An opinion in the panel discussion Polish language education as an obligation
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Keywords: literary education; reader’s response theory; aesthetic experience; pleasure of text; use of text
The article concerns the problem of incorporation of elements of the reader’s response conception into literary and cultural education. The theory of reader’s response was developed by Wolfgang Iser, Stanley Fish and — in some sense — also by Norman Holland. In Polish didactic tradition, it would be necessary to refer to the works of Kazimierz Wóycicki, the inventor of the concept of aesthetic experience (impression), which — according to Wóycicki — is crucial in the process of reading or experiencing each work of art. Currently, the idea of using a reader’s response strategy (or just its variation) in literary education is popular, especially in Australia and Ireland. The author reports on the lectures delivered by Brenton Doecke and Larissa McLean Davies during the 10th IAMTE (today ARLE) Conference in Odense (Denmark) in June 2015, and describes a new model of Living Certificate exams in Ireland. Both attempts seem to be very encouraging as the ways of bringing literature close to life in the area of education.
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Keywords: Good; evil; act of reading; duty;education;
The evolution of reading proceeds from a trustful and affirmative perspective to that of suspicion and criticism. This is supported by required reading lists and the choice of preferable lesson topics and issues to be discussed with pupils. The outcome is an overwhelming majority of readings, which are the testimony of human grandness as much as human misery. The author identifies possible practices of reading which reveal goodness in the world and individuals. This task is, in author’s opinion, a teacher of literature’s duty.
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Keywords: literature for young people; Polish studies education; didactics, education;literature didactics;
This article presents the results of research on the presence of literature for young people in the education of Polish studies at the third stage of education. The first part discusses the use of literature for young people in the core curriculum, curriculum and school textbooks. Attention was paid to the limited presence of literature for young people. The second part of the article was devoted to proposals of incorporating the teaching of literature for young people into the Polish language education. Among the proposed solutions emerged: discussing the work for young people chosen by the students and the teacher, using literature for young people as literary references to canonical works and as language material.
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Keywords: reading; popularization; school and public libraries; required reading;
The article outlines various forms of cooperation between parents and teachers and the role of the school and local library in attracting lovers of reading. Based on an interview with teachers and the observation of activities of both headmasters and teachers at Podkarpacie, the author characterized interesting ways of promoting reading in these institutions.
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Keywords: readership of children and young people; motivation for reading; obligatory school reading
Article addresses the issue of the application of the results of the research into reading attitudes of teenagers, and especially the knowledge about their reading motivations in order to construct methodological instructions aimed at overcoming the students’ reluctance to read under compulsion to read at school. The results of the research into the readership of children and young people, carried out in 2013, and into subject literature have been employed to formulate six principles intended for teaching Polish language at school, the application of which may encourage students to read lengthy, complex texts, especially obligatory school reading.
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Keywords: education; literature; school; canon of literary;reading;
The author of his paper raises an issue of crisis of the literary canon in contemporary school. He points out the need for revision of school required reading lists and searching for new educational texts to meet the needs of today’s students. At the same time the author proposes universal criteria for reading to be used at all levels of education. He concludes with a reflection on the opportunities and risks that are associated with the adoption of the proposed model.
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Keywords: creativity; creative pose; creative process; artistic experience;
The aim of this paper is to show the role of contact with art on the development of a creative personality through the educational process. The task of modern education should be to form a creative human being who is capable of change, seeking, fitted with imagination to transform reality. Experiencing art affects our understanding of the self, others and the world due to the fact that it engages emotions and the mind and thus combines sensory perception of personal, cultural and social factors. Contact with different types of art, understood as the perception and creative activity, promotes improvement of abilities important for the intellectual development of a person, such as: active study, choice making, contextual applications, association and completing. Art provides stimuli for the intellectual, emotional and aesthetic development, allows the formation of an entity active in many fields. The paper presents examples of work models and teaching activities that develop the creative skills needed not only in art but also in other areas.
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Keywords: poetry; education; interpretation; aesthetics;curriculum;
The article Why teaching poetry is important? is devoted to methods of teaching poetry at school. The starting point is an analysis of the curricula at all stages of education. The issue of readership in Poland also becomes an important research context. Searching for the answer to the question raised in the title, leads us through evaluation of various approaches to teaching poetry at school and an analysis of the selection of texts for students. The influence of popular culture on young people imagination seems to be equally important in the context of the considered issue. Teaching poetry might become a pivotal way of creating young readers’ sensitivity in opposition to the meager message conveyed by popular culture.The arguments presented in the article refer to a few layers of influence lyrics have on the reader. Interpretation is treated as a way of practicing analysis and synthesis of formally complicated and ambiguous texts. Moreover, interacting with various poetic works is shown as a possibility for mature interpretation. An aesthetic experience and its influence on the shaping of human sensitivity become a key point. The author believes that the universal values conveyed in literature might enrich a young reader with multiple, entirely new experiences. Furthermore, learner’s interest in reading poetry equals a sense of elitism and uniqueness, which seems to be sought after in the contemporary world.
