Literature lesson in grade 11
"Linguistic and stylistic analysis of V. Shalamov's stories "Berries", "Single metering"
Lesson Objectives:
1. Educational:
* Improving the skill of linguistic and stylistic text analysis;
* formation of the ability to analyze the text artistic style;
* activation of cognitive research activity of students.
2. Developing:
*further development communicative, linguistic and linguistic competence of students;
*development creativity the personality of students and the activation of their mental activity through the use of elements of critical thinking technology;
* Improving the ability to argue and prove your point of view on problematic issue;
*development of social competence of students.
3.Educational:
*contribute moral development the personality of students, their definition of true life values.
Technology: critical thinking technology; technology of problem-based learning, workshop of value orientations.
Tasks:
*reveal main idea short stories by V. Shalamov "Berries"
* conduct a linguo-stylistic analysis of the stories "Single Measurement"
* analyze linguistic (expressive) means.
Lesson type:a lesson in the integrated application of knowledge, skills and abilities of students.
Methods:problem-search, problematic
Type of lesson:workshop
Forms of work:frontal, individual.
On the desk:
Everything that was dear was trampled to dust; civilization and culture fly off a person into the very short term, calculated in weeks.
The ovens of Auschwitz and the disgrace of Kolyma proved that art and literature are zero...
V.Shalamov
On the board: (concepts are written during the lesson)
Totalitarianism
suppression
Destruction of personality
Grain of sand
state machine
Camp
Society Model
At the end of the lesson, make sentences with these words - conclusions.
On the left wing:
Story
Composition
Facilities artistic expressiveness
During the classes:
1. Teacher's words
At home, you got acquainted with the stories of V. Shalamov. Have you read this author's work before?
Today we will discover the world of Shalamov's prose, the world is cruel and merciless and truthful to the limit. To understand the motives for writing such works, you need to get acquainted with short biography author.
2. Presentationprepared by a student - biography of V. Shalamov
3. Conversation
What is striking in the biography of the writer?
He spent 20 years in camps in Kolyma, was a political prisoner. Consequently, everything he wrote about was experienced and felt by the author himself. " Kolyma stories" - personal experience.
What do we know about those times, the camps?
4. A student's message about the system of punishments in the camps.
So what stories have you read?
- "Single metering", "Berries".
What theme unites these stories?
main topic- the existence of a person in the camp.
Where is the action taking place?
In the north. Kolyma, the most severe camps.
Who is at the center of the story?
Zeks (thieves, political prisoners), overseers.
What is the tone of the story?
The intonation is impassive, ordinary, without emotions. Such intonation gives the stories a note of doom.
As a rule, in any prose work of art there are all types of speech: narration, description, reasoning. What is in the stories of V. Shalamov? Prove it.
There is a story and a description.
Why is there no reasoning in the stories of V. Shalamov?
Zeke can't reason. He is a cog, "nobody", "camp dust".
In what episodes does the description occur?
These episodes are related to the description of food. This is a strong emotion in conditions of constant hunger. There is a clear parallel: food = life, man = animal.
Is there a story?
Yes, that's the basis of the stories. The life of a convict consists of a series of actions aimed at preserving and maintaining own life: exhausting, meaningless work, the fight against constant hunger and cold, actions to get food.
What is the theme of stories?
1. The problem of confrontation between man and the totalitarian machine of the state. 2. The problem of change (deformation) of the value orientations of a person in the camp.
3. Price problem human life.
5. Analysis of the story "Single measurement"
The genre is declared by V Shalamov in the title of the collection - “Kolyma stories”
What is a story? Let's turn to the dictionary.
Story - small epic genre, prose work a small volume, in which, as a rule, one or several events of the hero's life are depicted.
What is classical composition story?
The plot, the development of the action, the climax, the denouement.
Do the stories of V. Shalamov correspond classical form?
No. There is no introduction, the climax is shifted towards the end of the work.
This is a deliberate departure from the literary canons. Shalamov was convinced that literature was dead (the one that "teaches" - the literature of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy).
narration about last day the hero of the story is ordinary, without emotions. Dugaev's death is a statistic.
Why is there no introduction and conclusion in the story?
V. Shalamov needs to show the essence, without burdening it with the background of the hero. In the conditions of the camp, it does not matter who the person was before. Shalamov writes about a man who stands at the line separating life and death.
Surroundings are indifferent to the fate of a comrade. (Read 1 paragraph of the story, analyze the behavior of a partner and foreman)
What does Dugaev feel in the camp?
The main feeling is hunger. It is he who determines the train of thought of the hero (read an excerpt). The second is indifference (read an excerpt).
In the camp, a person becomes dumb, turns into an animal. Dugaev does not know how to steal (and this is the “main northern virtue” in the camp), so he is quickly weakening. He tries to fulfill the norm (“None of the comrades will grumble that he does not fulfill the norm”). When Dugaev learns that he has completed only 25%, he is surprised because "the work was so hard." He was so tired that even "the feeling of hunger had long since left him."
Find the climax of the story and its denouement.
The climax and denouement are combined in the last paragraph (read out). When Dugaev realized why he was being led to a high fence with barbed wire, he "regretted that he had worked in vain, that last day had been tormented in vain."
6. Analysis of the story “Berries”
What do the stories “Single Size” and “Berries” have in common?
In the story "Berries" Shalamov draws camp everyday life, as in "Solitary Measurement". The hero, on whose behalf the story is told, like Dugaev, clings to life, although he understands that his life and the lives of his comrades are worthless.
1. In the camp, every man is for himself.
2. Hunger - excruciating thrill pushing a person to take risks and rash acts.
3.All moral qualities man gave way physiological needs- eat, sleep, be warm.
Why did Rybakov, the narrator's friend, pick up berries in a jar?
