I.S. TURGENEV IN A MODERN SCHOOL

Abstract

Introduction. The article’s relevance is determined by the need to find new ways to study Russian classics in a modern school setting. As studies show, students’ quality of classics perception decreases every year, explained by socio-cultural conditions and methodological aspects. This problem requires special attention in connection with the past and upcoming 200th anniversaries of the most significant canonical writers: I.A. Goncharov, M.Yu. Lermontov, I.S. Turgenev, A.A. Fet, N.A. Nekrasov, A.N. Ostrovsky, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy. The author believes that literary anniversaries are a good incentive to revive the most influential classical literature and include students in their country’s cultural life. And the literature teacher might benefit from knowing the anniversaries mentioned above and whether there are any events dedicated to these anniversaries. Teachers should also contribute to a philological environment in the school and continuously improve literary and methodological competence. The study is based on the biography and works by Turgenev, whose 200th anniversary was widely celebrated in 2018. We want to share the experience of teaching the creative heritage of an outstanding Russian writer in a modern school; we identified the difficulties that literature teachers face and outlined productive ways to overcome psychological and pedagogical contradictions in the theory and practice of literary education, which happens primarily due to the gap between the scientific and pedagogical studies of Turgenev’s works. Materials and methods. The study hypothetically formulated the problem, which was confirmed during the analysis of scientific and methodological works and while evaluating students’ residual knowledge. Results and discussion. Stereotypes of students’ perception of the writer’s personality and his creative work are revealed. Productive ways and forms of acquaintance with the author’s personality, new genres of creating a biographical sketch are considered. Particular attention is paid to Turgenev’s concept of nature and love, their aesthetic and philosophical essence. New methods of enhancing the reading activity are proposed, particularly methods to create intertextuality (based on the appeal to the landscapes by the artists from the Barbizon school). The ways of acquainting students with the writer’s manor texts in the context of the Russian manor culture are presented. Specific recommendations are given to include the “Home of the Gentry” novel in the 10th-grade literature class. New approaches to the study of the “Fathers and Sons” novel are revealed, the comparison teaching method of the television series based on the writer’s work “Bazarov’s Mistake” by Avdotya Smirnova is proposed. Conclusion. To actualize the students’ perception of Turgenev’s novel, a model of a lesson dialogue is developed with the involvement of works of modern Literature (Vera Tchaikovskaya’s remake “New under the Sun”). In general, the study showed that it is possible to teach further methodological improvement of Turgenev’s creative work at school by relying on established traditions and using new forms and methods of the reading activity organization, and by increasing the philological competence of the literature teacher.