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Keywords: environment; digital; teaching; ICT; IBE;
Studies show that although the need for digital environment is no longer a surprise to anyone in modern school, for many teachers, especially teachers of Polish studies, applying ICT in the classroom boils down to a multimedia presentation or finding a film related to the subject matter. This does not change in any way the form of teachers’ work, which primarily is a lecture. The article aims to present good practices of using the digital environment from the database of the Institute for Educational Research, which will take into account the requirements of the existing core curriculum and the opportunities provided by this environment.
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Keywords: communication skills’ acquisition; children; media communication; on screen reading; on screen writing
This article discusses the issues related with media acquisition of basic communication skills by chool children. The aspects of early literacy by the “medium” of a keyboard and screen as well as development of social skills by widespread contacts online (social networks, messengers) or creating words practice by youngest with using Web 2.0 were analyzed. Therefore, the educational use of the available applications at school (including Polish language education) is necessary, also in the development of communicative competence of children. Keywords: communication skills’ acquisition, children, media communication, on screen reading, on screen writing
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The article The Vampirism — Illness — Degeneration in Contemporary Russian Literature presents the analyses of the vampire motives in the contemporary Russian novels, whose authors present the vampire motives in many aspects. The author of the article discusses the specific of the conception of the vampire’s types of Sergey Lukjanienko, Oleg Divov, Andrey Bielanin, Victor Pelevin, Sergey and Marina Diachenko and the motives connected with, such as illness, degeneration, deviation, epidemic. The author emphasizes the dissimilarity of the presentation of these motives relative to the traditional idea of the vampire presented in the rich literature about vampires.
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Among Psychoanalytics, psychiatrists and other clinical researchers, who investigate the influence of trauma on humans well‑being and life quality, there is often conclusion that one of the result of traumatic event is re‑experiencing it once again through recurrent and intrusive recollections of the event. Such a statement suggests that there may be a connection between traumatic event, which occurred in writer’s life and his or her writings, where he or she recalls and analyses difficult and painful experiences.The article is an aim to proof the thesis, that creative process may be a one of the symptoms of Post‑Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The detailed analyze of Maria Arbatova writings is an example, which exemplifies present issues.
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This article is devoted to one of the last novels by Vladimir Sorokin. Day of the Oprichnik can be read as a warning against the changes taking place in Russia, that are evidence of progressive disease of the state and society. In this work the introduction of oprichny system encourages their rebirth. State described by Sorokin has a hierarchical structure. At the very top of it is the Monarch who is supported by selected squad kromieszników. The remaining part of population (including the nobility) is strictly subordinated to them. Monarchy governments are based on repression and violence, sanctioned in addition by religion. Author of the article indicates the inspiration of Sorokin. Described by him new Russia is the realization of solutions suggested by the Kremlin ideologues — Alexander Dugin, Gleb Pavlovsky and Vladislav Surkov. Their proposals, which are the foundation of Sorokin dystopia, derive directly from the theory of euro Asians, calling for support of socio‑political relations not on the Western tradition, but on hostile to it Asian civilization. Sorokins Russia is therefore a sick country, concealing his weakness under the hood of oprichnina and old Russian or pseudo old Russian customs.
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The subject of this paper is the attempt of analysis and characteristic of modern society’s illnesses. Author concentrates on such problems, as unemployment, alcoholism, poverty, homelessness, sexual deviations and shows the fall of moral value and, subsequently, the fall of humanity. The callousness and cruelty lead to the most difficult choices, which allow to keep the rest of dignity or take to total decay of society.
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The essay analyses a neoplastic disease, diagnosed as one of the greatest threats for contemporary world, and its representation in postmodern culture. Malicious tumor, considered a death sentence, deceitful and unexpected yet common menace is also defined as a civilization disease, identified with affluence of the western civilization seen as an artificial world existing far from Nature (according to this theory all products of ultra‑modern technology are considered carcinogenic). The post modern image of neoplastic disease (cancer) is then confronted with contemporary cult of health what in consequence leads to discussion on responsibility for illness which (as described by Ronald W. Dworkin and Susan Sontag in their works on the subject) in the modern world is usually attributed to the sick person themselves. This explains the attempts to connect disease with its victim’s personality leading to concept of “cancer personality” and to disappearance of a language people could use to talk about illness as a result making it a social taboo (“tabooisation of disease”). The second chapter of the work is devoted to the analysis of different attitudes toward the creation of narration in confrontation with terminal (neoplastic) illness represented by Susan Sontag and Anatole Broyard in their texts on the subject. Finally the last chapter deals with the neoplastic disease as a factor transforming the nomadic perception of time in postmodern society in which the illness provides a person with an opportunity to feel “settled in time” again.In general the work presents the complex image of a neoplastic disease (cancer) in postmodern culture as well as the new “narrative environment” experienced by the sick and the healthy alike.