If Rybakov picks up a full can, the cook of the security detachment will give him bread. Rybakov's enterprise immediately became an important business.” Getting food is the most important thing in the camp.
Why didn't Rybakov ask for help picking berries?
He would have to share bread, and "camp ethics" does not imply such human actions. Consequently, Shalamov's idea is once again confirmed that in the camp it is every man for himself.
Which episode stands out in terms of intonation and content from the general narrative?
Episode description of berries. This is real poetry. The narrator with the intonation of a gourmet and connoisseur draws berries. Nothing in the life of a convict causes such strong emotions. Only food.
Analyze the episode that tells about the death of Rybakov.
Rybakov was shot dead by the guard Seroshapka because the convict violated the boundaries of the designated zone. Gray Hat did it casually, without regret. The guard knew that Rybakov would not run away, but he killed the convict with the first shot. The author draws the reader's attention to the fact that Rybakov was killed by the first shot, which should be a warning. The second was made formally - it is supposed to fire two shots. Neither the guard Seroshapka nor the convicts thought about observing the law, because the camp is a territory of lawlessness, and "the price of camp dust is zero"
The death of a friend is an ordinary event. There is no feeling of loss, trouble. Man is nothing. A jar of berries is a value, as it can be exchanged for bread.
Read the words of V. Shalamov about civilization and culture again. After reading the stories, did it become clear why the author adheres to this point of view? In your answer, use key words written on the board during the lesson.
V. Shalamov thinks so, because the camp proved that the physical and spiritual forces of a person in a collision with the machine of a totalitarian state are limited. The forces of evil break and destroy a person, because the possibilities of a person are finite, and evil can be unlimited. The artist was not afraid to show the terrible in a person. Having shown the “dehumanization” of the world, Shalamov turned out to be a prophet: cruelty is growing everywhere, while never aestheticizing inhumanity. He wanted the reader to see and appreciate what it is in real life. Everything is allowed - terrible reality the history of mankind, which must be resisted - the author leads the reader to such a conviction " Kolyma stories»
Homework: review on the story of V. Shalamov "Condensed milk"
The work of Varlam Shalamov belongs to the Russian literature of the 20th century, and Shalamov himself is recognized as one of the most outstanding and talented writers of this century.
His works are imbued with realism and unbending courage, and Kolyma Tales, his main artistic heritage, represent the brightest example all the motives of Shalamov's creativity.
Each story included in the collection of short stories is reliable, since the writer himself had to endure the Stalinist Gulag and all the torments of the camps that followed it.
Man and the totalitarian state
As mentioned earlier, "Kolyma Tales" is dedicated to the life that an incredible number of people had to endure who went through the ruthless Stalinist camps.
Thus, Shalamov raises the main moral question of that era, reveals the key problem of that time - this is the confrontation between the individual person and the totalitarian state, which does not spare human destinies.
Shalamov does this through the depiction of the life of people exiled to camps, because this is already the final moment of such a confrontation.
Shalamov does not shy away from harsh reality and shows the whole reality of that so-called " life process that devours human personalities.
Changes in the values of human life
In addition to the fact that the writer shows how severe, inhuman and unfair punishment this is, Shalamov focuses on who a person is forced to turn into after the camps.
This topic is especially clearly highlighted in the story “Dry rations”, Shalamov shows how much the will and oppression of the state suppresses the personal principle in a person, how much his soul will be dissolved in this malicious state machine.
Through physical abuse: constant hunger and cold, people were turned into animals, no longer aware of anything around, wanting only food and warmth, denying everything human feelings and experiences.
The values of life become elementary things that transform human soul turn a person into an animal. All that people begin to desire is to survive, all that controls them is a dull and limited thirst for life, a thirst just to be.
Artistic techniques in "Kolyma stories"
These almost documentary stories are imbued with a subtle, powerful philosophy and spirit of courage and courage. Many critics emphasize the special composition of the entire book, which consists of 33 stories, but does not lose its integrity.
Moreover, the stories are not located in chronological order, but this composition does not lose its semantic purpose. On the contrary, Shalamov's stories are arranged in a special order, which allows you to see the life of people in the camps fully, to feel it as a single organism.
The artistic techniques used by the writer are striking in their thoughtfulness. Shalamov uses laconism in describing the nightmare that people experience in such inhuman conditions.
This creates an even more powerful and tangible effect of what is described - after all, he speaks dryly and realistically about the horror and pain that he himself managed to experience.
But " Kolyma stories" consist of different stories. For example, the story "Tombstone" is saturated with unbearable bitterness and hopelessness, and the story "Sherry Brandy" shows how much a person is above circumstances and that for any life is filled with meaning and truth.
Lesson Objectives:
- introduce the tragic fate of the writer and poet Varlam Shalamov; identify the features of the plot and poetics of "Kolyma Tales";
- develop the skills of literary analysis, the ability to conduct a dialogue;
- form civil position high school students.
Equipment: portrait of V.Shalamov, multimedia presentation
During the classes
1. Stage of goal setting.
Music. "Requiem" by W. Mozart
Teacher(reading with music in the background)
To everyone who was branded by the fifty-eighth article,
who in a dream was surrounded by dogs, a fierce convoy,
who by court, without trial, by a special meeting
was doomed to a prison uniform to the grave,
who was betrothed by fate with shackles, thorns, chains
them our tears and sorrow, our everlasting memory! (T.Ruslov)
Today in the lesson we have to talk about political repressions in the Soviet Union, about the people who suffered from them, about the writer of amazing fate - Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov - and his prose. Open your notebooks and write down the topic of today's lesson
(slide 1). At home you read the stories of Varlam Shalamov. What is our goal for today's lesson? (Student answers: get acquainted with the work of V. Shalamov, his biography, comprehend his works).
