Thinking with the rain. The trajectory of a metaphor in Vygotsky’s theoretical development

Vygotsky’s Notebooks edited by Zavershneva and Van der Veer (2018) give us a unique access to the inner-dialogue in which Vygotsky engaged while he was developing his theoretical work. In this paper, I propose to follow as “fil rouge” the semantic field associated to water, rain and clouds, and that will culminate as a “meteorological metaphor” through the Notebooks. Following the trajectory of this metaphor enables me to retrace the development of Vygotsky’s ideas about the dynamics uniting the planes of thinking and action, reality and inner life, affects and thinking. Doing so, I hope both to reflect on the role of a metaphor in the theoretical development of Vygotsky’s writings, and to highlight the potential and limits of his last series of theoretical explorations, which may inspire future work.