Интегративный урок, посвященный изучению трагедии У.Шекспира "Король Лир"

Разделы: Иностранные языки


Цели:

  • совершенствование коммуникативных компетенций учащихся средствами классики,
  • развитие рефлексивной культуры, филологического кругозора, личностной культурадигмы, социокультурной компетенции, «мастерства ума», «топосов духа» участников рефлектопрактики в контексте вечных ценностей.

Вид урока: обобщающий (интеграция искусств)

Технологии: долгосрочный межкультурный проект, творческая мастерская, дискуссионный клуб, коллективная творческая деятельность в группах, рефлектопрактика.

Оснащение: презентация ИКТ.

Материалы:

  • «Король Лир» У.Шекспир, - М, Айрис Пресс, 2008.
  • «Армагеддон» (финал фильма),
  • «Апокалиптика» (инструментальная музыка)
  • «Дети - жертва пороков взрослых» (скульптурная группа), М.Шемякин
  • И.Босх, П.Брейгель Старший, А.Дюрер (картины).
  • Афоризмы великих людей, Библия
  • «Король Лир» (коллаж) Э.Стетсон

ХОД УРОКА

1. Подготовка к деятельности. Mотивационный этап.

Показ финала фильма «Армагеддон» (1998, the USA), песня Aerosmith «I don’t Want to Miss a Thing”. Интендирование (пресуппозиция, антиципация). Обращение к рефлексивной реальности. Цель-актуализация смыслов, эмоциональный настрой средствами интеграции искусств.

a. Have you ever seen this film? What is the film about? What is the main idea of the song? The film? Do you remember the words of Grace about her father? Do you believe in Armageddon? Is it possible, why? What is the color of the last scene? How do you feel? Why? What values can save our world? By what means should mankind preserve our planet from Apocalypse?

Conclusion: “On the behalf of love, on the behalf of honor, on the behalf of humanity”- is the main leitmotiv of the film. Love, friendship, intellect, cooperation, brotherhood will save our world. The words of Grace “I love you, father”- symbolize one of the most important moral value, that is love to the nearest.

b. Апробирование разных стереотипов опыта. Знакомство со скульптурной группой «Дети - жертва пороков взрослых» (автор – М.Шемякин, 2001). Humanity suffers from the crises of all kinds, including social and moral ones. Which human sins are the most terrible? Can they cause Apocalypse? You see the allegorical figures of the adults. Which vices do they symbolize? (Debauchery, drunkenness, indifference, theft, gluttony, ignorance, violence) Can we name them “the fortune’s wheel” (sins cause sins, crimes cause crimes, and tragedies cause tragedies)? Conclusion: this vicious circle is catastrophic both for society and for a person. Every sin causes moral death. We need to think!

c. Коллективная учебная деятельность в группах. Обсуждение картин И.Босха(1460-1516) «Семь смертных грехов», 1480, А.Дюрера (1471-1528), «Апокалипсис», 1498, П.Брейгеля Старшего (1525-1569), «Слепые», 1568.

What idea is united all the pictures? Do you think a modern audience would appreciate the pictures in a different way from the contemporaries of the artists? Why? Name the Seven Deadly Sins, which can destroy a person’s soul (anger, vanity, lust, sloth, gluttony, avarice, envy). What does it mean “God knows! Watch out!” There will be retribution for human sins, won’t be there? Prove that there is no meaning for a man, losing his wits. People behave themselves to death. It’s a symbol of the fortune’s wheel, vicious circle or never-ending roundabout. They are followed by death, judgment, hell, paradise. Why? Which punishments are characteristic of “Apocalypse”? There are four horsemen: war, plague, judgment, death. The powerful forces of the higher world rose up against those in power, didn’t they? What can you say about “a parabola of the blind”? Explain, please, “If the blind leads the blind, both shall fall into the pit”. Does the artist show the philosophical image of the world or human tragedy? Could you describe a nature?