Varlam Tikhonovich Shalamov spent almost 20 years in Soviet camps, survived, withstood and found the strength to write about it in the work "Kolyma Tales", some of which you managed to get acquainted with. How did you receive these stories? What surprised, amazed, outraged? (Student answers)
What is the mystery of "Kolyma Tales"? Why does the author himself consider his works "new prose"? These are the key questions of our lesson (slide 2).
2. Actualization of students' knowledge.
But in order to understand Shalamov's prose, one must have a good idea of historical events those years.
Student's message "History of repressions in the USSR"
AI Solzhenitsyn said: "No Genghis Khan has destroyed so many peasants as our glorious Organs, led by the Party." Of course, all this could not touch the literary process. Let's remember some facts.
Student's message "Repression in Literature"(The following facts should be mentioned: Alexander Blok suffocated from the lack of air of freedom in 1921. Shot: Nikolai Gumilyov in 1921 on charges of a counter-revolutionary conspiracy, Boris Pilnyak in April 1938, Nikolai Klyuev and Sergei Klychkov in October 1937, Isaac Babel in January 1940. Osip Mandelstam died in the camp in 1938. They committed suicide, unable to withstand the duel with totalitarian regime, Sergei Yesenin in 1925, Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1930, Marina Tsvetaeva in 1941. Ivan Bunin, Zinaida Gippius, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Igor Severyanin, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Konstantin Balmont, Joseph Brodsky, Alexander Galich died in exile. Anna Akhmatova, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Boris Pasternak were persecuted. Passed the GULAG Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Anatoly Zhigulin, Nikolai Zabolotsky, Yaroslav Smelyakov, Joseph Brodsky. In the House of Writers in Moscow there is a memorial plaque in memory of those writers who died in the war - 70 people. They offered to hang the same board with the names of the repressed, but then they realized that there would not be enough space. All walls will be painted.)
Teacher. Let's name one more name on this mournful list - V.T. Shalamov, one of those who set it as their task to survive and tell the truth. This theme also sounds in the works of A. Solzhenitsyn, and Yuri Dombrovsky, and Oleg Volkov, and Anatoly Zhigulin, and Lydia Chukovskaya, but the power of V. Shalamov's books is simply amazing (slide 3).
In the fate of Shalamov, two principles collided: on the one hand, his character, beliefs, on the other, the pressure of time, the state, which sought to destroy this person. His talent, his passionate thirst for justice. Fearlessness, readiness to prove the word by deed: All this was not only not in demand by time, but also became too dangerous for him.
3. Learning new material. Work in groups to study the biography of Varlam Shalamov.
Group work. (Students are divided into groups in advance).
On each table there are texts with a biography of V.T. Shalamov. Read, highlight the main milestones of the biography (with a marker), be prepared to answer questions.
Questions:
- Where and when was Shalamov born? What can be said about his family?
- Where did V. Shalamov study?
- When was V. Shalamov arrested and for what?
- What was the verdict?
- When and where did Shalamov serve his sentence?
- When was Shalamov arrested again? What is the reason?
- Why was his term extended in 1943?
- When is Shalamov released from the camp? When will he return to Moscow?
- In what year did he start working on Kolyma Tales?
(Answers to questions are accompanied by slides with photos)
Teacher: Varlam Shalamov died on January 17, 1982, having lost his hearing and sight, completely defenseless in the House of Invalids of the Litfond, having drunk the cup of non-recognition to the end during his lifetime.
- "Kolyma stories" - main work writer. He gave 20 years to create them. The reader learned 137 stories collected in 5 collections:
- "Kolyma stories"
- "Left Coast"
- "Shovel Artist"
- "Resurrection of the Larch"
- "Glove, or KR-2"
4. Analysis of "Kolyma stories".
- What stories have you read? (Student answers)
Work in pairs.
Let's make a cluster with the word "Kolyma". Try to reflect in it your perception of the world of Kolyma, what feelings prevail in it? We work in pairs, we try to agree. Clusters are attached to the board and read out.
Let's turn to the story "Tombstone". Questions for analysis:
1. What is the impression of a story that begins with the words: "Everyone is dead:"? Everyone: who, why, how? (answers) Yes, these are people about whom Shalamov himself will say: "This is the fate of martyrs who were not, did not know how and did not become heroes." But they remained people in such conditions - and this means a lot. The writer shows this laconic, just one detail. The detail is very important in Shalamov's prose. Here is such, for example, a small detail: ": foreman Barbe is a comrade who helped me pull a large stone out of a narrow pit." The brigadier, who is usually an enemy in the camp, a murderer, is called a comrade. He helped the prisoner, but did not beat him. What opens up behind it? (With comradely relations, the plan was not carried out, because it could only be carried out under an inhuman, lethal load. Barbe was reported, and he died.)
2. Scary stories, creepy stories. What do people dream about on Christmas Eve? (answers) And here is the voice of Volodya Dobrovoltsev (pay attention to the surname): “And I,” and his voice was calm and unhurried, “I would like to be a stump. A human stump, you know, without arms, without legs. Then I would have found I have the strength to spit in their faces for everything they do to us." And why does he want to be a stump?
3. What is the plot of the story? (Death). Death, non-existence is the one art world in which the story takes place. And not only here. The fact of death precedes the beginning of the plot. Agree that this is unusual for Russian prose.
Let's work with the story "The Snake Charmer". Each group gets its own task. Group 1 - Read the beginning of the story, find words and phrases that affect the reader's feelings. What feelings arise? Group 2 - What "thin" and "thick" questions did you have while reading the story? Group 3 - What fragments of the story require reflection and reflection?
In the process of analyzing the story, we will definitely pay attention to those difficult questions that you have. Let's try to figure it out together.
- Why is the story called "The Snake Charmer"? Who can be considered a snake charmer?
- Why did Platonov agree to tell novels after all? Is it possible to condemn him?
- Is Platonov's consent to "squeeze novels" a sign of strength or weakness?
