Филологический класс (Feb 2019)
METHODS AND WAYS USED FOR THE ANALYSIS OF CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN POETRY IN SENIOR SCHOOL
Abstract
The subject of this article is using contemporary methods of analysis in teaching modern Russian poetry in high school: brainstorming, plot forecasting, problem questions and discussion. The poems of Alexsey Tsvetkov (“once the sun set forever…” and “he told that there they have down…”), J. Brodsky (“I Embraced these Shoulders”), S. Gandlevsky (“There Stands Alone in the Wild North”) are considered in the paper. The methods of analysis are chosen according to poetical logic of a text given, peculiarities of its composition, specific character of plot development or, on the contrary, its descriptive nature. The methods suggested in this article are not to be seen as universal approach to analyzing lyrics, but instead should be used with regard to distinctive features of every given poem. For instance, paradoxical interpretation of classic “common places” of Russian poetry (such as a poet as a prophet, the power of a word, a poet and the society) in A. Tsvetkov’s poem “once the sun set forever…” is comprehended by students during stepwise plot forecasting where all their assumptions differ from the author’s logic of lyrical narrative. The difference between readers’ horizon of expectation and a lyrical narration is a distinctive feature of J. Brodsky’s poem “I Embraced these Shoulders”. Students try to predict possible plot twists following the first line and thus tend to understand how a catalogue-like text consisting of enumeration of decrepit things (furniture and the room itself) turns into a metaphysical insight about human loneliness, irrevocability of the past and transforming physical matter into existential. Brainstorm might be helpful while studying A. Tsvetkov’s poem “he told that there they have down…” as it allows to compare, supplement and make precise interpretations suggested by every subgroup of participants. Finally, discussing problem questions and points about S. Gandlevsky’s poem “There Stands Alone in the Wild North”, suggested by the teacher, allows students to look at the text from different angles (subject structure of lyrical narrative, intertextual background, features of style) and encourages their independent intellectual work.
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