LITERATURE

By the way, about books. Elena Dmitrievna, what is the most important school subject?

Well, of course, literature. I couldn't teach a subject if I didn't think it was the most important. Literature and the Russian language are two subjects during which you learn to hear and understand yourself, listen and understand others. This is what is the most important skill in life: the ability to communicate with others and the ability to talk to yourself. Without this, neither the mathematical, nor the chemical, nor even the historical worlds are needed. If you don’t hear yourself and don’t listen to others, then no area of ​​knowledge will help or save you. You may not be close to this or that work, but the child should not know about it: he will make the choice himself. For some reason, it’s easy for me to build an effective lesson on a not-so-favorite author: I go into “stuff” and techniques, without fear of offending the depth of the work. And the more beloved the thing, the stricter and simpler the lesson will be. First, in class, we will read everything important, comment on it, and only then generalize, problems, theses, results.

If communication is important, then why literature? After all, you can communicate on any topic.

So the art of communication is to talk not about the latest purchases, but about creative things. Why do I love creative tests so much? When two fifth-graders talk not about the latest phone model, but about how best to play Pushkin’s fairy tale, with what decoration, whether the author’s voice is needed or not, this is, first of all, a lesson in communicating with each other on a professional topic. In a literature lesson, when discussing philosophical and moral-ethical problems, you still talk to others about him and about yourself, because you are talking about your opinion about this or that work. Whether you speak in terms or everyday language, reasoned or not, you still enter into communication, you are dialogical. And if you don’t hear anyone, you are monological, and this is your big psychological problem. Can you argue? Or do you always carry pre-read, learned, formulated knowledge, but the skills of direct communication - the ability to hear, understand, and argue - are not given to you? All this shapes the lesson of Russian language and literature to a much greater extent than other subjects.

What is the role of special courses and electives? Do they exist now?

Of course, all this exists and works in humanities classes. What other electives - try not to come! Especially if they are sometimes led by my graduates. Of course, in children it all falls out of their ears and gets to them. But in my last edition in 2008 there were 11 philologists. Eleven philologists and journalists at Moscow State University, Russian State University for the Humanities and Higher School of Economics! Four more are foreign languages. Two are historians. An absolutely humanitarian issue in its entirety, going to engage in these types of activities: speaking, writing, translating, telling. And the winner of the All-Russian literature competition, Tolik Mikhailov, went to global economics...

How important is the personality of the literature teacher himself for a child’s perception of literature?

A literature teacher is the one who opens the world of prose and poetry in the classroom. Who in the fifth grade teaches children to read by reading aloud, asking them about what they heard and convincing them that what they read at home silently and what they hear read in class are two different works. A literature teacher takes a fifth-grader and takes him through the world of Pushkin's fairy tales, which seem to have been read at the age of three. And in literature lessons, that Pushkin world and that universe opens up, where from above, “in the blue sky, the stars are shining,” from below, “in the blue sea, the waves are splashing,” and in the middle is a barrel with an extraordinary baby. And this universe captivates the child, the miracle reveals itself not through a fairy tale, but through an ethical side. I know how simply and deeply Irina Viktorovna Dorozhinskaya can speak with fifth-graders, how Natalya Anatolyevna Mikhailovskaya, teaching the history of art, talentedly speaks about the same things, combining the ethical and aesthetic.

Before my eyes, a student’s consciousness changes throughout his studies. In high school - three times. After “A Hero of Our Time,” children begin to write differently. After Dostoevsky's novels, they begin to think differently. Finally, after a whole cycle of Blok’s poetry, they begin to talk about poetry differently.

I see how in the fifth grade a literature teacher takes a child on his first trip - Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl, along the Alexandrov Road or the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. And we learn to write essays based on the first two or three days of impressions. You may ask: why essays and not essays? Because the essay is always on a given topic and smells like school catering. I don’t want reminders about lessons during the holidays. An essay is a bundle of personal feelings; it does not follow a plan, but is always associative, filled with images, emotions, vivid details, and metaphors. This genre was introduced by Michel Montaigne, a French thinker of the Renaissance, who wrote the book “Essays”, or “essay” in French. Montaigne thought about how to overcome the fear of death: in his miniatures he asked questions, quoted the ancients, described his condition, whimsically connecting the threads of the narrative. Today in Europe it is customary to write an essay in any field: you must write about personal perception.

What do I hear in the first essays? Helplessness, an advertising video, endless stilted sentences, the inability to say what struck him, because the child did not notice anything. He didn’t hear anything - he listened with his mouth open, but he didn’t remember anything! In a quarter - the next trip. The next essays. I teach you to pay attention to details. At the end of the fifth grade, three or four people write amazingly, and the rest listen with open mouths. In the sixth grade we make further trips, and the children are already walking around like they are in an antiquities shop. I see: here he is looking at this apple tree in the Rostov monastery. He will definitely include it in his essay. And this one climbed onto the fortress wall and looks into the distance. And I understand that this stunning lake near Rostov will somehow be included in his essay. They learn to see details, look for images and talk about it. At first, only essays, and from the seventh grade, poetry. In what places have we not read our masterpieces! By the fire, at the airport before takeoff, in the storage room of the Moscow station in St. Petersburg, in the gym in Greece, under the stairs of an Italian hotel, in all the foyers of all hotels, on the train from Solovki: 40 people in one compartment (check it if you don’t believe me! ).

It is important that the teacher also writes when giving a master class. Like it or not, before the evening reading of impressions, I start writing about two hours before, hating this type of work. But almost always after an hour I get involved in the process and write myself: up to the seventh grade, prose, and then poetry, and I comment, explain why this or that image was chosen. A year ago we went to Novgorod, and while walking I came across old barracks where people still live. An image of a certain church caretaker, Theophan the Greek, appeared in my head, storing dry plaster with frescoes by this master. Especially after the excursion to this temple, I remembered the “space” technique (this is a special technique of icon painting that creates a glow of matter). I didn’t have time to finish the verse, but the eighth-graders got excited: you should read it too! I apologized and promised that I would write after returning to Moscow and hang the masterpiece on the board. And what? On the first day after the holidays, mathematicians and biologists demanded history in verse. I had to put it up:

Novgorod walks

In a barracks on Slavnaya Street
A Novgorod museum worker lives.
From old church ruins
Saves tricky things.

Cracks nuts with a candlestick,
Stores salt and sugar in censers,
And feeds the cats oatmeal,
Chasing them off the gravestones.

He writes about the ancient veche
And the young prince Mstislav,
Goes somewhere in the evening,
And during the day - as if nothing had happened.

Three buckets contain dry remains
Destroyed altar fresco,
In a barn, covered with shingles,
Crucifix and wooden cross.

He talks to Feofan in his dreams
About Spas and technology gap,
About the pouring uncreated light,
About those who drank away their fate.

He quietly reads a prayer,
Trying to stand up for everyone,
But the burning glare is scary
On coal-ash faces.

In a barracks on Slavnaya Street
The two outer windows are clogged.
On the site of church ruins
Someone planted potatoes.

There is no cross, crucifix, barn,
The usual evening prayer,
But the light of Feofan's Paradise
And the image of the museum worker is merged.

And only hungry cats
Everyone is waiting for something at the window...

Or we in Greece write poems that include ethnographic or mythological images, and I write:

Vision at the foot of Olympus in the ancient city of Dion

We have been poisoned by Kun since early childhood,
And everyone is polished by myth, like the Delphic stone:
I will choose Paris as my lover with a girl’s heart,
They will betray you as husbands other than gods. Olympic shepherds.
And I will become a Greek in a village on the slope of Olympus,
And I’ll knit a hot sweater for my husband from goat wool,
And in the evening I won’t watch albums with Kokoschka and Klimt,
And in the window frame, watch the rounded top...
I will call the loud-mouthed geese Polydeuces and Polynices,
The goat is Amalthea, your home is the impregnable Hellas.
And I will make a bed of grass in the wild vineyard,
In the evening, when the husband brings in the curly flock.
Isis, the goddess of Egypt, will become my friend.
I will make my way to her through pearl-gray water.
And I will remember how the slain Osiris sprouts
And he reaches out with a branch to the widow who is in Zeus’s captivity.
We are two foreigners, but marble and flesh are not alike:
I stayed in Olympus of my own free will!
But tears run down my and marble skin...
This is what I saw at the excavations in Dion.

Everything we do with them, read, write, rehearse, laugh about, is done by the literature teacher. Each trip ends with a skit where we laugh at what seemed very serious - psychological problems and grievances, we laugh at those who have offended us or whom we have offended, turning everything into laughter, and reconciliation ensues. The child was late for every breakfast, every dinner, could not pack his bag, lost things in every hotel, and then became the subject of a skit. And he himself is laughing, because he is the hero of this skit. And he no longer cries at the next remark, but tries to remember this, to get out of the image of a klutz. And this is also done by the literature teacher who goes with them on these trips.

Lists for the summer. They are always huge, because this is not a “summer list”, but a list for school life - for two years. They not only read them, they talk about them for half of September, and report on them every lesson. After finishing school they come:
– Elena Dmitrievna, what should I read?
- Listen, I don’t have time, I’ll email you a list.

Parents of children who have already graduated from school call me:
- Elena Dmitrievna, what should I read?
- In terms of?
- Well, I used to read everything with Tanya, but now the lists are over. What do you suggest?
- I’ll write and advise

This is a literature teacher. This is not Elena Dmitrievna, this is a literature teacher, we all behave this way. This is a teacher who lays down the very program that complicates your life, which is not just a daily routine - in the morning you ate, drank, ran, worked, smoked, received awards during your working life, earned a pension. There is something more to this life. The aesthetic component in the form of books, trips, theaters is necessary, otherwise there will be depression and a feeling of loss of meaning. Of course, if a person is a church member, this does not threaten him, but this cannot be said in an interview.

You described the literature teacher, as you see him, in some general, asexual version. Remembering your words about Zavelsky’s masculine human nobility, I would like to know what is specific if the literature teacher is a woman? What additional opportunities does this provide?

