The peculiarities of the mastering the monographic topics on the linguocultural studies

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The peculiarities of the mastering the monographic topics on the linguocultural studies

Vitchenko A.Yu.

Annotation

UDC 371.3:82

THE PECULIARITIES OF THE MASTERING THE MONOGRAPHIC TOPICS ON THE LINGUOCULTURAL STUDIES

Vitchenko A.Yu., candidate of pedagogical science, senior lecturer of National Dragomanov Pedagogical University.

The article is devoted to the important problem of monographic topics at the Linguocultural studies. The author analyses the scientific background of the touched problem, based on the monographic topics "Oscar Wilde's creative works". elaborates the methodical system of studying of the outstanding English modernist writer creative work heritage based on the broad cultural approach. Among the affective kinds and forms of organizing student's activities we emphasize: the expressive reading, creative retelling, correspondence travelling and different types of presentations etc. The proposed method is provided for forming of the future English teachers' professional competence, deepening their overall erudition, aesthetics experience analytic and interpretational skills.

Key words: Linguocultural studies, monographic studies, cultural approach, future English teachers.

Стаття присвячена актуальній проблемі вивчення монографічних тем на заняттях із лінгвокраїнознавства. Автором проаналізовано наукові засади порушеної проблеми, на матеріалі монографічної теми "Творчість О. Уайльда", розроблено методичну систему вивчення творчої спадщини видатного англійського письменника-модерніста в широкому культурологічному контексті. Серед ефективних прийомів і форм організації навчально-пізнавальної діяльності студентів з лінгвокраїнознавства виокремлено виразне читання, творчий переказ, заочну подорож, різні види презентацій та ін. Запропонована методика забезпечує формування фахової компетентності майбутніх учителів англійської мови, поглиблення їхньої загальної ерудиції, естетичного досвіду, аналітико-інтерпретаційних умінь.

Ключові слова: лінгвокраїнознавство, монографічне вивчення, культурологічний підхід, майбутні вчителі англійської мови.

Статья посвящена актуальной проблеме изучения монографических тем на занятиях по лингвокраеведению. Автором проанализированы научные основы затронутой проблемы, на материале монографической темы "Творчество О. Уайльда", разработана методическая система изучения творческого наследия выдающегося английского писателя-модерниста в широком культурологическом контексте. Среди эффективных приёмов и форм организации учебно-познавательной деятельности студентов по лингвокраеведению выделены выразительное чтение, творческий пересказ, заочное путешествие, разные виды презентаций и др. Предлагаемая методика обеспечивает формирование специальной компетентности будущих учителей английского языка, углубление их общей эрудиции, эстетического опыта, аналитико-интерпретационных умений.

Ключевые слова: лингвокраеведение, монографическое изучение, культурологический подход, будущие учителя английского языка.

Content

Among the top topical tasks of preparing the future English teacher are developing cultural competence, mastering the system of knowledge about history, tradition, and customs of the UK. That's why the subject Linguocultural studies is paying the significant role among university courses as it is provided for the students the knowledge about the main phases of cultural development in the UK and the outstanding personalities f.e. Oscar Wilde (the famous writer of the Victorian period).

The aim of the article is to elaborate the scientific basis of the monographic topics on the Linguocultural studies, to determine the effective ways, kinds and forms of mastering Oscar Wilde's path of life and creative works based on the cultural background.

The works of domestic and foreign researchers O. Anikst, M. Baxtin, V. Bibler, R. Elman, M. Kagan, G. Obraztsova, N. Rozhdestvenskaya, E. Roditi, M. Sokolyanskiy, W. Tyderman and the others are the methodological basis of the contributed article. The competent philosophers, psychologists, pedagogues, scientists of cultural studies reveal the views on the person as the subject and result of the cultural activity; they prove the idea about the dialogues between cultures, the opinions about synthesis of the fiction texts, cultural context.

The significant role in our studies plays the M. Kagan's ideas about the dialogue of the work of art, joint and creative work of the author and the recipient, cultural approach to the work of art's studying. We do agree with the views of the competent scientist of cultural studies that this process on the one hand is impossible without mastering the historical transformation of the culture as a whole, and on the other hand needs taking into consideration the peculiarities immanent art developing and its connections with the cultural life of the particular nation and the entire mankind. [3, p.17].