- Why did Platonov develop heart disease?
- What is the author's attitude to such a way to improve one's position? (Sharply negative)
- How is Senechka depicted? What does he personify?
(At first glance, it seems that the story is about the confrontation between the political and the thieves, but if you look deeper, then it is no accident that Platonov - the screenwriter-intellectual opposes the blatars, that spirituality opposes brute force. But there is another plan related to the theme "artist and power", "artist and society". strong of the world This is an ancient and hard to get rid of feature of literature, Shalamov managed to show his negative attitude towards both "snakes" and "casters".)
The story "The last battle of Major Pugachev". Valery Esipov, a researcher of Shalamov's creativity, writes that "Shalamov did not write a single word just like that."
- What is this story about?
- Why does the author compare the arrests of the 1930s and 1940s at the beginning of the story? How did former front-line soldiers differ from other prisoners?
- Tell us about the fate of Major Pugachev. What is the fate of his comrades? How did the experience of the war affect them?
- How did the prisoners behave during the escape?
- Why were there no wounded prisoners in the hospital? Why was Soldatov treated?
- Why does the story end with the death of Pugachev?
What is the feeling after reading the story? How is the author's attitude towards the characters manifested? (About copyright the surname Pugachev speaks to the heroes, and the fact that the author constantly calls him by rank - major, emphasizing that he is a fighter who challenged the camp authorities, and the smile of the major when remembering the dead comrades in front of own death. Shalamov will say about him - "difficult men's life", before his death, he will give him a tasteless cranberry berry, repeat the words "best people" twice and remember his smile, experiencing the joy that a person has a spiritual height.)
Why did Shalamov, who claimed that there could be no successful escapes in Kolyma, glorified Major Pugachev? What is the feat of Major Pugachev? (The feat of Pugachev and his comrades does not consist in the fact that they defended their freedom with weapons in their hands, not in the fact that they turned their machine guns against Soviet power, not that they - one and all - preferred death to surrender. They became heroes because they refused to accept the system of thought and feeling imposed on them. Realizing the camp as an extrahuman system, they refused to exist in it. Escape - from the camp to the taiga - from the Camp to the World - was undoubtedly a miracle of physical courage, but above all, the brainchild of a brave thought.)
Having written a fairy tale, very important for the writer personally, Shalamov deduces a new camp law - the law of the preservation of personality, answers the question of how to get out of this world of death. At that moment, when Shalamov set himself the task of "remembering and writing," he, like Pugachev and his comrades, fought according to his own rules - from a Prisoner he became a Writer, he transferred the battle with an extrahuman system to an alien camp and his own territory of culture.
Teacher: Guys, did you and I manage to get closer to unraveling the mystery of the Kolyma Tales? What are the features of Shalamov's prose, called " new prose"we celebrate?
(The secret of the "Kolyma Tales" is that, with all the negative things, the author managed to show that people remain people even in inhuman conditions, there is a way to fight this system - not to accept its rules, to defeat it with the power of art and harmony. Features of the "new prose" Shalamova: documentary, laconic narration, the presence of a detail-symbol.)
Let's try to make syncwines in groups on the topics: "Kolyma stories", "Man", "Varlam Shalamov", so that you can express your feelings after our lesson.
Homework: write a review of one of Shalamov's stories using the "criticism" pyramid; watch the film "Lenin's Testament".
Literature.
2. Valery Esipov. "Dispel this fog" (V. Shalamov's late prose: motivations and problems) // www.shalamov.ru/research/92/
3. N.L. Krupina, N.A. Sosnina. Complicity of time. - M., "Enlightenment", 1992
LESSONS 1 - 2. V. SHALAMOV. "KOLYMA STORIES" OBJECTIVES: Analyzing the works of V. T. Shalamov, to answer the question: "What could a person oppose to this hellish colossus, grinding it with its teeth of evil?" Equipment: book exhibition: V. Shalamov. "Kolyma stories"; A. Solzhenitsyn. "The Gulag Archipelago"; O. Volkov. "Immersion in darkness"; recording of I. Talkov's song "Russia". DURING THE CLASSES. 1. Opening remarks Turning the pages of the works of V. Shalamov, A. Solzhenitsyn, O. Volkov, A. Zhigulin, we will feel the need to talk about the difficult, totalitarian time in our country. In many families, in the countryside and in the city, among the intelligentsia, workers and peasants, there were people who long years sent to hard labor for their political beliefs, where many of them died from unbearable living conditions. Shalamov, Volkov, Zhigulin, Solzhenitsyn are writers who have drunk this cup to the full. “How do you get to this mysterious Archipelago? Airplanes fly there every hour, ships sail, trains thunder - but not a single inscription on them indicates the destination. Both ticket clerks and agents of Sovtourist and Intourist will be amazed if you ask for a ticket there. Neither the entire archipelago as a whole, nor one of its countless islets, they knew or heard. ... The Universe has as many centers as there are living beings in it. Each of us is the center of the universe, and the universe collapses when they hiss at you: "You are under arrest." If you are already under arrest, is there anything else that has survived this earthquake? What is an arrest? Arrest is an instantaneous, striking transfer, transfer, transfer from one state to another. Along the long crooked street of our life, we happily rushed or wandered unhappily past some kind of fences - rotten, wooden, adobe duvals, brick, concrete, cast-iron fences. We didn't think about what was behind them. We did not try to look beyond them with our eyes or mind - and that is where the Gulag country begins. Very close, two meters from us” (A. Solzhenitsyn, “The Gulag Archipelago”). The experience of Shalamov as a political prisoner is one of the most difficult: the work is inhumanly difficult - in a gold mine, and the term is extremely hard - seventeen years. Even among prisoners, Shalamov's fate is unusual. People who suffered from the Gulag admitted that Shalamov got much more. “Would I have withstood what Shalamov withstood? I'm not sure, I don't know. Because the depth of humiliation, deprivation that he had to endure in Kolyma ... of course, I did not have to. I have never been beaten, but Shalamov's eardrums were broken, ”wrote Oleg Vasilyevich Volkov. This terrible experience did not leave the writer all his life. “Closing his nose with a perfumed handkerchief, investigator Fedorov talked to me: “You see, you are accused of praising Hitler’s weapons. - What does it mean? - Well, the