Why do we novel caution. Development of a lesson on literature "Evgeny Zamyatin and his novel-warning" (Grade 11)

Lesson objectives: to deepen students' understanding of the dystopia genre, to understand the problems of the novel, to introduce the writer's biography.

Methodical methods: checking students' knowledge; clarification of concepts (literary theory); teacher's story lecture with elements of conversation on the text of the novel.

Utopias look much more feasible than previously believed. And now we are faced with a question that torments us in a completely different way: how to avoid their final implementation?
N. A. Berdyaev

During the classes.

I. Checking homework (reading and analysis of 2-3 essays based on the novel by A. A. Fadeev "The Rout").

II. Working with an epigraph

Let's write an epigraph and remember what it is Utopia .

Utopia (from Greek U - "no" and topos - "place") in literature - a detailed description of the public, state and private life of an imaginary country that meets one or another ideal of social harmony. The first utopian descriptions are found in Plato and Socrates. The term "utopia" - from the title of the work of T. More. Classic examples of utopias are T. Campanella's "City of the Sun", F. Bacon's "New Atlantis".

Utopia is a dream.

Why does the philosopher N. Berdyaev warn against the realization of a utopia? We will answer the question at the end of the lesson.

III. teacher's word

Roman Zamyatina "We" written in 1921-22 , first published in English in 1924 in New York, for the first time in Russian - in the same place, in 1952 . In our country, the novel saw the light only in 1988 in 4-5 issues of the Znamya magazine . The history of the novel is dramatic, as well as the fate of its author.

Evgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin is one of the brightest figures among writers who accepted the revolution as the real fate of the fatherland, but remained free in their work, in the artistic assessment of events.

Zamyatin was born in the city of Lebedyan, Tambov province, in the family of a priest. Became a shipbuilder. He wrote about the choice of a profession as follows: “In the gymnasium I received fives with a plus for essays and did not always get along easily with mathematics. That must be why (out of stubbornness) I chose the most mathematical thing: the shipbuilding department of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic. The spirit of contradiction brought Zamyatin, who grew up in a patriarchal family, into the Bolshevik Party. Since 1905, he has been involved in illegal work, is arrested and spends several months in solitary confinement.

During the First World War, Zamyatin left for England as an expert in the construction of icebreakers for the Russian fleet, in particular, he participated in the construction of the famous Krasin (exploration of the Arctic). However, already in September 1917 he returned to revolutionary Russia.

In 1922, Zamyatin published stories ("The Cave", "Dragon", etc.), in which the revolutionary events appear as a rampant element that destroys the existing being. In the story “The Cave”, the former way of life, spiritual interests, moral ideas are replaced by a wild life with miserable values: “In the center of this universe is God. Short-legged, rusty-red, squat, greedy, cave god: cast-iron stove.

Zamyatin did not join the ranks of the opposition, but argued with Bolshevism, could not come to terms with the domination of the dictatorship, its victims, the severity of the losses. As a writer, he was always honest: "I have a very uncomfortable habit of saying not what is profitable at the moment, but what seems to me true." Of course, they stopped publishing it. Criticism hounded the writer even for unpublished works. In October 1931, thanks to the mediation of Gorky, Zamyatin went abroad and since 1932 he lived in Paris.

II. Preliminary conversation on the novel
- What is the subject of the image by Zamyatin in the novel "We"?

Distant future, XXI century.
It would seem that a utopian state, where all people are happy with universal "mathematical infallible happiness." People have always dreamed of harmony, it is human nature to look into the future. Until the 20th century, this future usually seemed bright. Since pre-literary times, fantasy has worked mainly in the direction of "technical improvement" of the world (flying carpets, golden apples, walking boots, etc.).

Why is this distant future depicted?(Discussion.)

Teacher comment:

Zamyatin almost does not give free rein to his engineering and technical imagination. He predicts not so much the path of development of technology, the conquest and transformation of nature, but the path of development of man, human society. He is interested problems of relations between the individual and the state, individuality and the collective. The progress of knowledge, science, technology is not yet the progress of mankind. "We" is not a dream, but dream validation , not a utopia, but dystopia .

Dystopia is a depiction of the dangerous, pernicious consequences of various kinds of social experiments related to the construction of a society that corresponds to one or another social ideal. The dystopia genre began to develop actively in the 20th century and acquired the status of a futurological forecast, a “warning novel”.

V. Practical work
The task.
Zamyatin actively uses oxymorons (a combination of opposites).

- Find them in the text.

Wild state of freedom
beneficent yoke of reason,
mathematically unmistakable happiness,
our duty is to make them happy,
faces unclouded by madness,
the most difficult and highest love is cruelty,
inspiration is an unknown form of epilepsy,
the soul is a serious disease.

What are oxymorons for?

Oxymorons emphasize the artificiality, unnaturalness of relations between people and relations between the state and people; ideas about human values ​​turned inside out.

VI. Final word of the teacher

The dystopian genre experienced a real flowering in the 20th century. Among the best dystopias are Brave New World (1932) by Huxley, Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949) by Orwell, Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury (1953). "We" is the first dystopian novel, a warning about the dangers on the way to the realization of a utopian idea.

The historical path of mankind is not linear, it is often a chaotic movement in which it is difficult to catch the true direction. Let us recall Leo Tolstoy's ideas about the driving forces of history in the novel "War and Peace".

After 1917 an attempt was made to "straighten out" this tangled thread of history. And Zamyatin traced the logical path of this straight line, which leads to the United State. And instead of an ideal, just, humane and happy society, which generations of romantic socialists dreamed of, he discovers a soulless barracks system in which impersonal "numbers" are "integrated" into an obedient and passive "we", a well-coordinated inanimate mechanism.

VII. Homework

Answer the questions:

How is the “happy” society of the future organized?
- What does Zamyatin warn about with his story?
How relevant is this warning today?
- Think about the epigraph to the lesson.

