The Literature Curriculum in Russia: Cultural Nationalism vs. The Cultural Turn
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.10229495Keywords:
Russian education, secondary school, literature, curricular guidelines, required readingsAbstract
In Western educational systems, the question “Why study literature in school?” has been raised in connection with the theoretical development often summarized as “the cultural turn.” The author strives to contribute to this discussion by examining the development of educational discourse in Russia. During the Soviet period, literature was – together with history – the subject most heavily influenced by the dogmas of Soviet state ideology. As such, literature enjoyed great prestige and was a compulsory and separate subject from the fifth to the eleventh school years. Since 1991, the educational system has undergone radical reform, but the number of hours devoted to literature has not changed significantly. This would suggest that literature still is perceived as an important means of incorporating children into the national and political community. The target of this study is to identify authorities’ specific aims in devoting so much time to literature in school, as well as to elucidate in what way literature is to achieve these aims. Russian guidelines for the development of literature curricula published in the years 1991–2010 are examined to see just how literature is legitimated as a secondary school subject. Based on this material, the author draws conclusions about the rhetorical practices and ideological development of curricular discourse, its relationship to Soviet educational thought and the extent to which the cultural turn has influenced this sphere.
References
Akhmatova, Anna Andreevna & D. M. Thomas (2006): Poems, New York: Knopf.
Apple, Michael W. (2004): Ideology and Curriculum, New York: Routledge Falmer.
Ball, Stephen, Alex Kenny & David Gardiner (1990): “Literacy, Politics and the Teaching of English,” Ivor Goodson & Peter Medway (eds): Bringing English to Order: The History and Politics of a School Subject, London: Falmer, 47–86.
Bénéï, Véronique (2005): Manufacturing Citizenship: Education and Nationalism in Europe, South Asia and China, London: Routledge.
Bourdieu, Pierre, & Randal Johnson (1993): The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature, Cambridge: Polity.
Collection Textes de reference (2009): Collège Programmes. Français, classes de sixième, cinquième, quatrième, troisième. Available at: http://www.cndp.fr/archivage/valid/140235/140235-18635-24218.pdf, (2010-02-17).
Dneprov, E. D. (2004): Obrazovatel’nyi standart – instrument obnovleniia soderzhaniia obshchego obrazovaniia (The Educational standard – an instrument for renewal of the contents of comprehensive education), Moscow: Gos. un-t – Vyssh. sh. ekonomiki.
Dneprov, E. D. & A. G. Arkad’ev (eds) (2007): Literatura v obrazovatek’nykh uchrezhdeniiakh s russkim iazykom obucheniia: primernye programmy po literatury: federal’nyi komponent gosudarstvennogo standarta, federal’nyi bazisnyi uchebnyi plan, Ministerstvo obrazovaniia Rossiiskoi Federatsii (Sbornik normativnykh dokumentov) (Literature in Russian language educational institutions: model programs of literature: the federal component of the state standard, the federal time-plan, Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation (Collection of normative documents) . Moscow: Drofa.
Dobrenko, Evgenii Aleksandrovich (1997): The Making of the State Reader: Social and Aesthetic Contexts of the Reception of Soviet Literature, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press.
Dostoevsky, Fyodor (1994): A Writer’s Diary, translated and annotated by Kenneth Lantz, Vol. 2. 1877–1881. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press.
Eklof, Ben, Larry E. Holmes & Vera Kaplan (eds) (2005): Educational Reform in Post-Soviet Russia: Legacies and Prospects, Cummings Center Series, 20, London; New York: Frank Cass.
Eurydice – Eurybase – Descriptions of National Education Systems and Policies, EACEA. Available at: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/eurybase_en.php, (2010-03-05).
Gorak, Jan (1991): The Making of the Modern Canon: Genesis and Crisis of a Literary Idea, London: Athlone.