fact that you spoke approvingly of the German offensive. “I know next to nothing about it. I haven't seen newspapers for many years. Six years. - Well, that's not the point. You said that the Stakhanovite movement in the camp is a falsehood, a lie. - I said that this is ugliness, in my opinion, this is a distortion of the concept of "Stakhanovite". - Then you said that Bunin is a great Russian writer. – He is really a great Russian writer. For what I said, can I give time? 1 - It is possible. He is an emigrant, a vicious emigrant... You see how we treat you. No one rude word no one is hitting you. No pressure ... "(V. T. Shalamov. "My process"). - What were they accused of, what was the hero of the story arrested for? What is an arrest? Here is how A. I. Solzhenitsyn answers this question: “... arrest: this is a blinding flash and blow, from which the present is immediately relegated to the past, and the impossible becomes a full-fledged present. This is a sharp night call, or a rude knock on the door. This is a brave entry into the unwashed boots of operatives... This is breaking open, ripping open, throwing off walls, throwing on the floor from cabinets, tables, shaking out, tearing, scattering - and stuffing mountains on the floor, and crunching under boots! And nothing is sacred during a search! During the arrest of the locomotive driver Inokhin, in his room on the table there was a coffin with a child who had just died. Lawyers threw the child on the floor, they searched in the coffin... And they shake the sick out of bed, and unbandage the bandages... In 1937, the institute of Dr. Kazakov was smashed. Vessels with lysates invented by him were broken by the "commission", although healed and healed cripples jumped around and begged to keep the miraculous medicine. But according to the official version, lysates were considered poisons. So why weren't they kept at least as material evidence?! Arrests come in many different forms... You are arrested in the theatre, on the way to and from the store, at the train station, in a train car, in a taxi. Sometimes arrests even seem like a game - there is so much fiction, full energy in them ”(A.I. Solzhenitsyn.“ The Gulag Archipelago ”). - For what it was possible to get into the Archipelago? Listen to the voices of the terrible past ... (Students read fragments of documents: - Railway rank Gudkov: "I had records with Trotsky's speeches, and my wife reported." - Machinist, representative of the society of jokers: "Friends gathered on Saturdays with families and told jokes. .. "Five years. Kolyma. Death ... - Misha Vygon - a student of the Institute of Communications: "I wrote to Comrade Stalin about everything that I saw and heard in prison. "For three years, Misha survived, insanely denying, renouncing his close comrades, survived executions. He himself became a shift supervisor at the same Partizan section, where all his comrades died, were destroyed. - Kostya and Nika. Fifteen-year-old Moscow schoolchildren who played football in a cell with a home-made rag ball "terrorists" who killed Khadzhyan. Many years later, it turned out that Khadzhyan had been shot in his office by Beria, and the children who were accused of his murder, Kostya and Nika, died in Kolyma in 1938. They died, although no one forced them to work. .. Died from the cold... A student reads a poem by V. Shalamov. Where is life? And I'm afraid to step forward, Even though the rustle of a leaf Step into a hole, into a black forest, She would let it slip, Where memory takes by the hand But behind her back is emptiness, And there is no heaven. But behind is silence. What do you feel in this poem? What marks the human and artistic memory of Shalamov? “Despite the terrible years spent in the mines, he retained an excellent memory. Shalamov draws the truth, seeks to restore to the smallest detail all the details of his stay in prison, does not soften the colors. – Shalamov depicts torture as inhuman conditions of existence, slavish overwork, the terror of criminals, hunger, cold, complete insecurity before arbitrariness. The scrupulous memory of the writer captures the evil of the camps. Under the pen of the artist appears the truth about the experience. Students read an excerpt from Shalamov's letter to Pasternak. “The camp, for a long time, since 1929, has been called not a concentration camp, but a correctional labor camp (ITL), which, of course, does not change anything, is an extra link in the chain of lies. The first camp was opened in 1924 in Kholmogory, in the homeland of M.V. Lomonosov. It contained mainly participants in the Kronstadt rebellion (even numbers, because the odd ones were shot immediately after the suppression of the rebellion). In the period from 1924 to 1929 there was one camp - Solovetsky, i.e. SLON, with branches on the islands in Kem, Ukhta-Pechora and the Urals. Then they got a taste, and from 1929 the business began to grow rapidly. The "reforging" of the White Sea Canal began; Potma, then Dmitlag (Moscow - Volga), where in Dmitlag alone there were over 800,000 people. Then there were no more camps: Sevlag, Sevvostlag, Bamlag, Irkutlag. It was densely populated. ... White, slightly bluish haze of a sixty-degree winter night, an orchestra of silver pipes playing carcasses in front of a dead line of prisoners. The yellow light of huge gasoline torches drowning in the white haze; They read the lists of those who were shot for not fulfilling the norm ... ... The fugitive, who was caught in the taiga and shot by operatives ... chopped off his fingers of both hands - after all, they need to be printed, - by morning he recovered and made his way to our hut. Then he was finally shot dead. ... Those who could not go to work were tied to drag sledges and the sleigh dragged him for two-three kilometers ... "The student reads an excerpt from B. Pasternak's poem "Soul": My soul, sadness With a sobbing lyre About everyone in my circle , Mourning them, You became a tomb You are selfish in our time Tortured alive. Embalming their bodies for conscience and fear, You stand as a grave urn, Dedicating a verse to them, Resting their ashes. .. - “All these are random pictures,” Shalamov wrote. - The main thing is not in them, but in the corruption of the mind and heart, when it becomes clearer day by day to the vast majority that, it turns out, it is possible to live without meat, without sugar, without clothes, without shoes, and most importantly without honor, duty, conscience, love! Everything is exposed, and this last exposure is terrible... After all, there has never been a single major construction site without prisoners - people whose life is an uninterrupted chain of humiliations. Time has successfully made a man forget that he is a man!” - That's about this and much more - "Kolyma stories" by Shalamov, which we'll talk about. 