitive representations, which enable them to participate in earnest in the collectivity that is human cognition.

Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method

Abstract: Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method is a systematic introduction to discourse analysis as a body of theories and methods for social research. It brings together three central approaches, Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, critical discourse analysis and discursive psychology, in order to establish a dialogue between different forms of discourse analysis often kept apart by disciplinary boundaries. The book introduces the three approaches in a clear and easily comprehensible manner, explaining the distinctive philosophical premises and theoretical perspectives of each approach as well as the methodological guidelines and tools they provide for empirical discourse analysis. The authors also demonstrate the possibilities for combining different discourse analytical and non-discourse analytical approaches in empirical study. Finally, they contextualize discourse analysis within the social constructionist debate about critical social research, rejecting the view that a critical stance is incompatible with social constructionist premises and arguing that critique must be an inherent part of social research.