Problem-Based Teaching of Literature

The problem-based teaching of literature is a contemporary teaching model that has emerged from the need to overcome the weaknesses of traditional teaching and to increase the efficiency of educational work. Unlike the traditional paradigms that focused on the teacher and the lecturing model of education, the problem-based teaching of literature engages students, places them at the centre of the teaching process, and encourages them to independently define and research the problem. The problem-based teaching of literature is based on the students’ active relationship to literary phenomena, while the teacher functions as the initiator and motivator of the students’ versatile creations that are reached by solving problem-based tasks. This paper explores the problem-based teaching of literature and presents the results and discussion of the conducted research on the attitudes of Croatian language teachers on the problem-based teaching of literature. Fifty Croatian language teachers participated in the research by filling a survey in an attempt to determine how often the respondents use the problem-based teaching of literature as well as which forms, methods and methods of teaching they use. More specifically, the aim was to determine how teachers see their own role and students’ activity in problem-based teaching of literature. In addition, the research sought to find out whether teachers believe that learning outcomes are more successfully achieved in the problem-based teaching of literature and what the reasons for the (un)acceptability of the problem-based teaching of literature are

Postmodern Fairy Tales by Angela Carter

In the mid-twentieth century, fairy tale contents and messages begin to resurface more intensively and the literary interpretation of the canonized fairy tales is done in accordance with the needs of the new social environment. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, an essential collection of prose by Angela Carter, is definitely an integral part of this wave of re-evaluation of well-known fairy tale scenarios. Although Carter\u27s anti-fairy tales serve to de-canonize the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories collection has become a sort of exemplary work of the postmodern fairy tale genre. The ‘genre’ is in contrast with the traditional fairy tales, the most important features of which are: black and white characterization, ambiguous temporal and spatial dimension, didacticism, repetitiveness and a happy ending. The postmodern fairy tales are characterized by an emphatically altered style and the technique of magical realism, intertextuality, complex characterization, character ambivalence, transgressiveness and symbolism that are explicitly addressed in the text, in some cases more specific chronotope and the lack of catharsis, the possible lack of a happy ending, the synergy of fairy tales and literary criticism – feminist in particular, carnival motifs, human sexuality and the relationships between the sexes. All these elements of postmodern fairy tales are singled out based on the analytical reading of Angela Carter’s stories in her famous collection

Kulturno (re)ko nstruiranje Europe u romanu Christkind Borisa Dežulovića

U radu se analiziraju imagološki aspekti romana Christkind (2003) Borisa Dežulovića. Djelo pripada korpusu suvremenih proznih tekstova u kojima se tematiziraju protokoli konceptualiziranja zbilje, granice i identiteta. Zato se naročita pozornost usmjerava na: a) osobitosti kulturno-povijesno uspostavljenih identitetnih sedimentacija, b) metageografiju (kvalifikative vezane uz pripadnost određenom zemljopisnom prostoru) i c) proces obrtanja takozvanog imperijalizma mašte aktualiziranjem literarnog imaginarija o Austriji, koji je po rezultirajućim geoantropološkim izvodima namjerice identičan rezoniranju prema zapadnocentričnoj matrici balkanističkog diskursa. Osim toga analizira se književna figura vampira, čija je čudovišnost u romanu posljedica geopolitike, odnosno subjektova pozicioniranja u kontekst određenog prostora – Balkana – koji se može sagledati kao projekcija zapadnoeuropskih kolektivnih tjeskoba i potisnute prošlosti. Pritom uvlačenje (izvan)fikcionalnih čitatelja u potragu za otkrivanjem navodnog ubojice/vampira također nije retorička igra, nego ozbiljna situacija kojom se naglašava kako praznovjerica, potaknuta upravo žanrovskim obrazovanjem gotskim romanom, posebice Drakulom (1897) Brama Stokera, usmjeruje negativno imaginiranje pojedinaca i skupina. Zbog toga u Christkindu nije važno konvencionalno strukturiranje fabule, nego konvencionalno strukturiranje egzistencije prema modelu obrnute mimeze. U tom se kontekstu subverzivna uloga figure vampira snažno manifestira u pogledu rastakanja prividno koherentnog »jastva« konstruiranog u odnosu na tobožnju »drugost«, odnosno ono što je »različito«, »nepoznato« i »strano«