- What is the cherished dream of the protagonist of the novel, D-503?

(The cherished dream of D-503 - “integrate the grandiose universal equation”, “unbend the wild curve”, because the line of the One State is a straight line - the wisest of lines”.

Happiness Formula mathematically accurate: “The state (humanity) forbade killing one and did not forbid killing millions by half . To kill one, that is, to reduce the sum of human lives by 50 years, is criminal, but to reduce the sum by 50 million years is not criminal. Well, isn't it funny?" (Record 3rd).

Teacher comment:

Let's remember Dostoevsky , "Crime and Punishment", a conversation between an officer and a student: one insignificant old woman - and thousands of young lives: “Yes, there is arithmetic!” . Anonymous character in Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground rebels against mathematics, which humiliates his human dignity and deprives him of his will : “Oh, gentlemen, what kind of free will will there be when it comes to the tablet and to arithmetic, when there will be only one twice two four in a move? Twice two and without my will four will be. Is there such a will!

- What is the place of a person, a person in such a state? How does the person behave?

A person in the United State is just a cog in a well-oiled mechanism. The ideal of life behavior is "reasonable mechanistic" , everything beyond it is a "wild fantasy", and "fits of" inspiration "are an unknown form of epilepsy". The most painful of fantasies is freedom a. The concept of freedom is distorted, turned inside out: “Where did the state logic come from when people lived in a state of freedom, that is, animals, monkeys, herds” (Entry 3).

- What is the “root of evil” that prevents universal happiness?

"The root of evil" - in the ability of a person to fantasy, that is, free thought. This root must be pulled out - and the problems are solved. Is being done The Great Fantasy Center Cauterization Operation (Entry 40): "No nonsense, no ridiculous metaphors, no feelings: just facts." The soul is a "disease" .

- Is a person in the United State really happy?

(Discussion.)

- What is opposed to spirituality, humanity in the novel?

Spirituality, humanity is paradoxically opposed to science. The system of scientific ethics is based "on subtraction, addition, division, multiplication"; "Unified State Science cannot be wrong" (Entry 3rd).

The hero of Zamyatin, D-503, a mathematician who idolizes "square harmony", goes from absolute confidence in the correctness of the "wisest of lines" through doubts to faith in the triumph of "reason": "Reason must win." True, this final phrase of the novel was written after the Great Operation on his brain, cauterization of the "wretched brain knot" responsible for fantasy (which made him human).

- How relevant is the problem of the responsibility of science in our time?

The problem of the responsibility of science and people of science to society, to an individual, became acute already in the middle of the 20th century. Let us recall, for example, environmental problems, the problem of the use of atomic energy (and Academician Sakharov), the problem of cloning.

The state intervenes in the structure of the personality, in the course of its creative activity, subjugates the emotional sphere. “I” ceases to exist as such - it becomes only an organic cell of “we”, a component, of the crowd.

- What is opposed to the depersonalization of a person in the novel?

Love. The unrecognized D-503, his unconscious love for I-330, gradually awakens the personality of the hero, his "I". O-90's love for him gives hope for the future - the child of O-90 and D-503 finds himself behind the Green Wall and will grow up free.

- What, in your opinion, is the meaning of the title of Zamyatin's novel?

The title of the novel reflects the main problem that worries Zamyatin, what will happen to man and mankind if he is forcibly driven into a "happy future". "We" can be understood as "I" and "others". And it is possible as a faceless, solid, homogeneous something: a mass, a crowd, a herd. The question "what are we?" goes from entry to entry: “we are so the same” (Entry 1st), “we are the happiest arithmetic mean” (Entry 8th), “we will win” (Entry 40th).
The individual consciousness of the hero dissolves into the "collective mind" of the masses.)

III. The novel "We" in the literary context of the time

Teacher comment:

During the years of writing the novel by Zamyatin, the question of the individual and the team was very acute. . At the proletarian poet V. Kirillov has a poem with the same name - "We" :

We are countless, formidable legions of Labor.
We are the winners of the space of the seas, oceans and land...
We are everything, we are everything, we are the victorious flame and light,
Themselves Deity, and the Judge, and the Law.

Let's remember blocky : "We are clearing the battlefield of steel machines, where the integral breathes, with the Mongolian wild horde!" ( "Scythians" ).

In 1920 Mayakovsky wrote the poem "150,000,000" . His name is conspicuously missing from the cover - he is one of those millions : "The party is a million-fingered hand clenched into one smashing fist"; "Unit! Who needs it?! .. One is nonsense, one is zero ...”, “I am happy that I am a particle of this power, that even tears from my eyes are common.”

III. Final word of the teacher

One of the main ones at Zamyatin the idea of ​​what happens to a person, state, society, civilization, when they, worshiping an abstract rational idea, voluntarily renounce freedom and put an equal sign between lack of freedom and collective happiness. People turn into an appendage of the machine, into cogs.
Zamyatin showed the tragedy of overcoming the human in a person, the loss of a name as the loss of one's own "I". This is what the author warns against. From this, how to avoid the "final realization" of utopias, warns Berdyaev.
All dystopian novels of the 20th century, and above all the novel We, warn against this.

Homework

1. Additional questions on the novel by E. Zamyatin "We":
- What literary traditions does Zamyatin continue and develop?
- What is "guessed" by Zamyatin in the novel? Find symbolic images.
- Why did Zamyatin choose the form of a hero's diary for his novel?
- Why did the dystopia genre become popular in the 20th century?

Images and symbols of Shchedrin's works Zamyatin often used in correspondence with relatives and friends. There are frequent references to Shchedrin's images in Zamyatin's journalistic and literary-critical works created in the first years of Soviet power.