2. Analysis of stories. I recommended in advance to read for the lesson and summarize the content of Shalamov's stories “At Night”, “On the Show”, “The Snake Charmer”, “Major Pugachev's Last Fight”, “Best Praise”, “Shock Therapy”, “Paul the Apostle”. - Is it easy to save, not to lose yourself in the conditions described in the story "Night"? - Many of Shalamov's stories show how hunger, cold, constant beatings turn a person into a miserable creature. The desires of such people are dulled, limited to food, sympathy for someone else's grief is also dulled. Friendship is not formed in hunger and cold. - What feelings, for example, can the hero of the story "Single metering" have? A single measurement is a measurement of personal output. Former student Dugaev is given an impossible norm. He worked in such a way that "arms, shoulders, head hurt unbearably." But he still did not fulfill the norm (only 25%) and was shot. He is so exhausted and depressed that he has no feelings. He only “regretted that this last day of today had been tormented in vain.” – There were moments when the inflamed human brain continued to desperately resist gradual dying, dullness. Shalamov speaks about this in the story "Sentence". Shalamov's morality is the same for everyone, universal. It is for all time, and morality is only that which is for the benefit of man. In the Gulag, about no moral standards do not have to speak. What morality, if every minute you can be beaten for nothing, killed even without any reason. "NIGHT" 1954 - Briefly retell the plot of the story. (Two prisoners take off clothes from the dead to survive). - By what artistic means does the author draw his characters? (portrait - p. 11; there is a manner in the camp - p. 11). - How can you characterize the act of Bagretsov and Glebov in terms of morality? (as immoral) - What is the reason for the act? (a constant state of hunger, fear of not surviving, hence the act) - How can one morally evaluate this act? (disgrace, blasphemy) - Why did you choose this particular dead man? (p.12) (it was a newcomer) - Is it easy for the heroes to decide on such a thing? What was simple and clear for them? (p.11 - 12) (dig up clothes, sell, survive). The author shows that these people are still alive. - What unites Bagretsov and Glebov? (hope, desire to survive at any cost) - But these are no longer people, but mechanisms. (p. 12 √√) - Why is the story called "Night"? (p.13) (the ghostly world of the night gives hope to survive, it is opposed real world day that takes away this hope) Conclusion: a small hope to live one more day warmed and united people even in an immoral act. The moral principle (Glebov was a doctor) is completely suppressed before the cold, hunger, death. "AT THE PRESENTATION" (debt game) 1956 - Retell the plot of the story. (Sevochka and Naumov play cards. Naumov lost everything and began to play for a long time, but he has nothing of his own, and the debt must be submitted within an hour. The sweater of a person who does not give it voluntarily is given on credit, and he is killed). - Through what artistic means does the author introduce us to the life and life of prisoners? List. (description of the barrack, portrait characteristics, the behavior of the characters, their speech) - From t.zr. composition, what element is the barrack description? (p.5) (exposition) - What are the cards made of? What does it say? (p.5) (from the volume of V. Hugo, about lack of spirituality) - Read the portrait characteristics of the characters. Find keywords in character descriptions. Sevochka (p. 6), Naumov (p. 7) - The game has begun. Through whose eyes are we watching it? (narrator) - What does Naumov lose to Sevochka? (costume, p.7) - By what moment, from the point of view. compositions, are we coming? (starting) 4 - What does the loser Naumov decide on? (for a presentation, p. 9.) - Where will he take a thing on credit? (p.9) - Who do we see now: a saint or a murderer looking for a victim? - Is the tension increasing? (yes) - What is the name of this compositional technique? (culmination) - Where is the highest point of tension: when Naumov is looking for a victim or Garkunov's words: "I won't take it off, only with skin"? Why didn't Garkunov take off his sweater? (p.10) (besides what the narrator says, this is also a fortress that connects Garkunov with another life, if he loses his sweater, he will die) - Which episode of the story serves as a denouement? (Murder of Garkunov, p. 10√√) This is the denouement, both physical and psychological. - Do you think the murderers will be punished? Why? Who is Garkunov? (No, Garkunov is an engineer, an enemy of the people, convicted under Art. 58, and the killers are criminals who were encouraged by the chiefs of the camps, that is, there is mutual responsibility) "SNAKE CHARMER" 1954 Purpose: through artistic means see forms of bullying people. - Name the forms of bullying that occur in the story. (pushed in the back, pushed out into the light, raised at night, sent to sleep in a latrine (latrine), deprived of a name). Who is the conflict between in the story? (This is a typical clash between criminals and political ones, according to Article 58) - Who is Fedechka? What is his status in the barracks? (p. 81√) (a fingernail, doing nothing - a form of life for criminals) - What was Fedechka daydreaming about? (p. 81 √√) - How does the speech characterize the hero? (he feels like a master, free in the life and death of these people) - Why does Platonov lose morality? (p.82√√) Having said: “... I can squeeze,” Platonov did not rise above the thieves, but descended to their level, thereby dooming himself to death, because. during the day he will work, and at night he will tell novels. - Has Platonov's position changed? Conclusion: in the camps there was an established system of bullying of those who were convicted under Article 58. Part of the scum crumpled the best people, "helping" the state machine to grind the best that was. The student reads Shalamov's poem. If you manage, you will comfort That the ice of forest swamps And calm your sobs. Will never melt. Alas! Stronger hopes Under the black glass My memories. Swamps of ice Their raven protects Hidden warmth And he himself, I suppose, does not know The unspoken word. “Alas! Stronger than hopes / My memories ... ”How do you understand these lines? How do you understand this poem? “The hopes of the prisoners may not be fulfilled. Most likely they won't come true. But the imprinted memory will remain. “Memories are powerful. They have experience ... - Here is what Shalamov said in the story "Train": "I was scared terrible force man - desire and ability to forget. I saw that I was ready to forget, cross out, 20 years from my 5th life. And what years! And when I realized this, I defeated myself! I knew I wouldn't let my memory forget everything I saw!" Conclusion. V. Shalamov himself said that he conveyed in his work “... the truth about the struggle of man against the state machine. The truth of this struggle, the struggle for oneself, within oneself, outside oneself. Today we have touched this truth. And I hope we will keep it in our hearts... At home: pp. 313 - 315, a report on the life and work of V.M. Shukshin. Stories "Crank", "Cut", "Wolves", etc. 6
Abstract of the book Golden, Nathaniel. Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma Tales a Formalist Analysis. Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2004.
