Methodology for working with images and symbols of Russian culture in literary texts in advanced-level Russian as a foreign language classes

Abstract

The article substantiates a methodology for working with images and symbols of Russian culture in literary works used in classes with advanced foreign learners, for whom the main difficulty is not the linguistic form but the hidden cultural code of the text. The aim of the study is to demonstrate how the purposeful organization of work with key concepts, spatial images, and literary types contributes to the formation of linguocultural competence and the overcoming of the cultural semiotic barrier. The material includes a corpus of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian classical literature, as well as current textbooks and methodological materials on Russian as a foreign language, which makes it possible to identify the limitations of the traditional commentarial approach to symbolism. The methodological basis includes hermeneutic and semiotic analysis, comparative procedures of correlation with the learners’ native culture, and a phenomenological approach focused on studying the subjective experience of perceiving a foreign-language text. On the basis of this framework, a system of tasks is developed for the step-by-step disclosure of the semantic field of basic concepts such as soul, will, the space of the home or the city, as well as for analyzing the evolution of cultural archetypes such as the image of the superfluous man. The results of implementing the methodology in the educational process demonstrate a deepened understanding of characters’ motivation, an increased readiness for interpreting complex text fragments, and an improvement in the quality of students’ oral and written statements, as they begin to rely not only on the plot but also on the value and symbolic levels of the work. The potential for transferring this approach to other national literatures and levels of Russian as a Foreign Language instruction is discussed, as well as the need for further development of task tools aimed at students’ independent construction of interpretations that take into account both the Russian cultural tradition and their own worldview experience.