We should pay attention to the research done by contemporary scientists V. Domanskiy, M. Vozna, A. Gaponov, A. Gryakalova, V. Karaban, I. Korunets, V. Prozerc'kiiy, V. Tarasova and so on. They investigate the topical questions of foreign works of art translation and their mastering in the broad cultural context. According to the Russian methodologist V. Domanskiy fiction text is the cultural universum: "the general world model, the whole perception of the world of the writer, his philosophical, aesthetical, religious and moral views of life and their expression by the system of sign, cods, motives and symbols etc." [2, p.10]. While studying the peculiarities of the fiction literature translation as cultural and creative activity of the translator, V. Tarasov proves that the fiction text is changed in the process of recoding (translation), the quality of which depends on the translator's level of sufficient command of the "art language". Besides the text becomes more complicated if there are "intercultural lacunas, not only language but also notional and emotive" [5, p.97]. The complete mastering the translated work of art "let us experienced the foreign culture as the alive and unique" [5, p.97], this determines the priority of the cultural approach to the preparation of the future English teachers in the system of the professional pedagogical education.

The problem of studying the monographic topics of the world literature was examined by O. Bogdanova, V. Golubkov, N. Demidova, V. Nikol'skiyi, L. Miroshichenko and other scientists. The peculiarities of that knowledge are the joint actions of the lecturer and student concentrated on the questions connected with understanding the author's individuality (mentality, life interests and values, aesthetic view), with determination his place and role in the cultural and historical development of the epoch, studying the main stages of his creative work, investigating creative contacts, impacts, etc. According to methodologists, while studying the monographic topics the focus of interest is always "the author and his works" [1, p. 181]. monographic topic cultural creative

On the introductory lecture "I have nothing to declare except my genius" (the review of Oscar Wilde's course of life and creative works) the lecturer not only tells the biography of the outstanding English writer but also reveals his aesthetic views, gives the definite examples of their embodiment in the works of art, underlines the general characteristic of the Victorian Era.

The Victorian period formally begins in 1837 (the year Victoria became Queen) and ends in 1901 (the year of her death). It is important to realize that the Victorian period is quite long. Victoria's reign lasted over 63 years, longer than any other British monarch.

It was a tremendously exciting period when many artistic styles, literary schools, as well as, social and political movements flourished. It was a time of prosperity, broad imperial expansion, tremendous scientific progress and great political reform. The Victorian Era is today seen as an era of many contradictions. Social movements concerned with improving public morals existed next to a class system that imposed harsh living conditions on many people. Dignity and restraint were contrasted to prostitution and child labor. This rapid transformation had a huge impact on the country's mood. The age began with confidence and optimism, which lead to an economic boom including growing prosperity. At some point the prosperity gave way to uncertainty and doubt regarding Britain's place in the world. The term "Victorian" owns a wide range of connotations, most specifically the high and strict moral standards. Nowadays the Victorian time is usually associated with prudishness and repression.

Writers associated with the early Victorian period are: Lord Tennyson, Emily, Anna and Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Charles Dickens. Writers associated with the late Victorian Period include: Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

The general characteristics of the Victorian literature:

1. Literature of this age tends to come closer to daily life which reflects its practical problems and interests.

2. Moral Purpose: The Victorian literature seems to deviate from "art for art's sake" and asserts its moral purpose.

3. Idealism: It is often considered as an age of doubt and pessimism.

4. Thoughout the Victorian Era movements for justice, freedom and other strong moral values dominated opposed to greed, exploitation and cynicism.

5. The age is characterized as practical and materialistic, but most of the writers exalt a purely ideal life. It is an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood are emphasized by the writers of the age.

An author criticizing the Victorian morality was the author Robert Louis Stevenson, writing the novel "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" which explored the duality of good and evil. Later Victorian writing saw the seeds of rebellion against such idealized notions and stereotypical codes of conduct. These "proper" behaviors often served as subjects of satire; Oscar Wilde's plays are an excellent example.