In the article “On Service Art” (1918), he speaks with anger and sarcasm about ruling figures destroying ancient monuments: “The demolition of monuments is not done in the name of decorating our life - is it really? - but in the name of decorating our fading pompadours with new laurels. Is it possible to believe that those who take care of decorating life are those who, from the Kremlin, the citadel of beauty, made the Red Guard citadel? What does beauty matter to principled hippos, and what does beauty care about them?

II. Conversation

- Let's open the chapter "Confirmation of repentance. Conclusion" from "The History of a City" by Saltykov-Shchedrin. What is this chapter about?

(In the chapter "Confirmation of repentance. Conclusion" Shchedrin describes one of the most terrible mayors of the city, Glupov Ugryum-Burcheev, who set out to remake the city into a fantastic barracks.)

- What common features could you note in the two rulers?

(Already in some features of appearance and behavior you can see Zamyatin has a lot in common between the images of the mayor Shchedrin and the leader of the United State - the Benefactor .)

The task.
Find descriptions of these characters in books. We read excerpts aloud.

Gloomy-Grumbling is endowed with "some kind of wooden face, never illuminated by a smile," a gaze as bright as steel, inaccessible "neither to shades, nor to fluctuations." He has a "naked determination" and operates with "the regularity of the most distinct mechanism" . According to Shchedrin, he finally "abolished" any "nature" in himself, and this, in turn, led to "petrification."

In his cruelly mechanical behavior, even the Foolovites, accustomed to all sorts of rulers, saw satanic manifestations. “In silence, they pointed out,” writes Shchedrin, “to their houses stretched out into a string, to the front gardens laid out in front of these houses, to uniform Cossacks, in which all the inhabitants were uniformly uniformed to one, and their quivering lips whispered: Satan!”.

AT the guise of the Zamyatin Benefactor the same features prevail as in Ugryum-Burcheev: inflexibility, cruelty, determination, automatism .
Zamyatin repeatedly highlights in the portrait of the ideologist of the United State “heavy stone hands”, “slow, cast-iron gesture”, lack of any hint of humanity . Suffice it to recall the scene of the execution of the disobedient poet during the so-called Feast of Justice: “Upstairs, in Cuba, near the Machine, there is a motionless, as if made of metal, figure of the one whom we call the Benefactor. From here, from below, one cannot make out the faces: one can only see that it is limited by strict, majestic, square outlines. But on the other hand, hands ... This is sometimes the case in photographs: too close, in the foreground, the placed hands come out huge, riveting the eye - they obscure everything. These heavy hands, still calmly lying on their knees, are clear: they are made of stone, and the knees can barely support their weight ... ".

- How could you characterize the reign of Ugryum-Burcheev and the Benefactor?

(Both rulers rule with inflexibility and cruelty n. Gloomy-Grumbling is trying to reduce all the diversity of life to an elementary “straight line”: “Having drawn a straight line, he planned to squeeze the entire visible and invisible world into it, and moreover with such an indispensable calculation that it was impossible to turn either back or forward, or to the right, not to the left, did he intend to become a benefactor of mankind? It is difficult to answer this question in the affirmative.

Gloom-Burcheev's passion for a straight line was associated with his desire to simplify relations between people, to deprive a person of freedom, joy, and multidimensionality of experiences. This passion is due to his nature, nature. He is trying to level the vast and heterogeneous living world due to his idiocy, he is a “leveller” by nature.)

How do these images compare?

(Zamiatin, having created the image of the Benefactor, abandoned the grotesqueness and primitiveness of Grim-Grumbling. But the writer, at the same time, seemed to transferred to the future the love of the Shchedrin mayor for a straight line, linking it with the idea of ​​​​universal happiness .

Zamyatin realized in the novel Shchedrin's idea about the appearance in new eras of gloomy grumblings, endowed with a thirst to make humanity happy, that is, genetically Benefactor Zamyatin goes back to the mayor of Shchedrin.

“At that time, nothing was reliably known either about the “communists”, or about the socialists, or about the so-called levelers in general, - Shchedrin's narrator notes with irony. - Nevertheless, leveling existed, and, moreover, on the most extensive scale. There were levelers "walking in a string", levelers "ram's horn", levelers "hedgehogs" and so on. and so on. But no one saw in this anything threatening society or undermining its foundations ... The levelers themselves did not suspect that they were levelers, but called themselves kind and caring organizers, to the extent of their discretion, taking care of the happiness of their subordinates. It was only in later times (almost before our eyes) that the idea of ​​combining the idea of ​​straightforwardness with the idea of ​​general happiness was elevated into a rather complex and inextricable administrative theory of ideological tricks...”)

- What is the "truth" for the Benefactor from the novel "We"?

(Zamiatin's benefactor is the supreme being of the United State, standing guard over its norms and regulations. His leveling is sophisticated and has a philosophical and ideological justification.

For the Benefactor, there was only a miserable human herd that needed neither freedom nor truth, but only happiness based on satisfying satisfaction and well-being.. He proclaims the cruel "truth" that the path to happiness lies through overcoming pity for man and violence against us. The benefactor takes on the role of executioner and is confident in his ability to lead people to an earthly paradise.

Accusing the builder of the "Integral" of a crime against the state, the Benefactor with the arrogance of the leader declares: "I ask: what are people about - from the very cradle - prayed, dreamed, suffered? About someone telling them once and for all what happiness is - and then chaining them to this happiness. What else are we doing now but this?”)

- What is the main similarity between Ugryum-Burcheev and the Benefactor?

(The main thing that unites Ugryum-Burcheev and the Benefactor is their desire for a universal regulation of life. )

- Find correspondences in the state structure of the city of Glupov and the United State.

(Plan Ugryum-Burcheev the reconstruction of the city of Glupov contains many of the structural elements of the Zamyatin United State. In accordance with the plan, a certain “theater of the absurd” arises in the inflamed imagination of the mayor, the actors of which are not people with their individual traits, but pitiful marching shadows: , everyone was walking ... They were all equipped with the same physiognomies, they were all equally silent and they all disappeared somewhere in the same way ... ".

