LONGREAD TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOL LITERARY EDUCATION: VARIANTS AND VARIATIONS
Authors:   Moscow City University, Romanicheva E. S. 
Published: November 2022

The introduction problematizes the contradiction that has developed between modern reading practices, which are relevant for today’s schoolchildren, and an approach to the study of an epic work, which relies on almost a two-century tradition. The study argues that the modern methodology of literature cannot ignore the change in the way the text and the reader interact; it must look for new approaches and technologies, and show their resources. Materials and methods. The longrеаd technology is considered to be the one whose potential as a reading practice and methodological technology is considerable. This was shown by the researchers who “brought” it from journalism to education. The study also suggests that the acquisition of any technology is possible only in practice, and ideally, in the space of horizontal professional relationships that arise informally. The latter criterion was met by the Summer School for Teachers of Literature in Yasnaya Polyana, where the author was invited as a teacher. The methodological class involved acquainting listeners with a new technology (in this case, a longrеаd) for working with a classical text and mastering the technology in practice. It also offered the opportunity for the author of the paper, as a developer and presenter of the class, to talk with teachers, survey them, and monitor their group work, whichmade it possible to evaluate the technology resources objectively. A bibliographic review. In the process of developing a methodological lesson, examining the longread, and comprehending the results obtained by researchers and practical teachers, the conclusion was drawn that this technology was especially effective for the study of voluminous epic works, primarily the novel “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy, whose poetic style is characterized by contrasts and juxtapositions of heroes, events, situations, changes in viewpoints (from the heroes and from the author) and which is sufficiently cinematic, which allows the use of longread technology, implying a change in “subjective viewpoints,” and the access to multimedia reading as an actual reader’s practice. The conclusion is based on the analysis of carefully selected philological and methodological studies, included in the bibliography. Results. This part of the paper presents the results of the work of groups, who, reading and analyzing the text of the hunting scene (“War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy, vol. 2, part 4, Chapters 3-5), offered their options for constructing a longread. The above description shows the potential and educational capabilities of the technology, and demonstrates different approaches to determining the content of the longread and its structure. The paper presents and comments on interesting and sometimes unexpected methodological solutions that have become a kind of result of the work of Literature teachers in the class at school. Conclusion. Based on the analysis of the questionnaires of the school students, the conclusion is made that Literature teachers unequivocally recognize the potential of the technology and are ready to introduce this technology into practice of their work. However, the assessment of what is happening through the “subjective” prism of a methodologist researcher suggests that in the process of comprehension and practical mastering of the longread technology, teachers create its new “educational” version ‒ a longread navigator ‒ that “grows out” of the text, further work on which allows students to master new reading practices relevant to a voluminous epic text, in particular, a multimedia one. Keywords: reading practices, subjectivity (agency) of the reader, longread technology, “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy, hunting scene, practice of mastering technology, longread navigator as a type of longread