About the author:
Natalya V. Nalegach, DSc in Philology, Professor of the Department of Journalism and Russian Literature of the 20 century, Kemerovo State University, Krasnaya 6, 650000 Kemerovo, Russia.
E-mail:
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1214-7363
Abstract:
At the turn of the 19th–20th centuries in connection with the reform of education and the dispute about its two models — classical and real — there was not only a revision of the curricula of gymnasiums, pregymnasiums and real schools, but also changes in approaches to the compilation of educational books and sets. This also affected such fundamental disciplines as the History of Russian Literature. Among the proposed new concepts of the textbook on the discipline, the experience of prof. A.I. Nezelenov, who based his vision of the course on the idea of involving gymnasium students in educational and subsequently scientific work by rejecting dryness of presentation in the direction of entertaining text. At the same time, an important moment is the harmonious combination of the principles of entertainment and science, which was achieved in following the historical, literary and biographical approaches when building a cross-cutting “plot” of the textbook through designating the goal of studying the discipline as comprehending the spiritual experience and development of the Russian people, expressed in the life and work of outstanding poets, the most significant of which, according to A.I. Nezelenov, are A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol. The principle of interest, implemented in the textbook supposed handling to such new at that time forms of exposition in text as the combination of a historical and literary fact with its imaginary drawing through in the form of attributing to the people or to the described by him authors certain thoughts and feelings by creating the works examining in the textbook. The retelling of works of art contributes to the same principle, which, as a rule, was used not in the textbook itself, but in the anthology that came with it. Finally, it should be noted that A.I. Nezelenov tried to change the functional content of the textbook not as a text for memorization, but as a book that contributes to a combination of rational and emotional perception by the student in order to arouse interest in the subject and encourage independent work. These properties can be seen in the textbook on “History of Russian Literature”, prepared by prof. A.I. Nezelenov, the attitude towards the synthesis of science and art, realized in the pedagogical activity of the scientist and characteristic of the culture of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries as a whole.