Shchedrin assigned a commander and a spy to each platoon of citizens. The city should turn into a barracks in which people “have no passions, no hobbies, no attachments. Everyone lives every minute together, and everyone feels alone.

That, that Shchedrin was the "systematic nonsense" of Ugryum-Burcheev and, with his disappearance, was remembered by the Foolovites as a nightmare, with Zamyatin it became the reality of the United State.

All spheres of existence in it are strictly regulated by the Tablet of Hours. This is the main set of norms and restrictions that describes the life of each resident or "number" to the nearest minute. Everyone's personal time is almost entirely absorbed by the normalized time of the state and amounts to only 2 hours a day. Keepers and voluntary informers closely monitor the observance of the norms of time. Normalized time also defines a limited, isolated space. "Numbers" live in glass, transparent cages, collectively visit halls for mandatory Taylor exercises, listen to once and for all fixed lectures in the classrooms.)

- How are the relations between society and nature in the city of Foolov and in the United State?

(It unites the city of Ugryum-Burcheev with the United State and the desire of its rulers to destroy everything natural.

But if Ugryum-Burcheev still fails to conquer nature, stop or change the course of the river, then in the state of the Benefactor, they completely got rid of everything natural. A “machine-equal” person not only does not need to communicate with nature, but also considers his artificial world to be the most reasonable and the only form of life existence.. Hence the Green Wall, and oil food, and other charms of the glass-sterile world. Zamyatin, like Shchedrin, was well aware of what could happen to mankind if in practice it begins to implement insane utopias of transforming nature.)

III. teacher's word

AT letter to the artist Yuri Annenkov , which he called very aptly and accurately - "the shortest comic summary of the novel" We " , Zamyatin noted with inimitable humor: “My dear Yuri Annenkov! You're right. Technology is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipotent. There will be a time when in everything - only organization, when man and nature - will turn into a formula, into a keyboard.
And now - I see, this is a blissful time. Everything is simplified. In architecture, only one shape is allowed - a cube. Flowers? They are inexpedient, this beauty is useless: they do not exist. Trees too. Music is, of course, only sounding Pythagorean pants. Of the works of the ancient era, only the Schedule of Railways was included in the anthology.
People are oiled, polished and precise, like a six-wheeled timetable hero. Deviation from norms is called insanity. And that's why Shakespeare's, Dostoevsky's and Scriabin's, who deviate from the norms, are tied up in crazy shirts and put in cork insulators. Children are manufactured in factories - by the hundreds, in original packages, like patented products; earlier, they say, it was done in some artisanal way ... My dear friend! In this expedient, organized and most precise universe, you would be motion sick in half an hour ».

IV. Lesson summary

- What is the genre of the novel "We" and the reviewed passage from "The History of a City"? What did the authors want to say in their works?

The considered chapter from Shchedrin's "History" and the novel "We" in terms of their genre features, they are anti-utopias, that is, they satirically show models of an undesirable, negative society that suppresses the freedom of the individual, the natural feelings of a person.

Zamyatin, following Saltykov-Shchedrin, warned us about how any system that mass-produces human robots, making violence in all its forms the main instrument of its policy, is terrible. These works make it possible to fully understand the writers' anxiety for the future of Russia.

What does the author warn his contemporaries and descendants about? The novel "We" is perhaps the most unusual work that I have read. And this unusualness does not lie in the form of the narration, which is conducted from the protagonist; and not even that instead of names, the author gave each character his own specific set of letters and numbers; and in a terrible and unfair ending ("... I'm sure we will win. Because the mind must win").

The beginning, too, is by no means a cloudless picture. We see a hero in whom only his work, his favorite mathematics, evokes emotions. The only value for him is the United State, which dictates certain rules to everyone, it takes control even of the private life of numbers. The whole life of the city is subject to an exact schedule, a strict order (“As always, the Musical Factory sang the march of the United State with all its pipes. In measured rows, four by four, enthusiastically beating the time, there were numbers - hundreds, thousands of numbers, in bluish unifs ...”).

The only right that numbers have is the right to be punished for violation of the order.

In my opinion, the laws of the One State contradict the life of people: they speak of equality, and the “cult of personality” reigns in the city, the Benefactor has unlimited power, he is revered and exalted as God; people talk about freedom, while they themselves live in a cage; they laugh at the feelings that agitated the hearts of their ancestors, but they themselves have never experienced anything like this.

To show the absurdity of the depicted world, the author mentions the Bureau of Guardians, and the execution of the recalcitrant, and pink cards. If we look closely, we can recognize some features, albeit in a grotesque form, of Soviet Russia. I think Zamyatin was afraid that everything was going to the picture he described, that everyone would lose their individuality, their face (“... being original is violating equality ... and what was called “being banal” in the language of the ancients, we mean: only do your duty").

There are two storylines in the novel: the hero is his beloved and the hero is the United State. And the whole plot is based on the opposition of mind and heart, duty and feelings.

Despite the fact that the J-330 showed him a different, happy world, helped him feel alive and free (“... I felt above everyone, I was me, separate, the world, I ceased to be a term, as always, and became a unit”) ; in this struggle, the soulless state "machine" won. Of course, this happened because of the constant doubts of the hero, because of the fear of losing his measured calm life. But what fills life? Isn't it excitement, feelings, tears or laughter, joy? And if we lose the ability to feel: to hate or love, we lose ourselves, our soul. And the author, in my opinion, wanted to say that we trust our heart, because it always prompts correctly.

And the main idea that Zamyatin wanted to convey to the reader, perhaps, is that there is no ideal world, because human life is a striving for perfection. And when this desire is taken away, we lose the meaning of life.