Probably the best teachers of literature are men. Like chefs and hairdressers. But it is the destiny of a woman to be a literature teacher in Russia. Although there are legends! Entire generations remember Yzerman, Felix Raskolnikov, Fein, Kamyanov, now they are talking about Lev Sobolev and Eduard Beznosov, the wonderful Samuil Grigorievich Moroz worked for us. Famous literature teachers!

Is it possible to remain a woman while being a teacher? Everyone has their own way. Of course, there are feminine things. Of course, you can smile and ask: “Well, read this for me. What if you like it?” I remember teaching a lesson in a Polish school, teaching Russian, talking about Mayakovsky’s poetry. They all listened, and the most absorbed in my story, the Polish student, came up to me after the lecture and said: “What a beautiful jacket you are wearing! I watched the whole lesson, how beautiful it is!” And I thanked her. Because aesthetics, including the way you look, also determines whether there is primary attention to you. It only becomes unimportant later. And the moment when you just enter a child’s life, you must have an aesthetic component. If you are a woman, then feminine, if you are a man, then gentlemanly. Must.

What prevents a woman from teaching literature? Probably excessive emotionality, sometimes partiality. A man, by definition, is more analytical, there is less everyday life in him, and children will be happy to forgive him for his intellectual superiority. The female teacher is closer, but you want to compete with her, to click on her for negligence, to “show the place.” This is in our mentality, and we need not to be offended, but to rise to the occasion. Of course, there are teachers with a maternal instinct, an example is Sofya Filippovna Liberova, she takes a child in the 5th grade and nurtures him until he graduates, even if he no longer teaches. This is an innate gift, you rarely see it in men. And I am a provocateur teacher, as I said above. I provoke the lazy, self-confident, shallow, timid, silent, slow-witted, indifferent. I organize disputes, sometimes I say stupid things and wait for a reaction: they will remain silent or get involved in a dispute in order to express their opinion, find an argument, build a monologue. This is the main thing for me, and after the first year the children feel behind my pedagogical “aggression” an interest in them, and not in themselves. In general, we are not silent during lessons.

Returning to the “lists of references” you mentioned. What would you advise an adult, a graduate, to re-read from the school curriculum?

I am delighted that almost all graduates reread Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I am glad that Dostoevsky usually does well at school, but the director scolds me every time: there is no need for children to read so much Dostoevsky, they will not understand anything about him! I will never agree: children usually get it, this is my favorite author. His main novels (and we usually read five novels) do not fit into some people, but they still have a respectful attitude, some swallow them and get sick of it, others don’t read them, honestly admit that they don’t have time, then read them. Of course, I focus on those who talk to me about this with gratitude. This is probably in the throat of some people. Some people are sick of Nabokov, so I bother them in the 7th grade, when almost every lesson we write summaries of his novel “Other Shores.” But they reread it, and it’s very nice. Recently, Liza Paremuzova admitted that she re-read Dostoevsky again, and now she has taken up Tolstoy, although she read them at school even then. But on a different level – and rightly so. I myself began to understand Pushkin only after 15 years of teaching him. This is the biggest revelation for me! What I did with “The Captain’s Daughter” for the first 15 years, and what ultimately opened up to me over the last ten years is two different authors and two different works.

On the question of rereading. A smart person does not read, but re-reads. Start with Lermontov's novel at the age of 25, return to Pushkin at the age of 30, Gogol can either be your first school love, or will remain Atlantis, Saltykov-Shchedrin is independent happiness, after him modern satire will seem pathetic and stupid, keep Bunin and Chekhov close your whole life with a night table, I already talked about Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I don’t believe that you can reread “The Master and Margarita” and “Quiet Don” - brilliant, but disposable. Sorry.

What to read today? This is what I liked lately in the journal “Foreign Literature” (I have been subscribing to it for 30 years). It publishes works that have received various literary awards, and they are instantly translated by our best translators. I recommend the authors and any of their works:

Englishmen John Fowles, Allen Bennett, Donald Reinfield (“The Life of Anton Chekhov”).
Americans Philip Roth, Paul Theroux, Paul Auster.
Serbs Milorad Pavic, Goran Petrovic.
Italian Alessandro Baricco.
Czech Michal Viveg.
Pole Andrzej Stasiuk (especially the stories!).
Spaniard Perez de Reverto (any era appears through exciting plots).
South African J. Coetzee. "Dishonor".
Turk Orhan Pamuk and Iranian Mohamed-Kazem Mazinani (“The Last Padishah”)
Gottfried Benn (German expressionism) and the brilliant Russian-Austro-Romanian-French Paul Celan.

And here is what from Russian modern prose:
1. Dmitry Bykov. "Boris Pasternak".
2. Andrey Volos. "Winner".
3. Alexey Ivanov. “The geographer drank his globe away”; “The Gold of Rebellion”, “The Heart of Parma”, “Fornication and MUDO”.
4. Maya Kucherskaya. "Daughters and mothers."
5. Zakhar Prilepin. "Sankya."
6. Pavel Basinsky. "Leo Tolstoy: Escape from Paradise."
7. Liliana Lungina. "Interlinear".
9. Lyudmila Ulitskaya. "Green Tent"
10. Frida Vigdorova. "Memories".

What if they ask you to read your favorite poems?

I am reminded of Pushkin’s “Poems Composed at Night During Insomnia”:

I can't sleep, there's no fire,
Everywhere sleep and darkness are boring...

I love it when in poetry any unaesthetic, gloomy and meaningless phenomenon, thanks to rhythm and sound, acquires harmony and meaning, becoming a masterpiece. When Pushkin and his lyrical hero address: “Life is a mouse’s scurry, why do you worry me,” that is, they admit that life was in vain, but in these meditative poems the theme of the lack of meaning in life acquires rhythm and sound - and this is how the meaning of life is born! “Singing heals a sick spirit”...

I love many poems by Mandelstam and Joseph Brodsky, I discovered Gottfried Bemma and Paul Celan. There are many other things in the world that give me physical pleasure when I utter certain lines of prose or poetry. But the most favorite lines are “Ballad” by Vladislav Felitsianovich Khodasevich:

I sit, illuminated from above,
I'm in my round room.
I look into the plaster sky
There are sixteen candles in the sun.

All around - illuminated too,
And chairs, and a table, and a bed.
I’m sitting and confused, I don’t know,
Where should I put my hands?

Frosty white palms
They bloom silently on the glass.
Clock with metallic noise
They go in a vest pocket.

Oh, inert, beggarly poverty
My hopeless life!
Who should I tell how sorry I am?
Yourself and all these things?

And I start to sway
Hugging your knees,
And suddenly I start in poetry
Talk to yourself in oblivion.

Incoherent, passionate speeches!
You can't understand anything about them
But the sounds are truer than the meaning
And the word is most powerful.

And music, music, music
Is woven into my singing,
And narrow, narrow, narrow
A blade pierces me.

Literature is needed in order to be able to understand that you are not in captivity in a room with a light bulb, but that you, following Pushkin’s “Prisoner,” are able to feel yourself outside the dungeon. “It’s time, brother, it’s time to go to where the mountain turns white behind the clouds.”

For me, my favorite poems are those that take me beyond these limits.

Topic: “Who is responsible for spirituality: family or school?”

Broadcast by Ksenia Larina

Guests of the broadcast: Alexander Tubelsky, General Director of the scientific and pedagogical association “School of Self-Determination”,

Elena Volzhina, literature teacher at gymnasium No. 1543.

K. LARINA: Eleven hours ten minutes. Good afternoon again. We are starting our traditional Sunday “Parents Meeting”. And, since we are meeting today on such a wonderful holiday, I want some kind of peaceful conversation, I don’t want to shout, figure out who is to blame, but talk about something good, peaceful and lofty. And we chose this topic, I don’t know how peaceful it will be, we’ll see how our conversation goes. I promise and solemnly swear that our listeners and parents will definitely take part in our conversation today, first of all, since this is a “Parents Meeting.” And our topic is “Who is responsible for spirituality? Family or school? The eternal question, of course, is who should raise the child? I’ll translate this into ordinary prosaic language, this is the pompous title of our program today. Usually parents say that the school should do this, but teachers, on the contrary, complain that parents generally refuse the process of education, children are not responsible for anything, God knows what they are like here at school, especially the current ones, in general just a nightmare, a disgrace, not children. So, our guests: Alexander Naumovich Tubelsky, general director of the scientific and pedagogical association of the school of self-determination, hello, Alexander Naumovich!

A. TUBELSKY: Hello!

K. LARINA: And Elena Dmitrievna Volzhina, literature teacher at gymnasium 1543, hello, Elena Dmitrievna!

E. VOLZHINA: Hello!

K. LARINA: Let me remind our listeners that you can send SMS to us directly here on the air, phone number +7985-970-45-45 and live phone numbers 783-90-25. So we divide: 783-90-25 for parents, 783-90-26 for teachers, that’s what we’ll do today. 783-90-25 is a line for parents, 783-90-26 for teachers. Prepare your thoughts and questions, and we will begin our conversation. Let me ask you directly, dear principal and respected teacher, when you meet with parents in the classroom, what complaints do you make of them? Where do you usually start?

E. VOLZHINA: They look at the diaries at the wrong time. This is my biggest complaint. In all other respects, we thank you for your participation, because we live our lives together with them and often travel together and go camping with our daddies. And at all creative competitions, parents occupy the front rows, bringing their grandmothers, brothers, and acquaintances. Well, why can I blame them?

K. LARINA: That is. The main thing is that they are still interested in the child’s life, open the diary and see what grades he has?

E. VOLZHINA: Well, since they do everything else, this is perhaps the only thing that sticks. Well, of course I'm being ironic. Well, really, there’s nothing to blame them for. If you start building relationships in the fifth grade and explain who you are to each other, what kind of family relationships you have (after all, you have a common child, a teacher and a parent, if you are a class teacher), then try to understand each other.

K. LARINA: How do you negotiate on the shore? I'll ask you this. What are mom and dad responsible for, from your point of view?

E. VOLZHINA: I don’t have such a distribution. And your question has led me a little into a dead end. How is it, who is responsible for spirituality? The man himself. Another thing is that we can create for him a field that does not restrict him, in which he can, thanks to freedom of choice, free will, wide inclusion in the context of the national, European, world, human, he himself can deal with issues of the spirit, i.e. questions of faith. I prefer not to talk about such lofty topics. Moral, creative, yes.