Conclusion: Nature is eternal. There is the inevitability of human fate, time. Human race, stumbling in the dark, is the way of human life. Mankind suffers from spiritual blindness. It’s characteristic of a human being to be in tragic despair. Nevertheless, every man is a king of his own life destination. “It won’t be in you, if you can’t allow it in your thoughts” T.Strittmatter.

2. Основная часть. Проблематика “Короля Лир”(1605).

Интерпретация. Роль художественных средств. Вечные духовные ценности.”No man will ever write a better tragedy than Lear” B.Shaw

  1. Прогнозирование. Well. In the focus of our lesson there is “King Lear”. How would you name the tragedy? Why? «Apocalypse»? «Chaos and Harmony»? «Seven”? “The Good and the Evil”? “Crime and Punishment”? «Cordelia»? Why is it named “King Lear”? Let’s analyze it from the point of view of the author’s position.
  2. Исторический и культурный контекст. Analyze Shakespeare’s time, his creative period, biographical facts.
    Conclusion: this tragedy bridged the reigns of Elizabeth 1 (1558- 1603) and James 1 (1603-1625). The setting of the tragedy is in the 8-th century BC. But the parallel stories of Lear’s and Gloucester’s sufferings at the hands of their own children reflect the real facts of Shakespeare’s times. Elizabeth had produced no male heir, and the anxiety about who her successor would be was fueled by fears that a dynastic struggle along the lines of the 15-th century wars of the Roses might ensue. Elizabethan England was an extremely hierarchical society, demanding that absolute deference be paid and respect be shown not only to the wealthy and powerful but also to parents and the elderly. “King Lear” demonstrates how vulnerable parents and noblemen are to the depredations of unscrupulous children and thus how fragile the fabric of Elizabethan society actually was. In other words, it was a transitional historical period and a dramatic personal period in Shakespeare’s life, in which his humanistic ideas underwent changes. As we know, L.Tolstoy preferred the first version of this tragedy by an unknown author. There was a happy end: Kordelia became alive, the power of King Lear was restored.
    Do you agree with L.Tolstoy? How do you find a happy end in the tragedy? Give your reasons.
  3. Сравнительный анализ сюжетных линий и героев средствами визуализации и музыки. King Lear: a collage with music by Eric Stetson (www.youtube.com/watch) I’d like you to guess the scenes and characters in writing. What is the author’s attitude to the characters? How is it revealed? Does it coincide with your own judgment of the characters? What feelings does the collage arouse in you?
  4. Презентации учащихся: действующие лица. Эволюция героев. Защита рисунков. Основной конфликт.

Let’s work in two groups: one is for the Good, the second is for the Evil. It’s the main conflict which is between the forces of the evil with the laws of humanity.

The problem is: How do the characters’ remarks, thoughts, behavior characterize them? Prove from the character’s point of view that he/she is right in the actions. Imagine if you would be in the character’s shoes. What is the author’s attitude to the characters? How is it revealed? Does it coincide with your own judgment of the characters?

The Good (the evolution)  The Evil (absolute)

Lear (vanity, fool)           Edmund

Cordelia (false pride)      Goneril

Gloucester (whoredom)  Regan

Albany (gullibility)          Oswald

Kent (idleness)              Cornwall

Edgar (depression)

Fool

King of France

We see that the positive characters (outcasts) undergo changes. Have they got sins? What are they? Can they overcome them? Prove.

What vices have the negative characters got (treachery, greed, avarice, falsehood, vanity)?

Conclusion: all of them have vices. Some of them have past a test through sufferings and become positive. Their evolution results in a personal growth. On the contrary, it’s characteristic of moral degradation for the negative heroes. The negative characters (predators) symbolize the absolute evil. Nevertheless the good loses. The evil wins. Why? What should they do for the good’s victory? What does the author want you to believe? Are you convinced? Have you experienced what the writer wants you to experience? If not, why?

  1. What is the main theme? What is the main idea? What is the main tone? It’s an absurd world. It’s the world of Chaos. And what about Harmony? Prove it.