“Utopias look much more feasible than previously believed.
And now we are faced with a question that torments us with its other way:
how to avoid their final implementation?”
ON. Berdyaev

1. To deepen the established idea of ​​the dystopian genre, to understand the problems of the novel, to get acquainted with the biography of the writer.
2. By means of ICT, develop imaginative thinking, creative imagination, influence the emotions and feelings of children.
3. Teach them to think logically, to highlight the main thing.
4. Develop student speech.
5. Cultivate patriotism.

During the classes

I. Checking homework.

1. The presence of a chronological table for the work of E. Zamyatin.
2. Write out oxymorons from the text of the novel.

II. Message about the topic and purpose of the lesson.

Purpose: “To deepen the established idea of ​​the dystopia genre, to understand the problems of the novel, to get acquainted with the biography of the writer. By means of ICT, develop imaginative thinking, creative imagination, influence the emotions and feelings of children. Teach them to think logically, to highlight the main thing. Develop student speech. Cultivate patriotism.”

teacher's word (on the board: utopia, dystopia)

Let's write an epigraph.

Now let's remember what is Utopia?

(On the desk) Utopia(other Greek. ου - no and τοπος - a place, that is, literally: a place that does not exist) - a genre characterized by a detailed description of the public, state and private life of an imaginary country that meets one or another ideal of social harmony. Utopia is a dream.

To the question why the philosopher N. Berdyaev warns against the realization of utopia, we will answer at the end of the lesson, when we get acquainted with the novel “We” by E. Zamyatin.

The novel "We" was written in 1921-1922. In 1924 it was published in New York in English. It was first published in Russian in the same place in 1952. In our country, it was first published in 1988 in the Znamya magazine. The history of the novel is dramatic, as is the life story of its author.

– What do you know about Evgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin? (1884–1937)

This is one of the writers who accepted the revolution as the real fate of the fatherland, but remained free in his work, in the artistic assessment of events. The fate of E.I. Zamyatin and Boris Pilnyak anticipated the tragedy of Pasternak, the shameful trial of Joseph Brodsky, and the expulsion of A. Solzhenitsyn.

Zamyatin was born in the Tambov province in the family of a priest, later became a shipbuilder.

The spirit of contradiction led Zamyatin to the Bolshevik Party, and from 1905 he participated in illegal work, for which he was arrested. During the First World War, he leaves for England as an expert in the construction of icebreakers for the Russian fleet, but in September 1917 he returns to Russia.

In 1922, he publishes stories in which revolutionary events appear as a rampant element that destroys the existing existence.

Zamyatin did not join the ranks of the opposition, but argued with the Bolsheviks, always remaining honest. He wrote: “I have a very uncomfortable habit of saying not what is profitable at the moment, but what seems to me to be true.” They stopped printing him, and in 1931 he left his homeland, writing a personal letter to Stalin asking for extradition.

From 1931 to 1937 he lives in Paris, where he dies.

- What is the subject of the image by E. Zamyatin in the novel "We"?

The distant future, the 26th century, would seem to be a utopian state, where all people are happy with universal, “mathematical infallible happiness”. Numbers live in a single state of civilization, technological progress, highly developed science. He tells about his life in the form of diary entries, number D-503. He is in love with I-330, but she is one of those who want to launch the Integral to other worlds so that this way of life does not spread. The rebellion is suppressed, the numbers were burned with a piece of the brain that is responsible for fantasy.

Why is this distant future depicted?

E. Zamyatin is interested in the problems of the relationship between the individual and the state, individuality and the team. He predicts the development of human society. “We” is not a dream, but a test of the viability of a dream, not a utopia, but dystopia.

Dystopia is a depiction of the dangerous, pernicious consequences of various kinds of social experiments related to the construction of a society that corresponds to one or another ideal.

The dystopia genre acquires the status of a forecast, a “warning novel”.

III. Work on the content and analysis of the novel.

- Why can we call E. Zamyatin's novel a dystopia, a novel - a warning?

The historical path of mankind is not straightforward, it is difficult to grasp its true direction. Zamyatin tried to trace the path of history after 1917, which leads to the One State. And instead of a humane, happy society, which generations dreamed of, he discovers a soulless, barracks system in which the impersonal “numbers” are “integrated” into an obedient and passive “we”, into a well-coordinated inanimate mechanism.

How do you understand the title of the novel?

"We" - a single state, two scales: on one - the state, on the other - the individual. “We” is the United State, a new state system, a new order of life, created on other grounds.

What is the essence of this world order?

1. In this state, “we” and “I” are on different scales, they are opposed to each other.
2. The state owns the rights, and "I" - duties. The state, "we" - the goal, "I", the person - a means to strengthen the goal.
3. Such relationships lead to the complete destruction of the individual: a gram cannot balance a ton, so you need to feel like a millionth part of a ton, dissolve in the state. Therefore, there are no people in the book, there are “numbers”.

– How did it happen that the state and the individual become antagonists in their relationship?

The new world order began with two hundred years of war between the state and its people, city and countryside. And 0.2 of the population survived.

- On what idea was born a new world order?

On the idea of ​​violence, destruction, extermination. At its origins is the civil war.

- What is the development of this idea of ​​violence, which is the basis of the United State, received in the novel?

This idea of ​​violence was developed in the system of artistic images. It is on violence that the policy of the Benefactor, who is at the head of the state, is built. The Guardians Bureau is a police system. The Tablet of Hours is “the heart and pulse of a single state”. The Green Wall is an unbreakable border.

The heavy hand, the great hand of the Benefactor.

– What else emphasizes the unnaturalness of relations between people and the state?

The unnaturalness, artificiality of relations is emphasized by the oxymorons used in the novel:

- a wild state of freedom,
- a beneficent yoke of reason,
- mathematically unmistakable happiness,
– our duty is to make them happy,
- faces unclouded by madness thoughts,
- the most difficult and highest love is cruelty,
– inspiration – an unknown form of epilepsy,
- the soul is a serious disease.