K. LARINA: Well, we assume that when we talk about spirituality, we assume, first of all, of course, this. This is moral, this is creative, this is generally what we mean by the concept of “personal education.”

E. VOLZHINA: Well, Alexander Naumovich and I were trying to determine why we were called here. He, you see, is somewhere in spirituality, and I am a teacher of spirituality. We still agreed that there is a general concept of “not by bread alone,” but what happens besides bread? This is probably in the arsenal of the family, the school, the teacher, the child, but, above all, the individual.

K. LARINA: Alexander Naumovich.

A. TUBELSKY: Well, I never talk to my parents about diaries, because in our school there are no diaries, and, accordingly, there are no grades until the eighth grade. Therefore, thank God, there is nothing to talk about with them. About the fact that you should be interested in the child’s life at school and what to study. And not only that, but also help him, not in the sense of sitting and solving problems, but in the sense of what to do with him. For example, if a child writes about their holidays, we ask the mothers to write what kind of holiday they are having. Then it is discussed in class, told, etc. Mothers, however, always try to correct their children on how to tell the story correctly. But we have been discussing this for a long time, it seems like it has disappeared now. Because what the child did to his liking, what he wrote to his liking, this is the most valuable, the most important thing is that it can be discussed, and not how to say it correctly or express it correctly. In this sense, I cannot separate the responsibilities of the family for the education of the individual and the responsibilities of the school. For example, in our school we do not select children based on any qualities, intelligence, or anything else, but we select parents. Not by their wallet, but by their attitude towards freedom. Well, some, you know, as our people are used to: “It means...”

K. LARINA: What about discipline, oh, what about grades, oh, but what about no diaries!

A. TUBELSKY: Yes, yes. The school is quite famous, so there are many applicants. When we say: “Well, it seems that based on what you say, your family is not suitable for us. Because with you it’s authoritarian, you force a child to do everything, but with us it’s just the opposite, to instill in him a desire to take care of himself.” Well, our parents, out of Soviet habit, say: “Well, yes, yes, yes, of course, everything will be like this.” The main thing for them is that the child gets there. And when he has already got there, all sorts of conversations and discrepancies begin. I say: “Well, of course, we agreed that you would come to our meetings. We never devote meetings to scolding children, etc. These are always different teams, sections of parents and teachers, who discuss questions that the parents themselves wrote to us in envelopes. This is very important." “Yes, but you promised, well, think about it, well, you know, what I signed there,” they say the contract, “you never know what we’re signing.” It's such a habit. And this non-bindingness, this attitude towards what is called an agreement, towards the word that was given, it largely comes from the family. The school has to work hard in this regard. But you can’t separate it like that, because...

K. LARINA: Well, to divide is not to divide, it divides itself. When a conflict situation arises. I want to emphasize once again that we are not talking about you, not about your wonderful teams and schools. Those who come to visit us here are the best, these are the best schools, these are the best teachers, these are the best directors. Because the worst ones, unfortunately, don’t come. They will never come on the radio to talk about their problems.

A. TUBELSKY: Just like the worst parents will never come, even if you write a hundred contracts, this is understandable.

K. LARINA: But on the other hand, why did I talk about this topic? It divides itself. These are always mutual claims, they arise at the first conflict, and you know this very well, not with you, but with your neighbors, with your loved ones. Your friends’ child goes to school and comes home and says: “Mom, she’s a fool!” - about the teacher. And mom, screaming, comes running and at best shouts: “Oh, you fool!” And in the worst case, he tells the child: “Sort out your problems yourself, don’t get me involved!” That's what we're talking about.

A. TUBELSKY: Ksenia, I understand everything. But when I say that, not to share, I mean, if the main thing in the upbringing of a person is the accumulation of his experience, life experience, experience of relating to other people, experience of giving something, experience of giving in, etc., then here This very experience is shaped by both school and family. It’s hard to say who is bigger, it varies. But what am I doing? Either I see moral conversations about what is good and bad (I hate these class hours that are dedicated to this), or parental “I talked to him, this is how you should be”, “what is good and what is bad, baby the son came to his father.” Not this way. And the experience of doing, the experience of giving, this experience both school and family should form in a child are different. I would say this, a difficult child, why is he difficult? Because more negative things accumulate in it, more negative experiences than positive ones. And therefore, like on a scale, we need to accumulate positive experience, positive experience in life, in the family, in relationships...

K. LARINA: What if he’s not there, if it’s hard in the family? What if there is no time, if the mother is alone, has a single-parent family, and works five jobs, and she has no time?

A. TUBELSKY: You see, it depends on what kind of mother she is.

K. LARINA: Then she says, the school should educate, I earn money.

A. TUBELSKY: This is of course true, but at the same time, you still need to discuss these things with this mother, that he will not grow up without you, you know. And the point is not that giving a child a lot of time, I understand how busy people are. The point is what you fix his attention on. Either because you are great, you showed honesty. Or you’re great, you took it and thought about your grandmother, and not about yourself, so you’re great for taking it and making something like that. Either don’t think about it, and deal only with his twos, threes, etc., or wait for a conflict. Look, our pedagogy and school pedagogy are in many ways. And the family is built on these conflicts that you are talking about. If something happens, this is where everything begins, conversations begin, education begins, who will do what, etc. And if nothing happened, then there is nothing to record. This is the main problem.

K. LARINA: Lenochka.

E. VOLZHINA: I will say, of course, we all exist in a world of conflict. My close family and I often find ourselves in specific relationships. This is a normal thing. And angry mothers, who are also raising children alone, come to me, as the class teacher, we have many such children, and make claims against this teacher or another. My task is to separate issues of tactics and strategy, to extinguish this conflict. Not because my conversation with the teacher won’t help, or it’s better not to meddle in there, but because this is all nothing, compared to what will happen, I know how the process will go later. That we are all imperfect and human people, and hysterical, and touchy, and lash out, emotionally shaken. Well, be patient, well, we are sometimes wrong, well, forgive us. But there is some path that we follow together with the child, which will lead to an educational, educational, human goal. Believe that this path is normal. And the fact that we make mistakes, well, be patient. And I have experience when, six months later, one mother came and said: “Yes, Elena Dmitrievna, it’s right that you didn’t let me deal with the troika then, we experienced this in the family, this is such a trifle, compared to what my the child then received luggage.”

K. LARINA: That is. Do my parents also require some kind of education?

E. VOLZHINA: This is not the right word! I really dislike teaching classes and being a homeroom teacher in high school (I take grades five through eleven). And from the fifth grade, I think it’s so simple, explain what you want, they don’t immediately understand you, they don’t immediately go with you. They don’t immediately join in your endlessly creative games, they hiss and get angry because it takes up a lot of family time. Some rehearsals are endless. Why should we participate in this? And we must participate in this! And then, autumn comes, when the harvest comes in two or three years, and when we go somewhere, there is a crowd of parents! I remember the moment when we were sitting in Crimea, our hike was ending, we were in some kind of ravine, there was water all around, wet, cloudy, a fire, a bunch of children of different ages, tenth, seventh grades, a bunch of dads and moms. I make pilaf for everyone in two huge vats, and all the children are busy writing creative reports, essays or poems that should be read today.

A. TUBELSKY: And it smells like pilaf, and they write an essay.

E. VOLZHINA: And they all sit down, read, I stir the pilaf. For me this is a work situation. I haven't been excited about this for a long time. I don’t understand why they do this, why I tell them and they do it. It's still a mystery to me. But then they finish reading, the dads get up, Elena Dmitrievna, maybe we can too. And not the cabbage verses that will be on the train, in the compartment. When thirty people all gather in one compartment, and we all read our skits. And in high calm, someone wrote Japanese haiku about the beauty of this branch of some kind.

K. LARINA: I want to study in your class. I, I want.

E. VOLZHINA: Now, probably, some children are listening to me and thinking wow. She doesn't say how difficult it is, we are a juicer. We listen to Alexander Naumovich, they don’t give grades, they have the feeling of floating freely. And we have a very strict educational process that puts pressure on the individual, I try to explain to them, I try to show them, but we have very strict requirements. You can't sit back, you can't not read, you can't not turn in the things that are assigned to you. It is forbidden!

K. LARINA: Alexander Naumovich, I painted such a picture, it’s beautiful!

A. TUBELSKY: Well, you know, this is all wonderful, although...

K. LARINA: I even felt the aroma of the pilaf!

E. VOLZHINA: Well, this is just one situation, but there are many others.

A. TUBELSKY: Lena and I just said that on the one hand, the school should give parents examples of interaction with their children. And what you just said and what we are doing, etc. - this is very important, because parents, for various reasons, do not even know what to do with their children, give him a suggestion or take him to the theater and museum. But these examples of joint activity, joint writing, joint discussion, joint... There are a lot of them that have been developed, and people who would like to do this in schools, they can easily develop this. Another thing is that they do not consider it very important to give interaction with parents and families. Then either give them examples of how you can spend time, hours, etc. with your child. This is very important. On the other hand, we don’t give marks, I say, not grades, these are different things. And this very assessment, self-assessment, mutual assessment, it produces amazing results. I remember how quite recently in elementary school they were summing up the results of the half-year and there were parents, dad, mom, child, etc., separately. They agree to talk only about the positive child, only about what he has saved up. Here is a backpack, you put all your good things there. And that means that first the child says this, then they ask dad, mom, etc. And one dad says: “I have nothing positive to say about him.” Well, how can that be, well, okay, we skip your turn, then it goes in a circle, the teachers talk there. And the child says: “Then I’ll tell you about you, dad, you used to be like, “Leave me alone,” you look at the newspaper and that’s it, but now you started turning to me and saying: “What do you want?” And father, you know, he even shed a tear. And it’s all really a child who teaches a person this positive outlook.

K. LARINA: Some kind of ideal attitude. Those. I understand correctly that in your schools, both Lena’s and Alexander Naumovich’s, there is this love triangle, parent, student, teacher.

