«The Mysterious Singer»: A Classroom Discussion of A. S. Pushkin’s Poem «Arion»

Abstract

The paper presents a detailed school linguistic and literary analysis of A. Pushkin’s poem Arion. The purpose of the study is to theoretically justify and describe the methodology for conducting an in-depth discussion of this poem in the classroom, including highlighting the key stages of the discussion, as well as providing questions and tasks on the text. In the course of the study, methods of linguistic and literary analysis, theoretical generalization, and project planning were used. From the perspective of the psychodidactic approach, the main stages of the discussion of the poem Arion by A. Pushkin with students are highlighted; questions and tasks are formulated aimed at developing schoolchildren’s understanding of this work, increasing the reader’s perception, enhancing the research attention and cognitive interest, and forming a thoughtful attitude towards the lyric text. Three semantic plans of the poem Arion are considered, distinguished by the degree of explicitness and semantic  content: explicitly-implicit, implicit and contextual (background). Different points of view regarding the possible political context of this work are presented, the role of the mythological context is analysed; the features of the compositional structure, which is built on the «climax – resolution» principle, are revealed. The author concludes that, in order to develop an understanding of lyrics among adolescents, it is necessary to conduct a detailed analytical and synthesizing work with a poem and to build a conversation lesson based on the creative interaction of students with both the lyric composition and other readers, which involves taking into account the possibilities of different readings of the text and respect for the other opinions, which can be used as a springboard for students’ empathy and understanding.