– Which episode shows the power of the Benefactor?

D-503 talks about the Day of Unanimity - the election of the Benefactor. A ritual - the result of which is known to everyone, but everyone comes to demonstrate unanimity.

– What is the image of the Benefactor? What is the personification of the world order?

Bureau of Guardians D-503 compares with the Inquisition of the ancients. They have an operating room with the famous gas bell (instrument of torture). Perfection is the operation to cauterize the part of the brain responsible for fantasies. The Bureau of Guardians is a powerful and repressive apparatus that allows you to keep the power of the Benefactor.

– The State Newspaper, as any means of propaganda, forms:

1) New ideology.

1. ideology of ideal lack of freedom, our lack of freedom is our happiness

2) New morality.

1. Everyone lives in glass houses (you can close the curtains for 2 hours), no right to belong to yourself.
2. The basis of the relationship between the “numbers” is espionage, denunciation, betrayal, a system of supervision and surveillance.
3. Love is only a physiological function, there is no family, to give birth to a child you need permission from the State, then the child is given to the state for upbringing.
4. “Numer” D-503 has two feelings: gratitude to the One State and superiority over everything that is the One State.

3) A new understanding of beauty, a new perception of art.

1. In music, the march expresses ideal non-freedom.
2. In painting, architecture, graphics - a straight line.
3. In poetry, these are not nightingale trills, but a service (it is ordered to write essays about the beauty and greatness of the One State to everyone)

- What is the plot based on? On what conflict is the development of action based?

The clash of the One State, its interests with man, with the world and his interests. United State and numbers.

The main character is D-503. In the beginning, we see the flesh of the flesh of the One State, he sings of a new world order, another life is unthinkable for him, he never ceases to admire the wisdom of those who created him. But he falls in love and changes happen to him. At first, he does not understand what happened and is forced to go to the doctor, who says that D-503 has formed a soul. And the hero himself feels that from a number he turns into a person, becomes a man.

What was the source of these changes?

Love. According to E. Zamyatin, love is able to make each of us a person, therefore it becomes clear that sexual freedom is a crisis of life, state, personality, spiritual ties, family, degeneration of a person. Love revived memory, which, according to Zamyatin, is capable of reviving a person.

Compare two scenes in the novel:

1. Visiting the Ancient House: annoyed, in love, now the world has changed, the hero saw the sun and grass.
2. I-330 leads the hero behind a green wall where wild people live. Looking at them, the hero pays attention to his hands and understands that he is part of wildlife. Through love and memory, an image of a mother arises that would be dear as a piece of her own human function.

- How does E. Zamyatin show the process of awakening a person?

The process is painful, but the hero does not evade it. “I don't want to be saved,” D-503 will say. For him, this is the only chance to become a man and experience all the torments and joys of human existence.

How do you understand the ending of the novel?

The United State has again triumphed over the people:
The rebels are tortured, they perform operations, including D-503. He again turned into a number and indifferently watches how some beautiful woman is being tortured, without experiencing any emotions and feelings.

- What did the novel reveal to you?

– How does this novel relate to the present?

- How relevant is E. Zamyatin's warning today?

It is no coincidence that the novel “We” is still relevant today. There can always be a danger of a return to a totalitarian regime. We must remember where this can lead.

IV. Summary of the lesson.

Write conclusions in a notebook:

1. That world order, the principle that E. Zamyatin saw in the twenties, is estimated as a totalitarian regime based on violence, destruction, complete subordination. He predicted that it would be very difficult to fight this system.
2. The writer argued that there are always forces that can resist. They are not broken, although they were defeated, and this gives hope.
3. People live behind the Green Wall, go there and O-90, taking away in themselves a child who will be born from a person, because at that time D-503 was him.

The inevitability of opposition inspires hope in the reader that life goes on, indestructibly human in man, and affirms the reader in the main thing: totalitarianism and life, totalitarianism and man are incompatible.

V. Homework.

Answer the questions:

1. Why does N. Berdyaev warn against the realization of a utopia?
2. Compare the city from the fourth dream of Vera Pavlovna (the novel “What is to be done?” by A.G. Chernyshevsky) and the city from the novel “We” by E. Zamyatin. Make drawings.
3. What is "guessed" by E. Zamyatin in the novel?
4. Why did E. Zamyatin choose the form of a hero's diary for his novel?
5. Why did the dystopia genre become popular in the 20th century?
6. How did other poets and writers during the years of the creation of the novel “We” raise the question of the individual and the collective? (A. Blok, V. Mayakovsky and others)
7. Is it possible to agree with D. Furmanov that "zamyatinstvo is a dangerous phenomenon"?

Municipal educational budgetary institution

secondary educational school in the village of Amzya, Neftekamsk city district

Literature lesson in grade 11

On this topic

"The development of the dystopian genre in the novel

E. I. Zamyatina "We". The fate of the individual

In a totalitarian state

Prepared by the teacher

Russian language and literature

Fayzullina Gulnaz Mukhametzyanovna

2011-2012 academic year

Goals

1. Definition of the genre of utopia and dystopia
2. Show the skill of E. I. Zamyatin, the humanistic orientation of the work, the assertion of human values.
3. Development of analytical abilities of students.

Equipment: slides, printed texts, excerpts from the novel.

Epigraphs for the lesson:

(Slide 1)

During the classes

1. Introduction to the purpose of the lesson.

You read the novel by E. I. Zamyatin “We” at home. In the last lesson, we got acquainted with the history of the creation, publication of the work. Today we will analyze it.. We will try to answer the questions that probably arose.