A. TUBELSKY: It happens in different ways.

K. LARINA: Is he really loving? Differently?

E. VOLZHINA: Sometimes it’s not a triangle. It happens, it opens up, because someone loves, someone doesn’t love. And it’s very difficult to find a common language, because you understand that they don’t believe you, believing that all this is not important. This does not matter at all when you are admitted, if you are successful, you are wasting your time and health with him. Well, he took a walk, and he should write your doggerel here, everything happens in different ways, Ksenia.

A. TUBELSKY: You know, I have long divided parents into three categories, one category is those who are, in fact, our assistants, together with us they can come up with games, and come up with tasks, and take part in exams, all this. Another part of the parents are experiencing difficulties, but would really like to. They need help. And these are a lot of people who are illiterate pedagogically, illiterate in different ways. And this is such a large cohort of parents.

K. LARINA: They are not offended or irritated?

A. TUBELSKY: No, no, they really want help. Here you need to think carefully, seriously, because radio broadcasts on how to raise children, as they once were, cannot be done so easily. But the third category, it is quite large, in our school, since we do not recruit children, these are those who do not care about their children, so outwardly. And I say: “I don’t know how to raise them. May God grant the children to help us.” Then the school takes over these children and pulls them along.

K. LARINA: That is. are you doing this deliberately?

A. TUBELSKY: Absolutely consciously. I think this is very important for the current school. For the current situation. Because when they tell me: “Pay attention to him, he’s difficult there.” I say: “And you want him to grow up to be such a scoundrel that your own child would be afraid of him later in the gateway or somewhere else, etc. This is our common concern. And then they’ll get their fill of thinking that we’ll re-educate this mom or this dad. Maybe we can re-educate, although I don’t know how to do this, but nevertheless, maybe the child will influence the situation. Of course, we should not allow any gap between the children to deepen this matter at our own expense. But then you have to carry these guys along and support them, this is the most positive thing they have. This is very important.

K. LARINA: But, unfortunately, the majority, I dare say, the majority of parents are from the third category, according to your classification. For various reasons, not necessarily, not because the parents are to blame, again I go back to the beginning, because there is no time, no time, no time or energy.

A. TUBELSKY: No, you know, maybe I will flatter the parents on this holiday, it seemed to me that Moscow parents, they are of course completely different, but recently the interest of parents in the child, in school, in activities has increased. The general level of parents has increased, etc. Not only because they specially bring children to our school, I don’t know why, but maybe it seems to be the case.

K. LARINA: We are now listening to the news, then we will return to the “Parents Meeting” program and will give the floor to you, dear friends. Let me remind you how we divide telephone lines: 783-90-25 is a telephone line for parents and 783-90-26 for teachers. Let's try to express mutual claims and understand what the teacher wants from the parent, and what the parent wants from the teacher, when it comes to the moral and spiritual education of our children.

NEWS

K. LARINA: We continue the “Parents Meeting”. Who is responsible for spirituality? Who is responsible for spirituality, for the moral education of children: family or school? Today we are trying to resolve the eternal question with our guests: Alexander Tubelsky, director of the “School of Self-Determination” and Elena Volzhina, literature teacher at gymnasium No. 1543. Let me remind you, the phones are ringing. I see that our listeners are active and really want to speak on air, so dear guests, take headphones, whatever ones are near you. Let me remind you that 7839025 is a telephone number for parents and 7839026 for teachers. What would I want from teachers if I am a parent and what would I want from parents if I am a teacher. Hello, hello.

AUDIENCE: Yes, hello.

K. LARINA: Please, what is your name?

LISTENER: Romazanov

K. LARINA: What is your name, Mr. Romazanov?

LISTENER: So call me.

K. LARINA: Mr. Romazanov?

AUDIENCE: Yes

K. LARINA: Are you a parent?

AUDIENCE: Yes, I'm a parent.

K. LARINA: Let's do it.

AUDIENCE: Can I talk?

K. LARINA: Of course.

LISTENER: As a parent, I have no complaints about teachers, that is, absolutely. And on the topic, that is, education, my wife and I believe that 90% of this is done, it is not by chance that I mention this figure, we should. In everything in education, we should help only teachers. And here's an example, can I give an example?

K. LARINA: Let's do it.

AUDIENCE: An example is this. I am an old man, here I am alone, my son, our child in the 10th grade. That's how lucky I am. And somehow, I think it was last year, I had to meet, well, it was by chance, with one of the parents. And so dad says: You know, a child asked me, or rather my daughter, if there is a God? Do you see God or not? I say, tell me, what did you say? Do you believe it or not? He says I don't believe it. Me too, I say, I don’t believe it. I don't know what to say. After all, I can influence him. He thinks it might not be right. That is, a child can follow me, even though he’s already a big kid, he was in 9th grade, in my opinion. And so we talked somehow. And then he says, after the conversation: “But what would you say yourself?” I say, I would say, Study it, look what life is like, look, read different books, very different ones, watch people.

K. LARINA: I see, thank you, Mr. Romazanov. Thank you for the beautiful story. Yes, Alexander Naumovich. Would you like to comment, yes?

TUBELSKY: I would like to comment on Mr. Romazanov. I don't think you should hide this from your child. If you are a believer, say yes, I believe. If you are not a believer...

K. LARINA: There is no need to hide from a child that God exists.

TUBELSKY: You don’t need anything, no, and that God exists. And if you think, if you are an atheist, then say so honestly. Another question is what the child should not only be told, but done about his life, that it will be your choice. And when you read everything and when you think about life and so on. There is no way to put pressure on you and this is very important, it seems to me, because people really must come to God and to faith on their own and this is a matter of their consciousness. I would say so.

K. LARINA: Lena, add something?

VOLZHINA: I’ll add, yes. I am, after all, a teacher of literature, and the word in Russian literature always has some special, spiritual meaning. And it seems to me that I cannot influence the child’s religious or atheistic consciousness. It's none of my business.

TUBELSKY: Correct.

VOLZHINA: But as a literature teacher, I have to not only explain some things to them, but also form interrogative intonations. I remember that Pushkin’s poem, poems composed at night, during insomnia, remember how it begins: I can’t sleep, there is no fire, sleep and boring darkness are everywhere. Absolute melancholy, absolute... A feeling of insignificance, the meaninglessness of a lost day. But then questions arise: What do you want from me, do you call or prophesy. I want to understand you. I'm looking for meaning in you. As soon as interrogative intonations arise, our existence is insignificant and dark, it becomes, in part, such a philosophical act of self-knowledge. And in literature lessons I can invite them to go out into life with these questions - why, why, for whom? And not one parent or teacher with their specific answer will frighten or define or lead, because everything needs to be questioned. You need to ask yourself about everything, look for answers within yourself. This is inside, excuse the non-existent word inside, we can form the space of this not the inside, but this inside. How much can fit there, how much experience, primarily from books read. And, besides, I’m sorry that I’m talking for so long, but after all, today is Christmas and when we teach literature, we cannot ignore the questions of the Orthodox subconscious of the heroes of this or that work, or the author, or some Christian or evangelical metaphors sprinkled in . We must remember in the 5th grade, I show the children, in Pushkin’s fairy tales, remember “by the end of September, give birth to a hero.” This means that the action, the beginning of the fairy tale, takes place on Christmas Day, “three girls under the window,” if by the end of September. "The Tale of the Dead Princess", right? And on Christmas Eve, on the very night, God gives the queen a daughter - this determines the atmosphere of the wonderful, fabulous, somehow especially blessed, what happens later to these heroes. And Bulgakov? When will Elena get up to pray? When everyone, even doctor Brodovich, is convinced that Alexey Turbin is dying. Yes, on December 24, she turns to the Mother of God: “You took my mother from me, you took my husband from me, leave your brother.” Here's how we can get past this.

K. LARINA: I would like to learn from such a teacher.

VOLZHINA: Oh, well, Ksenya, well, this is ordinary...

TUBELSKY: I want to learn, but I also want to argue a little.

K. LARINA: Well, let's do it.

TUBELSKY: This is all wonderful, you know.

VOLZHINA: No, well, I won’t, Alexander, I won’t use this to form consciousness in a person, but I show him Pushkin’s world, Bulgakov’s world.

TUBELSKY: Well, you need to know this purely culturally.

VOLZHINA: Culturally, yes.

TUBELSKY: But look, there is one danger, we have known since Soviet times that by a certain date it is necessary to prepare a certain commentary and so on. This year is considered an anniversary and so is everything else. And therefore, of course, before Christmas, you can look for references to Pushkin in literature

VOLZHINA: No, this is done during class time, as you are talking about.

K. LARINA: It matches.

VOLZHINA: Pushkin's fairy tales are taught in 5th grade in September.

TUBELSKY: No, well, everything is great, although I wouldn’t dwell too much on it, there was a lot of things there that the guys could understand. And most importantly, I adore the literature that you teach and I say that you are an absolutely great teacher. Well, even from what you say...

VOLZHINA: Irony.

TUBELSKY: No, under no circumstances.

VOLZHINA: Come on. It’s okay to be ironic at yourself.

TUBELSKY: Even by what you say about it, right? It's not easy

K. LARINA: To question it is generally wonderful.

TUBELSKY: To question, to leave with a question. In general, I believe that a child should leave school not with an answer, but with a question. And that's the point.

K. LARINA: Unfortunately.

TUBELSKY: Well, I would say everything correctly, but... There is one more thing, the word, of course, is great, in the Russian language especially, in Russian literature, but there is also what I called experience, right? And this very experience, of course, can be passed on in the family, but at school there is one phenomenon that cannot be replaced by anything, this is what is called a collective, what is called a children's community. If we teachers, together with the children, take care of this children's community, it is irreplaceable, because morality is formed there, relationships are formed there. This is very important.

K. LARINA: And immorality.

TUBELSKY: And immorality too. Another thing is that lately we have begun to do little, I mean school workers, with this very formation of such real moral communities of children and adults.

K. LARINA: Let's listen to the calls again. Elena, please, take your headphones too. Let me remind you that 7839025 is a line for parents, and 7839026 is for teachers. Let's take another call. Hello, hello.