Abstract prepared by Daria Lapshina.
The first representatives of the formalist school in the analysis artwork paid more attention to its form than to its content. The starting point was the studies of A. A. Potebnya and A. N. Veselovsky on language and folklore. Thus, the process of turning a word into a metaphor became an object scientific interest for V. Ya. Propp, who although officially did not adjoin formalism, but made a huge contribution to the development of this trend. In his study of fairy tales, Propp discovered that certain types plot constructions are found always and everywhere, in any historical epoch.
Propp's developments later served the neo-formalists: in 1970, a group of British Slavists decided to revive the previously used formalist methods, choosing for their own structural analysis small literary forms. In particular, the effectiveness of this approach was shown by the work of L. M. O "Toole, the subject of which was Chekhov's "Student". analysis by Nathaniel Golden. It should be noted that, unlike the early formalists, the researcher of the Kolyma Tales is just trying to show the close relationship between the stories themselves and the environment in which they arose.
The O "Toole system involves the use of six separate levels: narrative structure, point of view, plot, plot, image creation, environment. All levels apply to a single story, but one of them must certainly be the main one, and the rest - auxiliary. Due to the small form of the analyzed product, the risk of choosing the wrong main level is reduced. However, this system, according to Golden, is extensive and not devoid of elements of structuralism. Using her as a "skeleton" for his work, he does so with some reservations. Firstly, it combines plot and plot into one level, and secondly, since it is the text under study that dictates the methodology, and not vice versa, Golden draws on additional sources for analysis: for example, the works of Leona Toker and Laura Kline, The Nature of Narrative by Scholes and Kellogg , Shukman's theory of time.
It is necessary to mention the features that may be of interest to the Russian reader: the author of the study is not alien to the use of models adopted in Russian literary criticism, the appeal to Russian folklore, he is also focused on the search for intertextual connections (otherwise called intertextual) and biblical allusions.
So, for analysis, Golden chose eleven stories by Varlam Shalamov. The book consists of five chapters, in each of which two or three stories are considered through the prism of the main and auxiliary levels. For example, as the author of the study explains, the narrative structure of the story "Train" is analyzed using the following auxiliary levels: point of view, plot and plot, image creation, environment. This method allows the reader to get a clear idea of how the story is structured and how one level affects another.
The correspondence of the levels to the selected stories is as follows: the structure of the narration is considered with the help of the stories “Conspiracy of Lawyers” and “Train”, the point of view - “Single Measurement”, “Berries” and “Silence”, the plot and plot - “Sentence” and “Piece of Meat”, the creation of the image - "At Night" and "The Last Battle of Major Pugachev", the environment - "According to Lend-Lease" and "Taming the Fire".
The first chapter, devoted to the structure of the narrative, analyzes stories whose leitmotif is a journey, in connection with which the author of the study mentions Propp's theory that the motif of the hero's journey into the unknown is constantly present in fairy tales. In "The Lawyers' Plot" and "The Train" the narrative structure is common but used in different ways. In the first case, the themes of fear and the inevitability of punishment are dominant, truth and fiction are so intertwined that a simple linear development of events in an atmosphere of secrecy and illusory disorientation of a person. Surrounding reality dynamic and reminds Golden of the conditions in which, according to M. M. Bakhtin, the heroes of the Greek adventure novel traveled. The author of the study pays special attention to metaphors (for example, in proper names - Atlas, Smertin) and symbolism: darkness symbolizes the loneliness of a person (including in death), and the house, according to Van Baak, is the embodiment of what resists external chaos. The theory of the latter is also used by Golden in the second story, with the only difference being that the train acts as a house and microcosm - the hero is afraid of being late, of missing it. The structure of the narrative in "Train" is based on the struggle that takes place inside the hero - without his emotional experiences, it would be just a trip. This journey is seen as both physical and psychological, associated with free will and the possibility of the resurrection of the hero. If in "Conspiracy of Lawyers" the reader observed dynamics, then here, on the contrary, statics, since the purpose of the journey is known - more attention is paid not to its cause, but to how it occurs. So, for example, the shelves in the car symbolize the hierarchy of society, and the train ticket is an allusion to the communion wafer, which gives deliverance and salvation to the soul.