The Work and Role of Extracurricular Clubs in Fostering Student Creativity

Extracurricular activities play an important role in the educational process as they provide students with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and develop various skills, meet their creative needs and acquire the culture of free time. They also provide space for a closer relationship between the club coordinators and students, for students’ spontaneous behaviour, and freedom in organizing and performing activities. Such activities abandon the traditional teacher-centred teaching what makes them conducive for fostering student creativity. The purpose of this research was to determine the role of literary, poetry recitation, drama, journalist (radio) and film clubs in fostering the student creativity. First, by reviewing the 2014/2015 curricula of primary and secondary schools in Osijek (Croatia), the paper identifies: (1) the types of clubs that are active in the schools, (2) the most common types of clubs and (3) their representation in Osijek primary and secondary schools. Then, based on informational semi-structured interviews and active observation, the work of 21 extracurricular clubs related to Croatian language and literature teaching is described and analysed in an attempt to determine to which extent the clubs influence the literary, poetry recitation, drama, journalist and film related creative work of students. The research revealed that clubs in the focus of research were very popular in primary and secondary schools in Osijek, especially literary, poetry recitation, drama and journalist clubs. More importantly, it was shown that they do foster student creativity which was confirmed by the concrete examples in practice, i.e. students’ creative results

Postmodern Fairy Tales by Angela Carter

In the mid-twentieth century, fairy tale contents and messages begin to resurface more intensively and the literary interpretation of the canonized fairy tales is done in accordance with the needs of the new social environment. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, an essential collection of prose by Angela Carter, is definitely an integral part of this wave of re-evaluation of well-known fairy tale scenarios. Although Carter\u27s anti-fairy tales serve to de-canonize the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories collection has become a sort of exemplary work of the postmodern fairy tale genre. The ‘genre’ is in contrast with the traditional fairy tales, the most important features of which are: black and white characterization, ambiguous temporal and spatial dimension, didacticism, repetitiveness and a happy ending. The postmodern fairy tales are characterized by an emphatically altered style and the technique of magical realism, intertextuality, complex characterization, character ambivalence, transgressiveness and symbolism that are explicitly addressed in the text, in some cases more specific chronotope and the lack of catharsis, the possible lack of a happy ending, the synergy of fairy tales and literary criticism – feminist in particular, carnival motifs, human sexuality and the relationships between the sexes. All these elements of postmodern fairy tales are singled out based on the analytical reading of Angela Carter’s stories in her famous collection

Genre differentiation in ”A guided Tour through the Museum of Communism” by Slavenka Draculic

On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a Croatian novelist Slavenka Drakulic simultaneously in several countries published a collection of essays titled A Guided Tour through the Museum of Communism. The collection consists of eight stories narrated by animals: a mole, a mouse, a dog, a cat, a raven, a parrot, a pig and a bear. The animals talk about neuralgic issues of Communism in former Eastern European countries (Eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Rumania, Albania, Yugoslavia, Hungary and Bulgaria). The genre differentiation is based on determining postmodern variations of basic genre conventions in the process of creating a piece of literature. Fable variations are determined by analyzing the relationship between a fable and other genre forms, such as, an essay, a novella, a legend, a myth. Next to genre differentiation of a literary structure, one can also observe the differentiation of its role that has been conditioned by today’s cultural memory. In that manner, mythologized persons, objects and features of Communism are analyzed as universal symbols of a message, as well as elements of a satiric play. This paper will determine in which ways the above mentioned variations enrich the existent genre forms

Slovenska Antigona u intertekstualnom zrcalu

V prispevku se v središče pozornosti postavlja razmerje med dramskimi teksti, katerih naloga je reinterpretirati znano antigonsko tematiko. Znan primer antigonske tematike v slovenski dramatiki je vsekakor Antigona (1959) Dominika Smoleta. Večkratno zrcaljenje slovenske Antigone v drugih antigonskih intertekstih je metodološko gledišče, s pomočjo katerega bomo opazovali vrste preobrazbe klasičnega teksta skozi literarno tradicijo. Sistematiziranje spoznanj medknjiževne vrste bo mogoče doseči s primerjavo Smoletove Antigone z naslednjimi dramskimi teksti: Jean Anouilh, Antigona (1947), Drago Ivanišević, Ljubav u koroti ili Antiantigona (1957), Tonči Petrasov Marović, Antigona, kraljica (1980), Miro Gavran, Kreontova Antigona (1983), Ljubomir Đurković, Tiresijina laž (2010). Na podlagi izbranih primerov se bodo pokazale razlike v intertekstualnih postopkih in njihova vloga v razlagi antigonske književne teme in osebnosti