AUDIENCE: Good afternoon, my name is Zifa. I would like to say that it is the morality and spirituality of a child that should be brought up in the family. The family gives a lot, and the school will probably supplement this. And well, if children are lucky, they can go to schools where teachers understand children, but in many schools, I think teachers kill children as individuals. This is my opinion. Thank you for the transmission.

K. LARINA: Thank you for the call. Come on, I immediately want to turn on the call from the teacher in order to share fairly.

VOLZHINA: But will we be held accountable for murder?

K. LARINA: But of course.

AUDIENCE: Hello, hello.

K. LARINA: Hello, hello. What's your name?

LISTENER: My name is Evgeniy.

K. LARINA: Are you a teacher?

AUDIENCE: Yes, teacher.

K. LARINA: So, please, what do we need from our parents, Evgeny?

LISTENER: You know, I also have a child now in the 5th grade, I see this situation from both sides. But first, I would like to give a little information, it will be useful for everyone. "What's wrong with our school?" the work of Milton and Friedmon, these are the same Chicago boys so widely known. This means that I believe that there is one big problem in our school: it is impossible to get a real, good education in our school, it is only possible outside of school. I tell you this quite authoritatively. I myself graduated from a special school at one time, and with great regret I see how now our programs for some reason are so complicated...

K. LARINA: Evgeny, I’ll stop you now, we are not discussing the school curriculum today, I’m worried about something else.

AUDIENCE: Oh good.

K. LARINA: Still about the education of the individual. Let's try to share these powers with you. So you think who should be responsible for this to a greater extent, what do we want with you, if we are teachers, what do we want from parents.

LISTENER: From my parents, according to the bibliographic reference I have given, I want one thing: supervisory advice. I want our schools to be very different.

K. LARINA: I see.

LISTENER: It is impossible, again, as Milton writes, to give education into the hands of government education officials - this will ruin it.

K. LARINA: Evgeny, what do you teach?

AUDIENCE: Mathematics.

K. LARINA: That’s what I understood, for some reason I thought it wasn’t literature. Another parent call. Hello, hello.

AUDIENCE: Hello.

K. LARINA: What is your name?

LISTENER: My name is Anya. I believe that, of course, a family should raise a child, and the very first ones are the parents. And the school helps. And then, in fact, parents can help the school too. Because all kinds of school, that is, my children study, the eldest has graduated, the youngest is studying in a very good Moscow school, simple 279, but it helps parents a lot, because it fills the child’s life not only with studies, studying is the tenth thing, but The main thing is the formation of a person, that is, an interesting childhood for a child, that is, there is a lot of extracurricular life, a lot of traditions.

K. LARINA: So you haven’t had any conflicts with teachers yet?

CALLER: No, you never know. And I try in every possible way to help the school and, as it were, all my principles, where I take the children, offer to the school, organize these events, excursions.

K. LARINA: Excuse me, Anya, are you working?

AUDIENCE: Yes, a lot.

K. LARINA: And you have time?

LISTENER: Well, how about: I have children, well, I’m a mother. I have time to be a mother.

K. LARINA: Thank you very much for the call. Another call from the teacher. Hello, hello.

LISTENER: Good afternoon, my name is Galina.

K. LARINA: Yes, Galina. Do you teach?

AUDIENCE: Yes, I teach. Well, I think, of course, family first. And secondly, of course, school, definitely. Well, I'm a historian, I have history and social studies. And of course, in the lesson such problems are raised that it is impossible not to think about them. But the whole story is a natural solution to moral problems, right? And I agree with the speaker that, indeed, the student should leave the lesson with a question, not an answer. This is then correct both in history lessons and in general, when they judge this or that historical hero, they feel sorry and empathize. Here, of course, moral education is understandable, of course.

K. LARINA: Well, do you have some difficult conversations with your parents, Galina, if they arise, then on what basis?

LISTENER: Well, of course there are.

K. LARINA: What is the essence of the conflict usually? When people begin to voice mutual claims.

LISTENER: Well, in relation to some moral positions of education.

K. LARINA: Still.

AUDIENCE: Yes, of course.

K. LARINA: So what, parents come to you and say that you are spoiling my child? Or what?

LISTENER: No, well, it’s probably not the case that you’re spoiling it. I have to call my parents and talk to them about how upbringing is not enough.

K. LARINA: Well, for example. If possible, give some example.

LISTENER: Well, regarding the child’s communication in a team, inability to communicate, pseudo-leadership, rudeness, rudeness. That is, those questions that, of course...

K. LARINA: They come from the family.

AUDIENCE: Yes, of course.

K. LARINA: What do they answer to this?

AUDIENCE: Well, it varies. Sometimes they say that this simply doesn’t exist in principle, that he is so wonderful, wonderful, it seems to you, you see him, or you misunderstood. Or the fact that some teachers do it this way, others do it this way, this is actually quite a complex question. Purely individual, each question is separate.

K. LARINA: Thank you very much. We listened to several calls and there is absolutely such unanimity on the part of parents and teachers that 90% of education, as Romazanov said, as well as all our other meeting participants, should be done by parents. But, my dear comrades, in reality this does not happen.

TUBELSKY: Of course, Ksenia, this is a feature of “Echo of Moscow”, undoubtedly, in addition to Christmas morning.

K. LARINA: Such a peaceful mood.

TUBELSKY: Peaceful, yes. Of course, this doesn't really happen. And I say again, of course, family, of course school, depending, by the way...

K. LARINA: What if there are different ideas about behavior?

TUBELSKY: Well, here are different ideas, I say, then it would be necessary with a child.

K. LARINA: About moral principles.

TUBELSKY: Yes, those who are closer to the child will take first place, as they say. If school teachers, then they are certain, they will make you think about some other values. If it's a family, there's nothing you can do about it. You know, I recently read Korcheg’s thoughts, which I had not read before, there was simply no translation, he said: “I, of course, cannot make an oak from a birch, or a grapevine from an oak. This is impossible. It's the same with children. The only thing I can do is to create the ground around them, so that they understand something about themselves, so that they change, and so on. But I can’t change one into the other. I think that this man who had enormous moral experience and the act that he committed was moral. We need to understand this. Yes, we must loosen this soil, we must create situations in which the child gains the experience of giving, and so on. But it is impossible to turn him into Mother Teresa or someone else like that.

K. LARINA: Elena?

VOLZHINA: I absolutely agree. And the goal of the school is if the family gives this sprout and then it grows in front of everyone. Then, of course, school is the soil that, in your words the soil, in my words the environment, the community that allows the child to be separated from the family, for this he needs to go on hikes and travel somewhere, so that he is alone with the team. And all his egotism, redneckness, so that they seem to be wiped away when communicating with other people, with children and his peers, who will teach him a lot. Interesting life. Communication should be, among other things, on a creative basis, so in our school this is our tradition, we keep children busy very seriously, they have almost no time. This is a minus, but the plus is that they spend all their work on creative communication with each other in some specially invented camping, creative theater groups. Well what can I say? In order to plow and fertilize all this, you need to lay down your life. Therefore, if a teacher cannot live the life of his class, unfortunately, there will be little result, Ksenia. The teaching profession is a sacrificial profession, I am absolutely convinced.

A. TUBELSKY: Len, I can’t really agree.

E. VOLZHINA: We all have our own experience.

A. TUBELSKY: I’ve been working for 42 years, and I wouldn’t like to sacrifice my whole life.

K. LARINA: You have already done this, Alexander Naumovich.

E. VOLZHINA: You have already done so, of course.

A. TUBELSKY: No, my dears. Didn't. And I stopped myself all the time. Once upon a time, when I started working in a boarding school, I wanted to take each child home. And then I said: “Stop, you’re a professional, you’re doing something else. Or then be a father of many children.”

K. LARINA: “Children of Don Quixote” Remember the film, Papanov played a doctor who adopted all the abandoned children in the maternity hospital.

A. TUBELSKY: No, I would not like to wish all my colleagues sacrifice, honesty - yes, creativity - yes, interest in the child - yes, of course. But so that if you sacrifice, you will have nothing to put on this altar later. You should also be interested in yourself and the theater and other people.

E. VOLZHINA: I don’t call it a sacrifice.

A. TUBELSKY: And have a circle of friends. And the victim - he put everything there and that’s it.

E. VOLZHINA: Sacrifice is the time that you take away from your family.

A. TUBELSKY: From my family, perhaps, yes. That's why my wife and I work at the same school. She would have said: “If we hadn’t worked with you at the same school, I would have thought, what a horror it is, where he disappears so late, and what can be done there!” Therefore, it seems to me, not sacrifice, if you like, dedication, honest and perfect. And the most important thing, of course, is creativity. Of course, it’s a holiday, it’s not good to talk about it, but nevertheless, the trends that exist today in Russian education, in school, they scare off the teacher a little, because he is forced to do what someone should do, all this fuss with standards , with the Unified State Examination, etc. There was a happy period in the early nineties, but now it’s a different matter. And this irritates the teacher, it does not give him the opportunity to do what Lena and I talked about.

K. LARINA: By the way, here’s also a question for you, dear friends, where was it easier to raise a child, under the Soviet regime or now?

E. VOLZHINA: Under Soviet rule, because I was thirty years younger.

K. LARINA: No, well, that’s understandable. And yet?

E. VOLZHINA: Everything else doesn’t matter.

K. LARINA: Yes, this is a very important answer, because I am also accustomed to this commonplace, that the value system has changed, so it is impossible to engage in education. I don't think it makes any difference.

A. TUBELSKY: I think so too. That's not the point.

E. VOLZHINA: And even salary in this case does not determine anything.

A. TUBELSKY: It doesn’t define anything, although it does define something, yes, that’s it...

K. LARINA: These are all our dreams about Soviet power, what those who are nostalgic for this time are trying to formulate today about moral values ​​and moral authorities.

A. TUBELSKY: There is no need to be nostalgic, because the Soviet one, in the sense of upbringing, was two-faced, and this is the most important characteristic, although honest people remained and did what they did. I myself was the creator of several such normal children’s groups and that’s all, it was such an ideological powder, but in fact it was all honestly and good. I know Oleg Semenovich Gazman, who dealt specifically with the theory of education. In Soviet times it was honest, everything was for real. But there is no difference whether it was easier or more difficult. Parenting is always difficult, I can say that. At any time, perhaps at the present time, it is indeed more difficult.

