Whales of literature. Synopsis of the upcoming book

Abstract

Literary education in Ukraine is currently experiencing a state of profound crisis. During the years of independence, a progressive national one still has not replaced the flawed Soviet educational ideology. The principal problem remains the uncertainty regarding the function of literary education. The school subject “literature” exhibits neither the characteristics of scientific disciplines (such as the exact and natural sciences) nor applied components (such as music, visual arts, physical education, or vocational training). Ukrainian literary studies are likewise undergoing complex transformational processes. The key motivational element in the teaching of imaginative literature continues to be its didactic and moralizing pathos, with literature treated as a manual for life. The overarching objective of contemporary methodological discourse is to restore the educational complex of “literary fiction in school” to the category of scientific and practice-oriented disciplines. Prospects are outlined for a rational approach to shaping a modern vision of the role and place of literary education in the process of forming a national worldview.