The main principle of Oscar Wilde's world view and creative works was aestheticism. It appeared in Great Britain at the end of the XIX century as the negative reaction on realism and puritanical style of the Victorian Age. Basing himself on the ideas of his precursors (Pre-Raphaelites, John Ruskin, Walter Pater) Wilde defined the theoretical foundation of the aestheticism, grounded the new views on the essence and purpose of the artistic work, their background was chosen the cult of beauty.

Wilde's conceptual contribution to the art philosophy we find in his book "Intentions" which begins with the dialogue "The Decay of Lying". The author convinces "Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of, herself. She is not to be judged by any external standard of resemblance. She is a veil, rather than a mirror".

According to Wilde, the real art is based on lie, and decay of the art in the ХІХ century is explained by the idea that "art of Lying" turned out to be forgotten. Criticizing his contemporary literature, based on inheritance of surroundings, the author admits, that life is "the solvent that breaks up Art, the enemy that lays waste her house", "as a method Realism is a complete failure, and the two things that every artist should avoid are modernity of form and modernity of subjectmatter". Wilde declares that art never expresses anything but itself, it exists independently and develops according to its own rules. Denying the mimetic principle of art which inheritances of surroundings, the writer tries to convince that "Life holds the mirror up to Art, and either reproduces some strange type imagined by painter or sculptor, or realizes in fact what has been dreamed in fiction".

At the dialogue "The Decay of Lying" Wilde has formulated the main aestheticism principles:

- the superiority of art, its independence from surroundings ("Art creates an incomparable and unique effect, and, having done so, passes on to other things");

- its attempt to reveal the beauty and majestic ("Art is not simple truth but complex beauty");

- the perfection, all-sufficient, superiority of art ("Art reveals her own perfection", "Art never expresses anything but itself", "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life");

- the independence of art from morality and ethics ("The highest art rejects the burden of the human spirit, and gains more from a new medium or a fresh material than she does from any enthusiasm for art, or from any lofty passion, or from any great awakening of the human consciousness");

- priority for art is its originality, artistic perfection, and giving preference to fiction ("In literature we require distinction, charm, beauty, and imaginative power", "Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art");

- declaration the aesthetic delight as the highest sense of art ("If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use reading it at all").

Some Wilde's aesthetic principles are implemented in his prosaic works, in particular, in his poems in prose. In his work "The Disciple" Wilde elaborates the famous mythological plot about the handsome young man who didn't pay attention to the Nymph Echo (she was deeply in love with him). Narcissus was cruelly punished by Aphrodite, Goddess of Love: "When Narcissus died the pool of his pleasure changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it comfort." The thought about the eternity of Beauty resounds in the conversation between the Oreads and the one who loved Narcissus and mourned over his untimely death:

"We do not wonder that you should mourn in this manner for Narcissus, so beautiful was he".

"But was Narcissus beautiful?" said the pool.

"Who should know that better than you?" answered the Oreads. "Us did he ever pass by, but you he sought for, and would lie on your banks and look down at you, and in the mirror of your waters he would mirror his own beauty".

And the pool answered, "But I loved Narcissus because, as he lay on my banks and looked down at me, in the mirror of his eyes I saw ever my own beauty mirrored".

The complete ending Wilde's theory of aestheticism acquires in the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray". At the preface that consists of 25 aphorism, the author defines the main aim of Art ("all art is quite useless"), the artist's role and destiny ("the artist is the creator of beautiful things", "Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty", "The artist can express everything"). Later on the writer's aesthetic ideas are reflected in some expressions and remarks of the main characters of the novel - Lord Henry, Dorian Gray, the painter Basil Hallward. For example, during the conversation with Lord Henry Dorian Gray makes public his aphorism: "the search for beauty being the real secret of life" (chapter IV). Dorian Gray hears the expression about Art that should be "unconscious, ideal, and remote <...> Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and color tell us of form and color - that is all" (chapter IX) from Basil Hallward. Lord Henry proves to Dorian Gray supposition about the inactivity and impracticality of art, according to him it "has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act" (chapter XIX).

In disclosing Wilde's aesthetic views the important role plays the author's digression. Connecting the future of the mankind with cultural people who could find "beautiful meanings in beautiful things", the writer of the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" in the fourth chapter evolves his own thoughts underlying that the secrets of life open up before elite eyes under the influence of Art "and chiefly of the art of literature, which dealt immediately with the passions and the intellect. But now and then a complex personality took the place and assumed the office of art, was indeed, in its way, a real work of art, life having its elaborate masterpieces, just as poetry has, or sculpture, or painting" (chapter IV).