E. VOLZHINA: Why?

A. TUBELSKY: More difficult? Because we are talking about spirituality, this is something that is beyond the material, bodily, etc. This is transcendental. Undoubtedly, today's life, but since it is shown on the same television, on radio programs, on everything, according to these models, it is of course largely focused on material things and there are a lot of temptations. And these temptations are not so easy for a child to overcome. And helping with this, in overcoming this temptation with material things, is even more difficult. Well, also because we in schools, not all of them, have begun to prioritize this very thing, what we are talking about, the education of the individual.

K. LARINA: Why? What has changed?

A. TUBELSKY: Well, they take a lot, it seems to me that these are prejudices, parental time, etc. You need to get an education, by education we mean different subjects, you need to go to college, there are also reasons why everyone is eager to go to universities, etc. And with this we are, as it were, replacing what is called personality education.

E. VOLZHINA: And it seems to me that the more temptations, the more freedom of choice. When there were no temptations, but there were machine tools, steelworkers, Malaya Zemlya, then there was that same spirituality underground. When you needed to slowly, far from everyone, on your own, without any experience, literature, or a person nearby, discover basic things for yourself. And now the opportunities for a person embarking on the path of self-knowledge, for me this is spirituality is huge, huge. And not to notice this aggression, vulgarity, is your right or your desire to be involved in it.

K. LARINA: Thank you very much, today we are leaving, as expected, with questions, after the program there is a parent meeting, we are not giving any answers, much less recipes. I thank our guests, Alexander Tubelsky and Elena Volzhina. Once again we congratulate you on the holiday. Thank you very much to our listeners. And we will definitely continue the conversation on this eternal topic. Thank you.

A. TUBELSKY: Thank you.

E. VOLZHINA: Thank you.

Vorobyova Larisa Alekseevna

Teacher of the button accordion class of the highest qualification category at the Kirov Children's Music School (Leningrad region). Noted with thanks from the head of the administration of the municipal municipality "Kirovsky District" for the highly professional preparation of students for district, regional, regional, and international competitions; diplomas of the educational and methodological center of culture and art of the Committee for Culture of the Leningrad Region.
Vyalykh Alexander Timofeevich

Director of the municipal educational institution "Volosovskaya secondary school No. 1" of the Leningrad region. The educational institution took 1st place in the ranking of schools (2006). The school has good facilities, computer classes, and modern technical teaching aids. School students are winners of subject Olympiads and sports competitions.
Vorobyova Vera Vladimirovna

Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation. Excellence in public education. Honorary citizen of the Khoroshevo-Mnevniki district. Director of the State Educational Institution "Gymnasium No. 1522" in Moscow. History and social studies teacher. Teacher-methodologist. Deputy of the municipal assembly of the Intra-city municipal formation Khoroshevo-Mnevniki of Moscow. Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences. Winner of the Moscow Grant competition. Awarded the Veteran of Labor medal.
Vodolazova Elena Georgievna

Excellent student of public education of the RSFSR. English teacher of the highest qualification category at the State Educational Institution "Gymnasium No. 1522" in Moscow. Teaching experience - 50 years. Author of the course "Art" in English. Participant of the city experimental site for language education. She was awarded the medals “Winner of Socialist Competition”, “In Memory of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow”, “Veteran of Labor”.
Volodina Lyudmila Ivanovna

Excellence in public education. Primary school teacher at the State Educational Institution "Special (correctional) secondary school No. 102 in Moscow for children with developmental problems", where she has been working for 30 years. Chairman of the methodological association. The manuals and didactic material she developed in the Russian language and mathematics contribute to the successful mastery of program material by children. The author's developments were highly appreciated by Russian and foreign experts.
Vasilyeva Alevtina Alekseevna

Excellence in public education. Teacher of Russian language and literature at the State Educational Institution "Special (correctional) secondary school No. 102 in Moscow for children with developmental problems", where he has worked since 1966. Head of the methodological department of subject teachers. Author of the draft program in Russian language and literature for grades 10-12 in correctional schools of the VIII type. He sees his main task as teaching children with intellectual development problems to love their native language and to express their thoughts beautifully and clearly.
Vorobiev Evgeniy Alekseevich

Excellent student of public education. Teacher of the highest qualification category of the State Educational Institution "Special (correctional) secondary school No. 102 in Moscow for children with developmental problems." Author of printed methodological manuals on cardboard binding for correctional schools of the VIII type in Russia. The experience of his work on social and labor adaptation of persons with limited intellectual abilities has been summarized at the regional and federal levels.
Volokhov Alexander Yulievich

Physics teacher at the State Educational Institution "Moscow Gymnasium in the South-West No. 1543" since 1975. After graduating from the institute, he worked as a teacher in Sakhalin. Laureate of the Moscow Grant competition in the field of science and technology in education. During the training, he pays great attention to the disclosure of philosophical issues of natural science and the history of physics, successfully implementing the trend of humanitarization of natural science education. His students are multiple winners of district and city Olympiads in physics.
Volzhina Elena Dmitrievna

Teacher of Russian language and literature at the State Educational Institution "Moscow Gymnasium in the South-West No. 1543" since 1980. Author of a number of textbooks and articles on methods of teaching Russian language and literature at school. Laureate of the "Moscow Grant" competition in the field of humanities, the Moscow Government Prize in the field of education. Her students are multiple winners of city and all-Russian Olympiads in linguistics and literature.
Volchkova Zinaida Anatolevna

Director of the State Educational Institution "Education Center No. 1631" in Moscow. The educational institution under her leadership is a laureate of the “School of the Year” (1996-1998) and “Labor Glory of Russia” (2000) competitions. The highly professional level of the teaching staff allowed the center to become the base institution for students to undergo teaching practice.

Section LITERATURE

Educational research

Secrets and codes of Vladimir Nabokov’s story “The Vane Sisters.”

Svetikov Matvey

Moscow Gymnasium in the South-West 1543, 8th grade

Scientific supervisor: Volzhina Elena Dmitrievna

Moscow, 2011-2012 academic year.

Introduction page 3

Body of page 4-8

Chapter one. pages 3-5

Chapter two. pages 6-8

Conclusion page 8

List of used literature: V. Nabokov. “The Vane Sisters” translated by G. Barabtarlo. 1951.

G. Barabtarlo “Nabokov’s Work.” Columbia, Missouri. 1996.

Application. V. Nabokov's story “The Vane Sisters” translated by G. Barabtarlo. Pages 9-15

The topic of our educational research is

Secrets and codes of Vladimir Nabokov's story “The Vane Sisters.”

This topic grew out of my fascination with Nabokov's texts, which require a special, insightful reader to understand. It's a fun game and a huge focus on the seemingly minor artistic details of his works. Nabokov seems to remind each of us that life is always unpredictable, has many unfinished moves, undeveloped relationships, and accidents that never became patterns. But if you pay attention to the texts, then they, like in life, have their own cause-and-effect relationships, which we are sometimes not given the opportunity to understand.

The goal of our work is

Reveal hidden patterns in the text of Vladimir Nabokov’s story “The Vane Sisters”;

conduct a study of the text in Russian and English, give your understanding of the encrypted anagram in the final;

find all the indications and hints about the non-randomness of the final phrase in its hidden sound and meaning.

Objectives of the research work -

Read the articles on the works of Vladimir Nabokov;

translate the story from English into Russian and compare it with the translation by Gennady Barabtarlo;

make a presentation at a school conference.

Job Research Methods -

Reading and analysis of special articles and monographs;

work with the text by Vladimir Nabokov and translation by Gennady Barabtarlo;

discussion of work with the supervisor;

giving a report at a conference, submitting work to the department.

Approximate results and conclusions:

The story of "The Vane Sister" can only be understood by discovering the code that is found in almost every work of Nabokov;

such a code turns out to be a system of landscape clues, drops, shadows, the image of gifts sent to the hero; in addition, there is a message from the mother and the hero’s search for a certain acrostic poem;

the keys folded all over lead to the acrostic itself in the last phrase.

Introduction

1. Necessary introduction

The purpose of my research work is to consider and analyze several receptions of Vladimir Nabokov’s story “The Vane Sisters”. The word reception, which is of Latin origin, has synonyms such as perception, interpretation. The word “reception” refers not only to Nabokov’s attitude to the text he created, but also to a number of other readings of it (the refusal to accept the story “The Vane Sister” by New Yorker magazine publisher Katharina White, modern interpretations by critics).

What is the difficulty of this text? Why does this story attract so much attention from literary scholars?

2. Researchers on the difficulty of translating Nabokov’s story “The Vane Sisters”

Gennady Aleksandrovich Barabtarlo (who is also the author of the most successful translation of “The Vane Sisters”) has repeatedly turned to this story by Nabokov: in the preface to the translation of Nabokov’s short story series “Be and Wane,” Barabtarlo writes about the difficulty of translation:

“Finally, I must say a few words about the translation of The Vane Sisters, the most translation-resistant of all Nabokov’s stories, primarily because its last paragraph is an acrostic - the key to a completely different dimension of the story. Such a thing, Nabokov wrote in a pre-notice to one of the publications, can only be afforded once every thousand years. But translating “such a thing,” of course, is even more difficult than composing it, because it is absolutely impossible to convey literally a two-dimensional text, where, in addition to length, there is depth, where there is also a code, where a dial lock hangs on the gate, and the only combination The numbers that unlock it must also form a harmonically increasing series. But, however, it is possible to reproduce both the function and, to some extent, the mechanism of the final acrostic, by resorting to various tricks and auxiliary constructions. Thus, in a shadow theater, the silhouette of a double-headed eagle, formed by the projection of its effigy on a stretched canvas, can be reproduced quite similarly through the intricately intertwined fingers of both hands.”

In a book dedicated to Nabokov’s work, “The Work of Nabokov,” he tries to understand the reason for the refusal:

“His book is usually crossed in two or three planes, which he bitterly tried to explain to Katharina Byte, who, as mentioned above, did not notice the lining in “The Vane Sisters” and, deciding that this story was nothing more than a buffoonish trick, refused print it."