1. Checking homework. 2 groups of students prepared messages on the topics "utopia" and "dystopia" (Slide 2)

Since ancient times, people have dreamed that someday the time will come when there will be complete harmony between man and the world and everyone will be happy. This dream in literature was reflected in the genre of utopia (the founder of the genre is T.Mor). The authors of utopian works depicted life with an ideal state system, social justice (universal equality). Building a society of universal happiness seemed to be a simple matter. Philosophers argued that it is reasonable enough to structure an imperfect order, to put everything in its place - and here is an earthly paradise for you, which is more perfect than heaven.

Dystopia is a genre that is also called negative utopia. This image of such a possible future, which frightens the writer, makes him worry about the fate of mankind, for the soul of an individual.The purpose of utopia is, first of all, to show the world the path to perfection, the task of dystopia is to warn the world about the dangers that await it on this path. Anti-utopia exposes the incompatibility of utopian projects with the interests of an individual, brings to absurdity the contradictions inherent in utopia, clearly demonstrating how equality turns into leveling, a reasonable state structure - a violent regulation of human behavior, technical progress - the transformation of a person into a mechanism.

What genre do you think E. Zamyatin's novel belongs to: utopia or dystopia?

All responses are heard.

1. Analysis of the novel. The fate of the individual in a totalitarian state.

one . Analysis of the title of the novel.

The novel is called "We". Why do you think it is so named? What is the meaning of the author in this title?

Students provide answers. Sample answers:“we” is the state, it is the mass; the individual loses its meaning, everyone is the same, in the same clothes, they think the same way, everything is subject to a strict schedule that cannot be violated.

The title of the novel reflects the main problem that worries Zamyatin: what will happen to man and humanity if he is forcibly driven into a “happy future”. "We" can be understood as "I" and "others". And it is possible as a faceless, solid, homogeneous something: a mass, a crowd, a herd. Zamyatin showed the tragedy of overcoming the human in a person, the loss of a name as the loss of one's own "I".

2. Analysis of composition, plot. How is the novel structured? What is its composition?

These are diary entries. Story within a story.

Why did the author choose this way of narration? What does it serve?

To convey the inner world of the hero.

Let's look at the structure of the One State. What institutions does it include? How to control the lives of citizens. Everything is subject to control. Up to such intimate spheres of life as the intimacy of a man and a woman and the birth of children.

Now I will ask you to make tables. The first group will write the concepts that make up "we", the second - "I"

Sample tables

(Slide 3)

It should be noted that numbers live in the United State, the heroes do not have names. Main character - D-503

The confrontation between "we" and "I" is the plot of the novel. It is very difficult to turn a person into a cog in the state machine, to take away his uniqueness, to take away from a person the desire to be free, to love, even if love brings suffering. And such a struggle goes on inside the hero throughout the novel. The form of diary entries helps to look into the inner world. "I" and "we" coexist in it at the same time. At the beginning of the novel, the hero feels that he is only a part of "we" "... that's right: we, and let this "We" be the title of my notes." But Zamyatin managed to convey the difficult psychological process that takes place inside the D-503.

1. Psychologism in the novel.

A group of guys had to write a psychological description of the hero using quotes. Let's see what they got.

“I, D-503, builder of the Integral - I am only one of the mathematicians of the United State.

I defeated the old God and the old life.

This woman had the same unpleasant effect on me as an indecomposable irrational member accidentally wormed into an equation.

An idea came to me: after all, a person is arranged just as wildly ... - human heads are opaque, and only tiny windows inside: eyes.

I felt fear, I felt trapped.

I unfastened myself from the earth and as an independent planet, rotating furiously, rushed down ...

I became glass. I saw - in myself, inside.

There were two me. One I am the former, D-503, and the other ... Previously, he only

sticking his shaggy paws out of the shell. And now the whole one was crawling out ... And this

the other - suddenly jumped out ...

It's so nice to feel someone's keen eye, lovingly protecting from the slightest mistake.

We went two - one. The whole world is a single immense woman, and we are in her very womb, we have not yet been born, we are joyfully ripening ... everything is for me.

Ripe. And inevitably, like iron and a magnet, with sweet obedience to the exact immutable law - I merged into it ... I am the universe. … How full I am!

After all, I now live not in our rational world, but in an ancient, delusional one.

Yes, and fog... I love everything, and everything is resilient, new, amazing.

I know that I have it - that I am sick. And I also know that I don't want to get better.

Soul? This is a strange, ancient, long-forgotten word ... Why no one has it, but I have ...

I want her every minute, every minute, always to be with me - only with me.

... a holiday - only with her, only if she is there, shoulder to shoulder.

And I picked up I. I tightly pressed her to me and carried her. My heart was beating - huge, and with each beat it poured out such a violent, hot, such a joyful wave. And let there be something shattered to smithereens - all the same! If only to carry it like that, carry it, carry it ...

…Who are they"? And who am I myself: “they” or “we” - do I know.

I am dissolved, I am infinitely small, I am a point...

There was a terrible dream, and it ended. And I, the coward, I, the unbeliever, - I was already thinking about self-willed death.

It was clear to me: everyone is saved, but there is no salvation for me, I do not want salvation ...

“You probably have a drop of forest blood… Maybe that’s why I…”

No one hears me screaming: save me from this - save me! If

I had a mother - like the ancients: mine - that's exactly the mother. And so that for her - I do not

The builder of the "Integral", and not the number D-503, and not the molecule of the One State, but a simple human piece - a piece of her own - trampled, crushed, thrown away ... And let me nail or they nail me - maybe it's the same - so that her old woman's, wrinkled lips - -

I think I've always hated her, from the very beginning. I fought... But, no, no, don't believe me: I could and didn't want to be saved, I wanted to perish, that was dearest to me than anything... that is, not to perish, but that she...

…and where does your finite universe end? What's next?

Have I ever felt—or imagined I feel it? No nonsense, no ridiculous metaphors, no feelings: just facts. Because I'm healthy, I'm perfectly, absolutely healthy. I smile - I can’t help but smile: some kind of splinter was pulled out of my head, my head is light, empty.