The main character of Wilde's novel is the portrait itself that personifies Dorian Gray's soul and is the dairy of his life. From the very beginning Dorian Gray doesn't hide his negative attitude to his own portrait, telling in despair the fatal phrase, that has determined his further destiny: "If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old!" (chapter ІІ).

Fantastic Dorian Gray's wish has come true but crimes trials on the portrait don't leave the main character in peace. The portrait has become the mirror of his soul, the only one prove of his crimes, his conscience (chapter XX) and the desire for getting rid of it leads to the tragical denouement. The analytical students' work at the text of the main and final parts of the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is provided with the questions and assignments:

1. What is the role of the Dorian Gray's portrait drawn by the painter Basil Hallward in revealing the writer's basic idea?

2. How has the portrait of the main character changed during the development of the novel's plot? According to Dorian Gray, has it "visible emblem of conscience" (chapter VII)?

3. Why does Dorian Gray decide to hide his portrait and to show it to nobody?

4. How has the events connected with Sibyl Vane's suicide and Basil Hallward's murder influenced on Dorian Gray and reflected in his portrait?

5. Prepare the creative retelling on the topic "Lord Henry`s present" (chapters Х-ХІ).

6. Read attentively the following passage. Choose the author's variant of the word use: "It was a (dangerous, poisonous, perilous) book. The heavy odour of incense seemed (to adhere, to cling, to stick) about its pages and to trouble the brain. The mere cadence of the sentences, the subtle monotony of their music, so full as it was of complex refrains and movements elaborately repeated, produced in the mind of the lad." Prove your point of view.

7. Do you agree with Lord Henry when he says to Dorian Gray: "You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found"? (chapter ХІХ). Prove or disprove the following quotation based on the text.

8. Analyze the passage from the last chapter of the novel, in which Dorian Gray gives his own appraisal of the last events: "The excitement, such as it was, over Basil Hallward's disappearance would soon pass away. It was already waning. He was perfectly safe there. Nor, indeed, was it the death of Basil Hallward that weighed most upon his mind. It was the living death of his own soul that troubled him. Basil had painted the portrait that had marred his life. He could not forgive him that. It was the portrait that had done everything." (chapter ХХ). Do you agree with his self-justification?

9. Why does the writer of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" end the novel with the tragical denouement? What is Dorian Gray punished for - his crime against life, egoism, passion for delight, anti-aesthetics?

10. Do the researchers right when they call Wilde's style "picturesque"? Prove with the quotations from the novel the statement that in Wilde's creative works "literature, theatre, painting creates some kind of alloy... the characters act against just painted still that still smell with the paints" [4, p. 12].

After publishing "The Picture of Dorian Gray" Wilde concentrated his attention on the plays. During three years, such comedies as "Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)", "A Woman of No Importance" (1893), "An Ideal Husband" (1895), and "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895) were put on the stage.

In the comedy genre Wilde's talent as the master of dramatic dialogue was revealed in the full amount. The style of communication of the main characters in the plays the representatives of English upper class of the Victorian Age are determined by witty remarks and puns. The visiting card of Wilde as a comedy writer is his play "The Importance of Being Earnest", in which the elements of comedies of manners and comedies of intrigue are successfully supplemented by the lively dialogues, wordplays, aphorisms and paradoxical expressions. Even the subtitle of the comedy "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People" has the nature of paradox.

The acts of the comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest" include only two loving couples (John Worthing and Gwendolen Fairfax, Algernon Moncrieff and Cecily Cardew) and their close circle including the servants (Lady Bracknell, Rev. Canon Chasuble, Governess Miss Prism, Manservant Lane). The main question around which the acts take place and which determines the conflict of the play is the wedding of young people, on a path leading to it not only the own defects should be corrected but also the social conventionality should be overcome.

On the seminar devoted to the comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest" the most interesting episodes are read (for example, the scene of conversation Lady Bracknell with John Worthing from the first act), the main events are analyzed, the final scene is retold, the experience of the best stage managers of Wilde's plays is actualized. The proposed system of the questions and assignments will promote in-depth studying of the comedy:

1. What impressions do you have after reading Wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest"? How can it be explained?

