Symposium Obdobja 25

 
RATIONALE FOR THE SELECTED THEME AND DETAILED CONTENT
 
The 25th Obdobja Symposium, like all its predecessors, is aimed at reflection on research themes connected with language and literature in terms of both current content and methodology. This time, the focus of attention is literature in the special context and communicative process of education. We thus wish to invite specialists from Slovenia and abroad involved in literary education or concerned with reflection on it, i.e. university teachers and others in the fields of literature, literary pedagogy, philosophy, aesthetics, drama pedagogy, other pedgagogic fields connected with literatue, researchers of literature at pre-university level and practice in schools, and researchers in literary reception and production in the educational process.
 
The basic goal of this year's symposium is thus an exploration of issues raised by contemporary reflection on the teaching of literature. An indirect stimulus to this are the reform processes taking place at every level of education, especially the Bologna process, which prompt us to reflect on the role of literary education, including at the university level, which has hitherto received limited attention.
 
Literary education has much to offer – from leading the individual into an understanding of the linguistic creation of a depicted world (which has consequences for the individual's imagination, sense of empathy and social belonging, creativity and communicative competence, and thus for the development of transliterary competences) to the all-round understanding required for the development of wider spiritual, cultural and intercultural values. This represents an indispensable contribution to one of the four pillars of education in the 21st century, which the Delors Commission formulated as 'learning to be'. Moreover literary education, as is evident in current debates on education, is an important motivational factor for the promotion of literature and related disciplines. The attention we devote to these processes today and what we add to them will tomorrow influence perceptions of literature and the (re)evaluation of concepts connected with it.
 
This is why, within the academic framework of Slovene studies, we have to come to terms with this issue. Literary education will be successful and "competitive" only if those responsible for it have a clear picture of the competences they are developing in those being addressed, of the substance of what they are doing, of which strategies are effective and of what is being contributed to the individual and to society. Although in the past some Slovene university researchers and teachers often reflected on literary-educational issues at different levels within the school system, in recent years this field has become the domain of researchers in literary didactics, while others show little interest. And the didactics of literature concerned itself more with the pre-university than the university level. Now there is an opportunity to fill this gap and to offer both the Slovene and international publics an in-depth analysis, from different academic and disciplinary viewpoints, of the goals, content and methods of literary education at all the levels of development and interest encountered by those taking part in the symposium.
 
 
THEMATIC AREAS
 
1. Goals of literary education
 
The goals, basic directions or the vision offered are the response to the question of how the learner should comprehend literature, how literature should be experienced, perceived, understood – either generally or specifically – and what should contribute to this, i.e. which competences does the learner need to develop, what knowledge needs to be acquired, how values are shaped, what is the contribution to the (self-)realisation of the individual and of society. The question of goals can thus be divided up in the following way:
  • developing literary competences: what is offered by literary reception and production;
  • developing literary (meta-)knowledge: research, understanding, labelling the text contextual factors of the literary system and their role;
  • creative writing as a goal of literary education;
  • developing reading habits and literary awareness;
  • the contribution of literary education to the development of linguistic and communicative competence and to literacy;
  • the shaping of a wide system of values as the goal of literary education: tolerance, empathy, national culture, intercultural awareness;
  • the goals of literary education at different levels of the educational system;
  • the goals of literary education within the teaching of the mother tongue and foreign languages;
  • the goals and effects of literary education in the context of the current dual conception of knowledge as either a commodity or a human value.
 
2. Content
 
The subject – the core works of literary education, the content of literary studies and of "associated" socio-humanistic disciplines – as an answer to the question of what is the content of literary education and how the goals it sets itself can be achieved:
  • the role of the literary canon and different genres;
  • contemporary and older literature;
  • literary genres and types – the lyric, the epic, drama, Slovene folklore, etc. ;
  • original and translated literature;
  • literature in foreign languages;
  • whole texts and extracts;
  • literature and the media;
  • criteria for and factors involved in the selection of literary texts for education;
  • literary history, theory, comparative literature and other disciplines related to literature as part of literary education;
  • literature as an element in other educational fields within the humanities, social sciences and religious studies;
  • child raising and education as themes of Slovene literature.
 
3. Methods
 
In the narrowest pedagogical sense methods are ways of teaching and learning, or of interaction between teacher, learner and content – an answer to the question of how to realise goals. In a wider sense this also involves a survey of methods of literary research that influence the educational process, as well as defining and using interdisciplinary research methods that can help throw light on the processes involved:
  • the influence of trends in literary study and research on the concept of teaching literature now and in the past;
  • the transition from researcher to teacher of literature at different levels;
  • pedagogic research methods and applications in literary education;
  • the importance of motivational (attitude to reading, stance) and cognitive factors (existing knowledge, intelligence) related to reading on the choice of teaching strategy (content and method) at different levels of education;
  • communicative, learner-centred teaching of literature;
  • methods of interpretation in school and other methods of literary education;
  • creative and performing activities as a goal or a method of literary education;
  • teaching how to write about or give a non-verbal presentation of a literary experience, of understanding, evaluating or reasearching: for example, essay, debate, spoken presentation, visual or kinetic presentation;
  • books (literary texts, reader, text book, exposition) and other media as resources for literary education;
  • additional extra-curricular forms of literary education and motivation.
 
4. Reflections on and study of literary education in theory and practice, in the past and today
 
At the symposium we also expect to critically examine what has been said before about literary education, what are its effects and how these have been perceived by the critical public, and what is happening in current theory and practice within Slovenia and outside it:
 
  • views of literary education at different levels in theory, in school practice and among the wider public;
  • writers of literature on literary education;
  • evaluating the results of literary education on different generations and at different levels;
  • the qualities and efforts of better-known teachers of literature past and present;
  • the didactics of literature as the science of literary education.
 
 
LOCATION
Main university building (2nd floor), Kongresni trg 12, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
 
STRUCTURE
The symposium will take the form of plenary lectures and thematic sections.
 
LANGUAGES
Slovene, English and Russian may be used at plenary sessions and round-discussions, other languages are possible at section sessions.
 
ACCOMMODATION
Participants must book and cover the cost of accommodation themselves. Attached are the addresses of hotels with approximate costs and dates for reservation.
 
The symposium committee has limited funds available to cover the cost of accommodation at Pri Mraku, which those attending can apply for, stating their reasons.
 
 KEY DATES
  • Registration and handing in of abstract (up to 15 lines)   
    30 June 2006
  • Reservation of accommodation at Pri Mraku                         
    30 June 2006
  • Notification of participants by the committee of accepted themes
    20 July 2006
  • Final confirmation of participation    
    30 September 2006
  • Handing in of paper (up to one author's sheet)      
    by 5 December 2006
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