The next day I, D-503, came to the Benefactor and told him everything I knew about the enemies of happiness. Why might this have seemed difficult to me before? Unclear. The only explanation: my former illness (soul).

... at the same table with Him, with the Benefactor, - I was sitting in the famous Gas room. They brought that woman. She had to testify in my presence. This woman was stubbornly silent and smiling. I noticed that she had sharp and very white teeth and that it was beautiful.

She looked at me... looked until her eyes closed completely.

And I hope we win. More: I'm sure we will win. Because the mind must win."

Which feeling is stronger than "we"? Love. It is love that helps the hero find himself. What other spiritual values ​​does the hero approach? To religion, he wants to have a mother.

"We" wins. But we do not experience a sense of relief, joy. What feelings did you have while reading the novel? Imagine yourself as citizens of the United State.

What would you dislike in the first place in such a world?

The answers may vary.

So, the One State, its absurd logic in the novel is opposed by the awakening soul, that is, the ability to feel, love, suffer. The soul that makes a person a person, a person. The United State could not kill a person's spiritual, emotional beginning. Why didn't this happen?

Unlike the heroes of Huxley's novel "Brave New World", programmed at the genetic level, Zamyatin's numbers are still living people, born by father and mother and only brought up by the state. When dealing with living people, the United State cannot rely only on slavish obedience. The key to the stability of citizens is to “ignite” with faith and love for the state. The happiness of numbers is ugly, but the feeling of happiness must be true.

A person who has not been completely killed is trying to break out of the established framework and, perhaps, will find a place for himself in the expanses of the Universe. But the protagonist's neighbor seeks to prove that the universe is finite. The Unified State Science wants to enclose the Universe with a Green Wall. This is where the hero asks his main question: “Listen,” I pulled my neighbor. - Yes, listen, I tell you! You must, you must answer me, but where does your finite universe end? What's next?

Throughout the novel, the hero rushes between human feeling and duty to the One State, between inner freedom and the happiness of unfreedom. Love awakened his soul, his fantasy. A fanatic of the One State, he freed himself from its shackles, looked beyond the bounds of what was permitted: "And what's next?"

I will consider how the attempt to resist violence ends in the novel.

The rebellion failed, I-330 hits the gas bell, the main character undergoes the Great Operation and coolly watches the death of his former lover. The finale of the novel is tragic, but does this mean that the writer does not leave us hope? I note: I-330 does not give up until the very end, D-503 is operated on by force, O-90 goes beyond the Green Wall to give birth to his own child, and not a state number.

1. Summarizing.

The novel "We" is an innovative and highly artistic work. Having created a grotesque model of the One State, where the idea of ​​a common life was embodied in “ideal lack of freedom”, and the idea of ​​equality was embodied in universal leveling, where the right to be well-fed required the renunciation of individual freedom, Zamyatin denounced those who, ignoring the real complexity of the world, tried to artificially “Make happy of people".

The novel "We" is a prophetic, philosophical novel. He is full of anxiety for the future. It sharply sounds the problem of happiness and freedom.

As J. Orwell said: "... this novel is a signal of the danger that threatens man, humanity from the hypertrophied power of machines and the power of the state - no matter what."

This work will always be relevant - as a warning about how totalitarianism destroys the natural harmony of the world and the individual. Such works as "We" squeeze slavery out of a person, make him a personality, warn that one should not bow before "we", no matter how lofty words surround this "we". No one has the right to decide for us what our happiness lies in, no one has the right to deprive us of political, spiritual and creative freedom. And so we, today, decide what will be the main thing in our life - “I” or “we”.

1. Homework.

Answer the questions:

What does Zamyatin warn about with his work?

Dystopia Dystopia is a direction in fiction and cinema, in a narrow sense, a description of a totalitarian state, in a broad sense - any society in which negative development trends prevail.

The meaning of the title of the novel "We" in the novel means the One State, which is a utopia. This is a state where there is only a “herd” feeling and unformed personal qualities, a person does not exist as a person and unconsciously coexists with others like him. The pronoun "We" after the publication of the novel began to have a negative meaning ...

The conflict between "we" and "I" WE I The power of the United State State of freedom Guardians Bureau Love Hourly Tablet Emotions Green Wall Fantasies State newspaper Creativity Institute of State Poets and Writers Art Mathematically unmistakable happiness Family, parents, children Unified State Science Beauty Stability Religion Mind Soul , spirituality Music plant Unorganized music Ideal lack of freedom Attachments Equality Originality Child-rearing Sexual relations)))

Female and male images in the novel In general, the male characters in the novel "We" are more rationalistic, straightforward, have a less persistent character, they are characterized by reflection and hesitation. It is I-330 and O-90 - strong characters - who do not hesitate to oppose the United State, in contrast to the reflective male numbers, despite the fact that both heroines are completely different in psychology, appearance, and life goals.

Religion in the novel “Those two in paradise – were presented with a choice: either happiness without freedom – or freedom without happiness; the third is not given, They, boobies, chose freedom - and what: it's understandable - then for centuries they yearned for fetters. and only we again guessed how to return happiness .... The benefactor, the car, the cube, the gas bell, the Guardians - all this is good, all this is majestic, beautiful, noble, sublime, crystal clear. Because it protects our lack of freedom - that is, our happiness. The Benefactor himself demonstrates the monstrous logic of the One State, drawing a picture of the crucifixion before the imagination of the trembling D-503, he makes the protagonist of this “magnificent tragedy” not the executed Messiah, but his executioner, correcting the mistakes of a criminal individuality, crucifying a person in the name of universal happiness.

Conclusion All the same, "We" won. D-503 agreed to the "operation". He calmly watched as I-330 died in a gas bell, his beloved ...