2. What for does the playwright use the word play in the title of the comedy: "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "The Importance of Being Ernest"? How do these touch help to reveal the dramaturgic basic idea?

3. Who from the characters of the play do or don't you feel drawn to? Why?

4. Whose appearance on the stage weaves the plot of the comedy?

5. Prepare the expressive reading "lines by lines" the scene of conversation Lady Bracknell with John Worthing (the first act, from the words Lady Bracknell "And now I have a few questions to put to you, Mr. Worthing" till her words "You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter - a girl brought up with the utmost care - to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?" What is the reason of spectator's laughter during this scene?

6. Make the sketch of Lady Bracknell. Compare it with the actors' interpretations Judi Dench, Patricia Routledge, Nataliya Kudrya, Tetyana Nazarova, Penelope Keith, Alexandra Mathie. Who could and using what kind of technique embody the character of haughty, heartless, mercantile the Victorian Age person of high society?

7. Who from the characters of the play and under what circumstances tells the following remark: "Few parents nowadays pay any regard to what their children say to them. The old- fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out" (first act)? Do you think the problem statement in such formulation concerning relationships between parents and children is right? Is it proved to be correct during the further events in the play?

8. Comment on the following character's remark: "It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted." (Algernon); "Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd" (Lady Bracknell); "Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die" (Algernon); "I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy" (Cecily); "It is perfectly childish to be in deep mourning for a man who is actually staying for a whole week with you in your house as a guest. I call it grotesque" (Algernon to Jack), "Well, one must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life" (Algernon to Jack).

9. What role do mythical characters - Bunbury with "extraordinary bad health" and "profligate Ernest" play in the comedy?

10. What happens at the end of Wild's?

What is the sense of the final remark said by John Worthing one of the main characters of the play: "I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest."?

Students' aesthetic experience will be enriched by correspondence travelling on the performance "The Importance of Being Earnest". Its successful practical realization will be provided with various forms:

- correspondence travelling using the theatre programme;

- correspondence travelling using the materials of critical reviews and spectators' comments;

- photo and video presentation of the performance etc.

For example appealing to the theatre programme of the Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Theatre of Russian Drama (manager I. Barkovc'ka, 2006 р.) will give the opportunity to follow the history of the best performances "The Importance of Being Earnest", to analyze the classical and modern approaches to the interpretation of Wilde's characters, to reveal the innovations of the theatrical plays. For this purpose, the students should watch the presentation "Oscar Wild's comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest" on the theatrical stage" and discuss its materials during the conference.

Thus, the conducted research of the problem of monographic studying Oscar Wilde's works based on the cultural approach gives the reason to make such conclusions:

1. Studying the monographic topic "Oscar Wilde's creative works" envisages the consistent, interrelated, purposeful appealing to biography and creative heritage of the English writer based on the broad cultural approach.

2. The cultural approach is provided for unity mastering the programme course based on the studying the additional material about the political, historical and cultural peculiarities of the country.

3. The offered method of monographic studying of the linguocultural topic is directed on the systematic formation of the future English teachers' professional competence, deepening their overall erudition, aesthetics experience analytic and interpretational skills.

The prospect of the further research of the touched problem the author sees in working out the comparative studying method of monographic topics of the Linguocultural studies course and broadening the kinds and the forms of studying activities of the students at the Linguocultural studies.

Literature

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5. Тарасов В.А. Искусство как "код" культуры / В.А. Тарасов // Искусство в системе культуры: сб. ст. - Л.: Наука, Ленинградское отделение, 1987. - С. 92-98.

6. The importance of seeing Earnest [e-resources]. - Access mode: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/gallery/2008/feb/01/importanceearnest?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487#/?pictur e=332343533&index=6.

7. Wild O. The Picture of Dorian Gray / Ed. by P. Ackroyd. - New York: Penguin books, 1985. - 271 p.

8. Wild O. The importance of being Earnest and others plays. - London: Penguin books, 1986. - 348 p.

9. Wild O. Plays, prose writings and poems / T. Eagleton (introd.). - London: Campbell, 1991. - 678 p.

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