METHODICAL APPROACHES TO ANALYZING LITERARY CHARACTERS AT THE HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL

Abstract

Of all the images in artistic literature, the leading place belongs to character-images; the depiction of human characters and social relationships makes up the main content of texts – epic, dramatic, lyrical-epic – while the other images – landscape images, object images, and lyrical motifs, although important, play a supporting role. Even in cases where these images take the foreground (in lyrical genres), they are significant not on their own, but because they reflect humans. Most often, in a literary work, the characterization of a hero is given by the author throughout the text using different techniques, all serving the main idea of the character and the message he or she is meant to leave in the readers’ minds.
The methodological approaches to working on individual cases, depending on the uniqueness of the character and the students' preparation at the high school level, can and even should vary, but they need to match the nature of the material. In this sense, the main requirement that a teacher should keep in mind is this – the analysis should not lead to breaking down individual character traits, but to recreating the personality, the individual, who embodies the typical traits of another society or time.