The theme of memory in modern prose: a lesson on D. Bykov's story "Vacation" for senior secondary school grades

Abstract

The article substantiates the significance of lessons in contemporary literature at school. The article describes a model of a school lesson based on D. Bykov's story "Vacation" which addresses such eternal themes as love defeating death and the theme of memory. The lesson material makes it possible to make comparisons with the memoiristics of D. S. Likhachev, the prose of I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, M. Bulgakov, A. Platonov, Yu. Dombrovskiy, Ch. Aytmatov, and the poetry of M. Tsvetaeva, A. Tvardovskiy. The lesson is based on the study of the universe model which is constructed in the literary work (mortal life and life beyond natural boundaries), examination of character images (through analysis of dialogues, interior monologues and recollections of the characters). Questions and tasks focus attention on the details and search for semantically significant repetitions. The lesson presupposes whole class and team activities and outlines trajectories of individual search for the pupils.