Guillory, John (1993): Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
Heathorn, Stephen J. (2000): For Home, Country, and Race, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Kalganova, T. A. (2000): Literatura: 5–11 kl.(Literature: 5–11 grades), 3rd ed. Moscow: Drofa.
Lovell, Stephen (2000): The Russian Reading Revolution: Print Culture in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Model Programs of Literature (2010): Primernye programmy osnovnogo obshchego obrazovaniia. Literatura (Model programs of fundamental comprehensive education. Literature), Moscow: Prosveshchenie.
Muckle, James (2005): “The Conduct of Lessons in the Russian School. Is Real Change on the Way?” Ben Eklof, Larry E. Holmes & Vera Kaplan (eds): Educational Reform in Post-Soviet Russia: Legacies and Prospects, Cummings Center Series, 20, London; New York: Frank Cass., 222–234.
Muckle, James Y. (1988): A Guide to the Soviet Curriculum: What the Russian Child is Taught in School, London: Croom Helm.
National Curriculum (2007): English. Programme of study for key stage 3 and attainment targets, (This is an extract from The National Curriculum 2007). Available at: http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/uploads/QCA-07-3332-pEnglish3_tcm8-399.pdf, (2010-02-12).
“Parents’ Meeting” (2009): “Roditel’skoe sobranie,” Ekho Moskvy, September 2009, 11:06 a.m. Radio program. Transcription available on the Internet: http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/assembly/620494-echo/, (2010-03-01).
Persson, Magnus (2007): Varför läsa litteratur? Om litteraturundervisningen efter den kulturella vändningen, Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Pieper, Irene (2006): The Teaching of Literature, Strasbourg: Council of Europe, Language Policy Division. Available at: http://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Linguistic/Publications_EN.asp, (2010-02-17).
Rabow-Edling, Susanna (2006): Slavophile Thought and the Politics of Cultural Nationalism, Albany: State University of New York Press.
Rotkovich, Ia. A. (1980): “The History of Literature Teaching in the Soviet School,” Soviet Education: Selected Articles from Soviet Educational Journals in English Translation, 22: 7–8, 6–160.
Sakwa, Richard (2009): “Nation and Nationalism in Russia,” Gerard Delanty & Krishan Kumar (eds): The Sage Handbook of Nations and Nationalism [Electronic resource], London: SAGE. Available at: http://www.sageereference.com/hdbk_nation/Article_n35.html.
Schleicher, Klaus (1993): “Nationalism and Internationalism. Challenges to Education,” Klaus Schleicher (ed.): Nationalism in Education, Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 13–38.
Swedish Curriculum 2000 = Kursplan för svenska. 2000. Available at: http://www.skolverket.se/sb/d/2386/a/16138/func/kursplan/id/3890/titleId/SV1010%20-%20Svenska, (2010-03-12)
Viktorovich, V. A. (2006a): “Ot redaktora,” (”From the editor”) V. A Viktorovich (ed.): Zachem literatura v shkole? Materialy seminara vuzovskikh i shkol’nykh prepodavatelei, 26–27 avg. 2005, Kolomna: Kolomenskii pedagogicheskii institut, 5–6.
Viktorovich, V. A. (2006b): “Literaturnoe obrazovanie v poiskakh smysla, ili Luchshe men’she da luchshe” (”Literary education in search of meaning, or The lesser the better,”) V. A Viktorovich (ed.): Zachem literatura v shkole? Materialy seminara vuzovskikh i shkol’nykh prepodavatelei, 26–27 avg. 2005, Kolomna: Kolomenskii pedagogicheskii institut, 9–20.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2010 Sarsenov
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright for all manuscripts rests with the author(s). The editors reserve the right to edit manuscripts. Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions from the copyright owners for the use of quotations, illustrations, tables, etc. Each author must, before final publication fill, in a publishing agreement provided by LiU E-Press.
Since 2021 Culture Unbound uses a Creative Commons: Attribution license for new articles, which allows users to distribute the work and to reform or build upon it without the author's permission. Full reference to the author must be given. For older articles please see each article landing page.