Alexander Dolinin wrote about how allusions can be found in Nabokov’s story (“These allusions to procedures of deciphering and acrostical reading conjoint with the theme of death serve as invitations to decoding: they are supposed to alert the reader to the acrostical code used for encrypting the relevant information and make him apply it to the stylistically marked passage at the very end of the story”). In addition to Barabtarlo and Dolinin, one of the most famous researchers of Nabokov’s work, Yale University professor V.E., also turned to the story “The Vane Sisters”. Alexandrov. In his book “Nabokov and the Otherworldly,” he mentions the story “The Vane Sisters” and briefly explains the intervention of the otherworldly in the narrator’s artistic world (“In “Sisters,” something similar happens: the narrator does not pay attention to the fact that the last paragraph of the story he told is a message from sisters from the other world, presented in the form of an acrostic").

3. The history of the creation of Vladimir Nabokov’s story “The Vane Sisters”

This story was written by Nabokov in English in 1951 in the university town of Ithaca near New York. In this town, Nabokov taught and lectured on Russian and foreign literature. This is what R. Wortman, a visitor to his lectures, recalls: “I attended three or four of Nabokov’s lectures, but I only remembered parts of two of them; one was about Flaubert's Madame Bovary, the other about Kafka's Metamorphosis. He constantly moved from damning generalizations and judgments about the pantheon of great writers and the opinions of other commentators to the smallest details, commenting on the use of this or that word in French, German or English texts. Nabokov's work is tied to where he was while writing The Vane Sisters, and it can be seen that the city in the story is the real city of Ithaca. Both cities are similar in type: university, small, in geographical relief (“On my usual evening walk through a hilly town...”, and the city of Ithaca is hilly).

4. The place of the story “The Vane Sisters” in the works of Vladimir Nabokov

The story occupies an important place in Nabokov's work. G. Barabtarlo: “One of the main departments of Nabokov’s metaphysics is the Gnostic sense of pneumatology. (Pneumatology is a type of knowledge about spiritual entities and human phenomena). In many of his stories and novels, an experienced eye will discern a background, intricately subtly, almost ephemerally woven into the text. Nabokov acknowledged this duality in an important letter to K. Byte, the publisher of The New Yorker and his friend.” The story is an important part of the collection “Byl and Ubyl”, consisting of 14 stories: 3 written by Nabokov in Russian, one translated by Nabokov himself from English, another from French, 9 translated by Barabtarlo. He writes why “The Vane Sisters” is the last in the collection: “The point here is not only the desirability of balance at both ends of the book. Both stories are written in the first person of an extremely, artistically observant person; in both there is an unusually thin layer of sadness; both describe the unexpected death of a woman, which the narrator learns about indirectly. But in “Sisters” there is another plane firmly established, although invisible to the naked eye, and in this plane the French professor, keen on material details, turns out to be blind in soul and therefore does not notice the otherworldly leadership, and here the difference between the two stories, which are separated by fifteen years, is reflected and the Atlantic Ocean."

Main part

Chapter one.

1. Who is Nabokov’s special reader?

For whom was this text written, according to Nabokov’s plan? And what is a reader of Nabokov's prose? These are the range of questions that I hope to cover in the course of my research work.

For a better understanding of this problem, I will turn to the book “The Work of Nabokov” by an American literary critic of Russian origin living in Missouri, Gennady Barabtarlo, published in 2011.

In his book, the author writes about all sorts of labyrinths of Nabokov’s texts, wandering through which without the accompaniment of your own intuition and intellectual attention, you can find yourself a victim of a hoax - a riddle without a solution. In the preface to his study, he writes about the hiddenness of Nabokov’s art, that “even seasoned readers pass by without noticing anything remarkable for themselves, despite the rapidly growing pyramid of manuals and guidebooks.” How to become a “discerning” reader?

2. Gennady Barabtarlo about Nabokov’s prose

According to the researcher, “the main driving force - in addition to the acute pleasure from the very act of composing, which a writer of insignificant and brilliant alike experiences - was to discern in the convergences and divergences of destinies and events the secret course of earthly existence, to observe the constant flow of consciousness and the variables of time, and in in their drawing to guess the meaning of everything accessible to the imagination: the final destination and that unimaginable and inexpressible that cannot be the subject of knowledge or study, but only faith.”

Nabokov himself called his writing technique “a wonderful, happy, “own” religion.”

Nabokov's texts require a special ability to navigate the terrain. It has directional signs in the form of “silent arrows,” the reader-pathfinder will “notice the unobtrusive repetition of characteristic features, patterns and positions” that form a regular interweaving of thematic lines.” This pattern is Nabokov’s peculiarity.

The code is understandable only when elements of some theme are repeated by Nabokov, a profound and original writer. “A specially trained reader of his” can “look at the entire complex of Nabokov’s artistic works in two languages.”

With “sophisticated, skillful perseverance, Nabokov spent his entire life searching for a form of almost mathematical expression” that would allow communication between the fictional and real worlds, he tried to discover “the truth not only about this world, but also about the otherworldly one.”

Nabokov writes for the acute pleasure of looking at the world through the eyes of an exceptional hero, often vicious and cruel. A real Nabokovian reader should not confuse the view of the world of the author and his hero, who is disfigured or perverted, criminal or infantile.

3. Nabokov’s love formula in the form of plots and characters

Nabokov wrote about love all his life and tried to express it in the following triad:

vigilant to the point of greed, absorbing images, love for the created world, in all its macro- and micro-forms, for big things and small, unnoticed and unexpressed before, but asking to be described anew and accurately;

the love of the “first person singular” for the second and third (here is the whole strategy of “Other Shores”), and the transfer of this love to others, mainly through unobtrusive compassion and kindness;

a mysterious love for the invisible and incomprehensible, based on an inexpressible, but also irresistible faith in the fundamental divinity of the world, or worlds - that which is around us, that which is within us, and that which is outside of us, that is, the world open to the senses, the world of the soul and the other world.

4. Gennady Barabtarlo on the technique of Nabokov’s prose: codes, hints, hints, pointers

This poem by Nabokov is about how a text is created and how the reader can understand it without damage.

Recovery

Just think that any fool can accidentally tear through the fabric of Space-time

Spider. Oh, window into darkness! No, think that everyone's mind is on the verge of happiness

Unbearable and without a name. Unless the mind will be shocked by its discovery,

As if someone were learning to fly, and suddenly Opened it on the second try (in a bright bedroom,

One) that there is only your shadow in it - and, taking off, you soar. I know one poet: he can

Peel the ranet or sinap so as not to tear off the knife even once, so that

Suddenly, miraculously, a snowball appeared, spinning under his nimble finger.

This is how I too will someday unmask, And, turning inside out, I will reveal myself all over,

And I will experience all earthly matter, all the sight, all the breadth, and every blade of grass.

The mourning one, and the whole inexplicable world, To reach the hot, genuine foundation.

So the healers of ancient paintings clear a door somewhere in the depths, or there is soot on the curtain,

And the blue prospects are restored.

5. Gennady Barabtarlo on the translation of Nabokov’s story “The Vane Sisters”

The translator struggled with the last paragraph for a long time, and his “acrostic poem is a literal translation of the English cipher.” The author admits with pleasure that, lexically, this “version of the final passage coincides with the original by more than a third, which, given the described constraints, may even seem like luck. It’s not for me to judge the rest.”

Chapter two.

1. Analysis of the story “The Vane Sisters” at the level of genre, plot and literary allusions

1. Analysis of the first chapter of the story

1) The main character (the story is written in the form of the hero’s memories) seems narrow-minded, mediocre and even stupid to the reader. Nabokov thinks the same about his hero (“my French professor, a somewhat obtuse scholar and a rather callous observer” from a letter to the publisher Katharina White, translation: “my French professor is a dull scientist and a rather callous observer”).

2) From the very first lines of the story, the reader is intrigued - he does not understand who Cynthia is, who D. is, how the narrator is connected with them. This is the peculiarity of the genre chosen by Nabokov, the genre of memoirs. Nabokov often turned to the genre of memoirs, probably because he himself was expelled from Russia, fled from France on the last flight to America before the occupation. He wrote his memoirs himself and turned to his past. Because of this, his characters also turn to their past in his stories.

3) It is interesting to note that the heroine Sybil Vane, or rather her name, is borrowed from Oscar Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. In Wilde's novel, the actress Sibylla was rejected by Dorian and committed suicide. Oscar Wilde also appears to Cynthia during one of the seances and accuses her parents of “plagiarism”:

“Oscar Wilde appeared and, in French patter, replete with errors and ordinary anglicisms, vaguely accused Cynthia’s late parents of something that appears in my notes as “plagiarism.”

You can also notice an allusion to Dorian Gray in the image of Mr. D., who rejected Sibyl in the same way as the hero of The Picture of Dorian Gray, after which Sibyl both in Wilde’s novel and in Nabokov’s story commits suicide.

4) At the very beginning of the work, the main character is looking for shadows from falling drops from icicles, but cannot see this moment:

“Their pointed shadows stood out so clearly on the white boards behind that I had no doubt that it would be possible to see even the shadows of the falling drops. But this was not possible.”

The shadow of the icicle from which the drop comes off resembles an exclamation mark. These shadows are warnings from the spirits, from Cynthia. The otherworldly is trying to prove to him that the existence of spirits is true, to warn him about a meeting with D. And the fact that the narrator is looking at the wrong icicle at the moment the drop falls means that he does not see the warning or cannot see it due to his stupidity:

“And when I looked up at the eaves of the garage adjacent to the house, where hung a full assortment of transparent stalactites with blue silhouettes behind, I chose one of them and was finally rewarded by seeing, as it were, the exclamation mark point leaving its usual place and very quickly slid down - a short moment before the very drop with which it was racing.” The main character is stupid, because he sees in this spectacle (a shadow similar to an exclamation mark) only a funny observation, nothing more. He doesn't try to find any hidden context, he ignores the signs.

“The skinny ghost - the elongated shadow cast by the parking meter on the wet snow - was a strange red hue.”