Conclusion: the world of the rich and powerful revenges to those, who rebel against it. The evil is stronger than the good. But the good will fight because it can not obey to the evil. In society where higher values are individualism, rationalism and pragmatism there is no place for honesty and humanity. “The evil devours itself». Berdyaev. Give grounds.

  1. Concretize the theme: the meaning of a man, his place in life, his price in society.
  2. Concretize the main idea: only a human being is responsible for the integrity of the world. “A brother will betray his brother to death, a father his child. Children will rebel

against their parents and have them put to death” (Mark 13:12). The world will come to the end. It’s a vicious circle; all is interconnected in our universe.

  1. Make-up a word-map and the evolutionary stages, characterizing the life-story of the main personage. Discuss, why the tragedy is entitled “King Lear”.

Conclusion: The main artistic method is a mixture of alternatives (oxymoron, irony, antithesis, contrast, allegory, and paradox, abrupt shifts, hyperbola, gradation) to underline the idea of absurd. King Lear is “Hamlet without Prince of Dane”, an exceptional personality. He is the most tragic character. Lear is trapped by the violent and hostile environment. He undergoes changes from a powerful king – to a miserable madman: a despot, a foolish man, a miserable man, a martyr. A human being becomes to a human being only through suffering. Destruction of blood ties causes destruction of a state and foundations of the world. It’s Apocalypse. The sub-plots exaggerate Chaos. Give examples.

  1. Let’s discuss the genre of the masterpiece to prove the main idea. It’s a tragedy with the elements of a vagrant fairy-tale, an allegory. Give grounds.

Conclusion: “Our world is absurd, it’s created only for the Gonerils and Cornwalls”.Fry. (The mixture of genres, oxymoron)

  1. Роль композиции в раскрытии идеи.The composition consists of three parts: the exposition: “I cannot heave my heart into my mouth. I love your majesty according to my bond, no more, no less”

The climax: “You heavens give me that patience, patience I need». “Our power shall do a courtesy to our wrath, which men may blame but not control”.

The outcome: “Howl, howl, howl, howl. Oh, you are men of stones”.

What feelings does the final scene arouse in your heart? Is there any justice, any system of punishment and reward in the “tough world”?

  1. Роль природы. Nature is a background of human dramas vs. society is a field of the cunning activity of malice “All the world is a stage and all the men and women are merely players”. Prove it. Is only Lear to blame?

Conclusion:” Lear in his madness became understandable, and blind Gloucester became sighted”.Gegel. How can you understand “blindness, madness”?

How can you explain the death of the most innocent and perfect character in the tragedy? She’s a sacrifice to this unjust, cruel world. After surviving so many sufferings, Lear can only die, and what more truly tragic end for him than to die from grief for the death of Cordelia? According to the wheel of fortune all characters are punished, even innocent. To suffer for truth is to perish in the world. Is it worthy suffering for truth?

May a human being have a right on the mistake? “One couldn’t pluck a flower without troubling a star” Thompson.

3. Обобщение. Задания открытого типа. Выводы. Награды. Настрой на позитив.

Have more than you show,
Speak less than you owe,
Ride more than you go,
Leave your drink and your whore,
And keep in-a-door,
And you shall have more
Than two tens to a score.

What conclusion does it lead you to? What feelings does the tragedy arouse in you? What has the tragedy added to your knowledge of people and life? I think it’s the most humanistic masterpiece by Shakespeare. Through the centuries the man of genius convinces humanity to live in love and peace, exposing “7”as well as other masters. Are the problems still acute in modern society? Are “7” still alive? In 2008 the main modern sins were named. Among them there are: growing differences between the rich and the poor, excessive wealth, driving to poverty. I’d like you to write an essay about “7” in your life, about methods of fighting with them, your plans on the future without them, the humanistic future of our planet. I’d like to give you the books by Shakespeare as a source of wisdom. Read them in the hard times and you will find answers on your questions, because there are eternal moral values – truth, beauty, goodness. They are the main antagonists of the evil.. Звучит музыка «Apocalyptica» “Nothing else Matters”(instrumental music).