The second chapter deals with the category that is decisive in the construction of Shalamov's stories. If the structure of the narrative is a reflection of the theme, then the point of view is something between mimesis and diegesis. The author's voice is an exact copy of the haggard and indifferent hero - this reflects the very tone and mood of the texts. Shalamov almost never acts as an omniscient narrator, does not preach, does not comment. His opinion of the characters is based on instinct, on body language - he does not read their minds, only predicts. Point of view is not just a voice, but a means to determine the trajectory of a story. "Single metering", "Berries", "Silence" are all stories about human death, but the narrative angle used by Shalamov is different in all three cases. If mass deaths cannot be comprehended, then death individual person for the author of "Kolyma Tales" - a tragedy. Surrounding characters are always involved in the death of a prisoner - the reader looks at them one by one, but from the point of view of the author-observer (this creates the effect of a "camera" that allows you to see the environment from different angles). The author of the study draws biblical parallels, comparing the hero of "Single Measurement" and Christ resurrected on the third day. In the story "Berries", Nathaniel Golden sees intertextual connections, uniting Rybakov and Raskolnikov, who "crossed the line", and also affirms the Shalamov-Solzhenitsyn opposition, stated at the beginning of the work.
The purpose of the third chapter is to demonstrate the interaction main idea story and the form in which it is embodied. In accordance with the traditional theory of formalism, the leitmotif is the plot, and the form is the plot (which is disputed by some researchers who use the concepts of "narration time" and "event time"). The stories "Sentence" and "A Piece of Meat" reflect two ways of presenting the plot and plot (as well as time and narrative perspective), and in general, Shalamov's attitude to memory is shown. Memory is necessary for a person, but in the camp only instinctive memory is important, and the luxury of memories is dangerous and will be available only much later - this is the physiological reaction of the body to the pressure that the prisoner's psyche is subjected to. In this chapter, Golden's interpretation of the image of the bullfinch from the story "Sentence" is also interesting, as well as the parallels that he draws between the hero of the comedy "Dream in midsummer night"Pak and the hero of the story "A Piece of Meat", generally seeing Shalamov's irony in Shalamov's work.
Speaking in the fourth chapter about a purely structuralist approach, Golden mentions that there are various ways of identifying character types and categorizing them. However, there is also such an opinion (which is expressed by M. Madrik) that all the characters are only a part of the images and events of the text. Golden himself, when analyzing the image, uses the following key concepts: meaning of the name, given character by the author, a description of the physical qualities of the hero, a description of the place in which he is, as well as his psychological characteristics, his biography, actions and speech. Shalamov strives to make the characters human, with the only caveat that this is the humanity of the Gulag. If the events of the story “At Night” embody the variability of morality, then the characters of the story “The Last Battle of Major Pugachev” symbolize rebellion and can be associated with both the folklore hero Propp and the heroes of the Greek epic described by Bakhtin. An interesting fact is that both stories, according to Nathaniel Golden, have a strongly directed intertextuality. The characters of the story "Night" Glebov and Bagretsov have parallels with Turgenev's heroes: Khor and Kalinich, Hamlet and Don Quixote. The same story (more precisely, such a detail as a toe) leads the researcher to the idea of Gogol's "Overcoat". In the story "Major Pugachev's Last Fight", Golden traces an obvious connection with Pushkin's hero and Russian folklore.
Modern literary criticism focuses on the structure of the narrative, point of view, plot, and often neglects the analysis of the environment, which is devoted to the final chapter of the study of Nathaniel Golden. The latter believes that the environment performs a decisive function in any work, often going beyond it. Based on the system of O "Toole, for this analysis he chose the following main features: information content, moral background, structure, symbolism. The world seen through the eyes of a prisoner is very limited, and Shalamov creates conditions in which the reader himself will look for meaning, and not expect direct answers or even hints from the author.The author pays great attention to the position of the hero not only within the framework of the story, but also within the framework of a separate scene. The world acts both as a decoration and as an element of the plot. The weather in the camp environment do not forgive the neglect of them and kill a person. Shalamov often uses antipodal pairs. So, in the story "Taming the Fire", mushrooms and imaginary snakes represent paradise, the camp - the underworld: between them there is a river and a boat, these eternal symbols of the border between the worlds.
The purpose of Nathaniel Golden's work is to show the complexity and depth of each of his chosen stories. From the most terrible life experience, Shalamov creates genuine art, and its accuracy allows the reader to immerse himself in the world of the Gulag, to see it with his own eyes. Golden also sees opposition to Solzhenitsyn in the author of Kolyma Tales, following J. Glad, arguing that Shalamov's testimonies are the main document of that era, and all attempts to discredit him are doomed to failure.
The structure of the narrative in "Conspiracy of Lawyers" and "The Train" helps to better understand the meaninglessness and danger of the hero's life. The reader only knows what he knows main character hence the feeling imminent death, and "avoidance" of punishment. The reader understands better inner life a camp that is not affected by progress and whose prospects are limited in every sense. Shalamov's idea is that in the dying state all people become similar, but through stories one can overcome the proximity of death.
Due to the constant disorientation in which the prisoner finds himself, it is important not to recount the events linearly, but simply to recreate the facts. In the absence of memory, a person descends to the level of an animal: words and thoughts disappear first and appear last - this is state of mind conditions the perception of the prisoner and limits the scope of the plot, which also includes the historical, social and political context. So, in " Last fight Major Pugachev" the author speaks of a mass psychosis that has spread from the Kremlin to the farthest outskirts of the country.
Varlam Shalamov's persistent desire was that the image of the Gulag would continue to remain in history - just as it remained in his heart. Formal devices ensure this: the brevity of the stories allows detailed analysis at all levels, and the use of the main and auxiliary levels gives us the opportunity to read closely - this is especially important, given that Shalamov himself in the stories distanced himself from the events and from himself as an author, using a variety of narrative and textual devices.
The abstract was supported by the Russian Humanitarian Foundation, grant No. 08-03-12112v.
Notes
All rights to distribute and use the works of Varlam Shalamov belong to A.L. The use of materials is possible only with the consent of the editors of ed@site. The site was created in 2008-2009. funded by the grant of the Russian Humanitarian Foundation No. 08-03-12112v.