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The aim of the presented article is to select specific cultural pathological changes from theoretical reflection of the end of the 20th century, to show the picture of the human being entangled in the net of technological and social changes influencing the process of reception and understanding art and everyday reality. Taking into account the methodology defined in this way we focus on the dynamics and wide range of selected key problems. The issue of the disease is treated here metaphorically as a kind of symptomatic disfunction, abandoning the accepted ways of conduct and world perception. Consequently, we perceive as pathologies such social and cultural phenomena as “communication ecstasy”, “identity bulimia”, the problem of consumption, reification, carnavalisation noticeable in all aspects of culture etc.
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Eckhart Tolle is currently one of the most popular spiritual author and teacher. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages while his lectures are available online and on DVD. Tolle is referred to as ‘a soul therapist, a propagator of spiritual awakening’, ‘spiritual guide’ and, most frequently ‘spiritual teacher’. It is this form of activities that his reflections on the human condition are subordinate to. What he seeks to explain is the cause of human suffering and how to remedy it. Tolle’s thought is a syncretic one, i.e. the author refers to a variety of philosophical and religious traditions where he searches for leading ideas (or those that he believes to be the most important in a particular message). As regards both human condition and the whole of humanity, Tolle is interested in what is called the mind. The author refers in this respect mainly to Eastern spiritual traditions and argues that the cause of human suffering lies in the mind, the importunate noise of which prevents one from finding inner peace and stillness. Human problems are caused by both the ego, i.e. the illusory sense of self, i.e. a false ‘I’ constructed on the basis of living conditions, and the pain‑body, or ‘a negative energy field’, which is a kind of separate, invisible entity, “the dark shadow cast by the ego”. Liberation from suffering is possible only by becoming aware of both false ego structures (and thus liberation from one’s identifying with them), and emotional detachment from the pain body’s claims.
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The‑turn‑of‑the‑century human bodily identity is involved in a number of paradoxes inherited from various concepts of ‘existential connection’ between the physical and the psychic. Let us emphasise the contemporary expressiveness of body image in culture, the characteristic overvaluing of the body in the discourse of masculinity in contemporary cinema. The overvaluing at the same time unveils a serious crisis of masculinity (as a spectacle) visible in the analysed films. Presented images of male bodies are accompanied by ‘uncertain’ identity — the protagonists are, after all, men who, in addition to experiencing a cultural crisis, are ill. Bateman’s actions are influenced by the logic of anorexia (American Psycho) and the Narrator in Fight Club is a schizophrenic suffering from chronic insomnia. It was not my intention, however, to analyse the film protagonists (at least it was not the most important aspect), instead I attempted a close reading of the narrative construction. Analysing formal structures of the films, I reflect on the level of film expression. Constructions of the film space‑time reveal the conflict of split personality (a particular kind of ‘spatialisation’ of this conflict) as well as lead to reflexivity, self‑awareness of the cinema. After all, subjective narrative, gaze circulation present in both films, leads to disgrace of male gaze.
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Hospital as a multi‑faceted and ambivalent space enables manifestation of different forms of protagonist identity and opens various possibilities of film representations. It was only the postmodern discourse, open to the types of characters and groups which had been nonexistent in the mainstream cultural reflections, that enabled meaningful presence of the diseased. Thus ‘the alien’, ‘the other’, ‘the untypical’ — that which does not fit in the modern order of reality — has been demarginalized. Three films created the basis for my observations on hospital as an institution of supervision, on hospital space as an ambivalent space of passage and, at the same time, a place of closure and exclusion, of peculiar dehumanization of a hospital subject — a human being. An inspiration for this reflection, along with the film examples whose action takes place in a psychiatric hospital (which is very significant), are Michel Foucault’s thoughts on the nature of panopticon and madness, as well as Zygmunt Bauman’s writings on the condition of the diseased in the postmodern world. The hospital space, apart from being conditioned by a closed and imposing order institution, can also be seen as an ambivalent space owing to extreme emotions it evokes.
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