Red is the color of blood, the color of death, and from the final acrostic the reader learns that the counter is the shadow of the spirit of Sibylla. The narrator sets out to find the same shadow, only in a neon blue hue. He again does not see the sign, but sees only fun, passing by the main thing, that is, past the allusion to the spirit of Sibyl, who was as skinny as this car meter.

6) Also, many details of the landscape can be considered such an allusion to the supernatural, for example, the fact that the main character is surrounded by dark-headed figures made of dead snow:

“Standing, dark-headed figures of dead snow (left behind on Friday by a bulldozer plow) lined the panel like vestigial penguins above the trembling brilliance of animated, flowing streams.”

These figures allude to shadows and spirits. A circle of subtle signs forms around the narrator, hints at the presence of spirits.

“...And after the usual exchange of cheerful platitudes, an inevitable vacuum formed, which he filled with the first words that came up: “You know, I never thought that Cynthia Vane had a heart condition. My lawyer told me that she died last week.” .

It is important that D. said “the first words that came up.” Quite accidentally saying this phrase, he changes the course of events completely differently. And if we consider this case from the side of Cynthia’s logic (and according to her logic, the spirits of deceased acquaintances and friends influence people’s lives and change the slightest details in their lives), then these are the affairs of spirits who direct the destinies of people.

2. Analysis of the second chapter of the story

1) After talking with D., the narrator begins to remember what happened before. First of all, the hero remembers the French language exam, which was held on the eve of Sibylla’s suicide:

“I remember that the next day I was sitting at a table on a raised platform in a large classroom where, on the eve of Sibyl’s suicide, a course exam in French literature was being held.”

Sibylla poisoned herself. But before she killed herself, she wrote a suicide letter, which she placed in her French essay book. This act of hers shows a certain theatricality of death. She ended her life too ironically, and this irony is visible in her suicide letter: “Cette examain est finie ainsi que ma vie. Adieu, jeunes filles! Please, Monsieur le Professeur, tell ma soeur that Death is not better than D minus, but still better than Life minus D.”

2) In a fragment of the hero’s memoirs, we learn a lot about Sibylla: about her appearance, style, handwriting:

“For a hundred and fifty minutes my gaze rested on her, so childishly frail in her tight gray dress, and I looked at her carefully styled dark hair, a hat with miniature flowers and a hyaline veil, such as was worn that season, and behind her a small a face covered with scars from a skin disease and, as a result, reminiscent of a cubist painting, despite the pathetic attempt to hide it with a tan from an artificial sun lamp, which made her facial features coarser, and her charm suffered even more from the fact that she wore everything that could be made up, so the pale gums of her teeth between cracked cherry-red lips, and the diluted blue ink of her eyes under her mascara-lined eyelids were the only access through which her beauty was revealed to the eye.”

The narrator does not talk about the character of Sibylla, about her personality. Appearance is more important to him.

3) The narrator talks about Sibylla’s suicide letter, which led him to meet her sister, which again can be considered a kind of invasion of the otherworldly into the world familiar to the hero. The acquaintance is quite absurd, because Cynthia meets the main character for the first time, and the reason for their acquaintance is a tragic incident.

4) In the main character one can notice tactlessness, which turns into stupidity, for example, when he, having brought Sibylla’s posthumous letter to Cynthia, draws the heroine’s attention to her sister’s grammatical errors:

“...And she went back into studying the dying message, after which I had to point out the grammatical errors in it and explain to her how the word “girl” is translated in American colleges for fear that students would flaunt the French equivalent of “girl” or something worse.”

3. Analysis of the third chapter

1) In the third chapter, the narrator describes Cynthia and talks about the beginning of their communication, at the same time criticizing in every possible way and showing Cynthia from the negative side. He makes fun of her appearance in every possible way:

“Her lovers were: a taciturn young photographer who suddenly began to laugh, and two elderly men, brothers, who owned a small printing establishment across the road. I marveled at the undemanding taste of them every time that I happened to see with a secret shudder the running strips of black hairs appearing through the nylon stocking along the entire length of her pale calf with the scientific clarity of a preparation flattened under glass.”

2) The hero draws attention to the stupidity of Cynthia’s guests, their cloying, he is bored in their company, but he does not see his own stupidity. A certain magical origin in Cynthia is also emphasized when it is mentioned that her family goes back to princes and magicians:

“It is quite possible that her lineage goes back to the princes and magicians of the misty islands at the end of the world.”

3) In the same chapter, a mention of spiritualistic seances appears, and in fact, this is the first image of the supernatural in the artistic world of the story. Although the narrator openly mocks Cynthia’s faith in the afterlife and its influence on the real world, he himself is a guest of her spiritualistic seances and a participant in some of the “pleasures” of Sibylla’s shadow, they manifested themselves in petty revenge on Mr. D.:

“And so, in order to appease her shadow, Cynthia resorted to a somewhat primitive sacrifice (nevertheless, there was something of Sibylline humor in it) and began sending various nonsense to the address of D.’s office at deliberately irregular intervals, such as photographic low-light shots of my sister's grave; trimmings of her own hair, indistinguishable from the Sibyllines; a detailed map of New England, on which was marked with a cross the place between two immaculate towns where, on the twenty-third of October, in broad daylight, D. and Sibyl stopped at a lax roadside inn in a pink-brown forest; and a stuffed skunk (twice).”

4. Analysis of the fourth chapter of the story

At the end of the fourth chapter, an image of ciphers and typos appears, that is, games with words:

“I looked through old books to find such magical typos as “l” instead of the second “h” in the word “hither””;

“Finally, I regret that I cannot remember that novel or story (by some modern writer, if I’m not mistaken), in the last paragraph of which the first letters of the words, unknown to the author, formed, according to Cynthia’s interpretation, a message from his late mother.”

This undoubtedly alludes to the acrostic poem at the end of Nabokov's story.

5. Analysis of the fifth chapter of the story

1) In the fifth chapter, the narrator describes in detail a session with a rotating table; the reader can see the protagonist’s somewhat negative, or rather, mocking attitude towards these sessions:

“Sad as it may be, Cynthia was not content with these ingenious fantasies and had an absurd weakness for spiritualism. I refused to accompany her to sessions in which paid mediums participated: I was too well aware of this kind of thing from other sources.”

He doesn’t believe in anything, considers it stupid and goes to seances for the sake of the cider that is poured there, that is, his image develops as that of an ordinary person. He is not interested in talking about spirits or religion, he only comes to sit in a dark corner and drink cider.

2) At the end of the same chapter, the narrator moves from a story about Cynthia’s parties to his letter to her, where he made fun of some of her guests:

“After another such party, I wrote Cynthia a completely harmless and essentially friendly letter, in which I slightly teased some of her guests in a romantic spirit.”

The hero himself calls the letter harmless, but this leads to a quarrel between Cynthia and him:

“What a strange Cynthia! I was told that she can be monstrously rude to those for whom she is disposed and has respect; however, it was necessary to draw the line somewhere, and since by that time I had already sufficiently studied her curious auras and other bullshit, I decided not to meet with her again.”

3) This is tactless on the part of the main character, because he stops communicating due to the fact that he is simply tired of Cynthia’s oddities, he cannot explain himself to her, and simply disappears. His pride and cynicism make him stop communicating with Cynthia. In this act, the character of the narrator is visible - he is childishly superficial and does not know how to forgive the peculiarities of the human personality.

4) This ends the immersion into the narrator’s long past and begins the decisive part of the story, where disbelief in the other world and at the same time fear of it collides. This happens immediately after the narrator returns to his home.

6. Analysis of the sixth chapter of the story

1) The hero’s entire state at this moment expresses extreme psychological tension; he is afraid of Cynthia, because he cannot even believe that the afterlife does not exist. He is somewhere in the middle between believing in something and completely denying this belief, which indicates his mediocrity as a person:

“Approaching the porch, with the wariness inherent in loneliness, I peered into the unequal darkness in the two rows of windows: the darkness of absence and the darkness of sleep. I could still do something about the first, but I couldn’t reproduce the second. I did not feel safe in bed: my nerves only jumped on its springs. I immersed myself in Shakespeare’s sonnets and found myself, like a complete idiot, checking to see if the first letters of the lines formed some word with a secret meaning.”

2) Some kind of duel takes place between the main character and Cynthia: “I decided to fight back against Cynthia.” The main character continues to be afraid of the ghost of Cynthia, but as the day comes, he ceases to feel fear and considers himself the winner in this “tournament”:

“I was disappointed. Now in the safety of the fortress of broad daylight, I told myself that I had expected more. She is a master of details as clear as glass - and suddenly such vagueness!”

In fact, the main character simply does not notice any signs or hints:

“I began to reread my dream back to front, diagonally, from bottom to top and top to bottom, trying at all costs to catch in it something cynthia-like, unusual, some hint that should be there.”

2) And the main character, who thinks that he has won, turns out to be a loser, without admitting his defeat. After all, he did not learn anything for himself, did not understand the lesson that Cynthia taught him. He did not understand, did not believe that there were spirits. And, perhaps, there are no winners or losers in this tournament: Cynthia was unable to convey the essence of the supernatural to the main character, and the main character was unable to understand anything.

3) And the entire explanation for this ignorance is the last paragraph, in which the acrostic is encrypted:

“Consciousness refused to connect the elusive lines of some yellow-cloudy, languid color, illusory, intangible. Trivial allegories, idiotic acrostics, table-turning - what if theopathic nonsense and witchcraft have a mysterious significance, barely hinted at? I concentrated, and the vision faded, falsely radiant, amorphous.” Transcript “The icicles are from Cynthia, and the counter is from me. Sibyl".

4) The paragraph shows the main character’s attempt to see something, but nothing works, and only after the reader deciphers this paragraph does an understanding of the whole story come.

2. Nabokov about his story and its code

Nabokov himself was enthusiastic about his work, as we can learn from his correspondence with Edmond Wilson, his close friend, who was a famous critic and writer. I present here a letter from Nabokov to Wilson, dated June 13, 1951: The New Yorker refuses to print the best story I have ever written.” Nabokov refers to the story "The Vane Sisters" in this correspondence.

2. Nabokov's explanation of the meaning of the story

1) What prompted the refusal to publish this story? To this...