Title: Realism + 30%

Lesson plan elaborated by: Magdalena Trysińska

Topic:

Realism + 30%.

Target group:

3rd‑grade students of a high school.

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

1. Reading literary works. Student:

1) understands the basis for periodizing literature, situates literary works in particular periods: antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, enlightenment, romanticism, positivism, Young Poland, the interwar period, literature of war and occupation, literature of 1945‑1989 national and emigre literature, literature after 1989;

2) recognises literary conventions and defines their features in works (fantastic, symbolic, mimetic, realistic, naturalistic, grotesque);

9) recognises the subject and issues of the texts learned and its relation to the programs of the literary era, social, historical, existential and aesthetic phenomena; he reflects on it;

10) recognises in the work the ways of creating: the presented world (plot, heroes, actions, themes, motives), narrative, lyrical situation; interprets and evaluates them;

14) presents a proposal for interpretation of the work, indicates in the text of the place that may constitute arguments in support of its interpretation proposal.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

5) characterises the main philosophical trends and determines their influence on the culture of the era.

General aim of education

On the example of Emil Zola's novel, Germinal, students analyze and interpret the traits of a naturalistic novel

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• reflects on the issues of the texts and the relationship with the program of the period of positivism, social, historical, existential and aesthetic phenomena;

• recognises and names the ways of creating the represented world and narrative in the song;

• uses in its interpretation the contexts: literary, cultural and philosophical;

• recognises literary conventions of realism and naturalism and defines their features in works;

• presents a proposal to interpret the work.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Before the lesson, the students read a fragment of the Germinal novel in the textbook.

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the class, which is to learn the naturalistic convention in the literature of the period of positivism. It gives students the criteria for success.

Realization

1. The teacher displays task 1 of the manual on the board. Students analyze features of positivist art. Some of them are common to the poetics of realism and naturalism. The students' task is to select only those features that characterize naturalism and allow to distinguish this way of describing the world from realism.

2. Students read information about Emil Zola and his work, with particular emphasis on the Germinal novel.

3. The teacher asks pupils to remember the content of Zola Germinal's novel read at home. It gives students 2‑3 minutes to quickly read the text. Then the students perform the exercises included under the text.

4. At the end, the students form the main assumptions of the poetics of naturalism. They evaluate the attitude of the narrator, the motivations of the characters, the way they are characteristic.

Summary

1. The teacher displays the criteria for success and asks the students to assess their skills acquired during the classes.

2. Selected students share the class in their opinion on the aesthetics of realism and naturalism. Help questions:
   Are you convinced by a realistic way of presenting the world? Why?
   Is contemporary aesthetics also present in literature? Give examples and justify.
   What are your advantages and disadvantages?.

Homework

1. Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

2. Create two descriptions of one situation or character. One in a realistic convention, the other in a naturalistic one.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Realism + 30%

The art of positivism was dominated by realism, however, another literary genre also emerged – more austere, radical: naturalism. Naturalists were accused of evoking scandals and demoralising readers on purpose. Shocking with ugliness and showing a man as a ruthless beast guided by instincts was considered outrageous by many. Naturalist writers, on the other hand, perceived themselves as faithful recorders of reality – researchers working at the cutting table, peeling off layers after layers of tissue, revealing the decay and abomination of the world around them.

The main ideas of the poetics of naturalism are to demonstrate the biological and social side of the human nature, and to point to the law of heritability. Naturalism seeks „objective laws” (scientific). In its poetics, naturalism assumes 70% of the rules of classical realism; the remaining 30% are: extreme impartiality of narration („the indifference of the narrator”), presenting events and facts from the point of view of the environment. Some of the new elements that also occur are: ugliness, cruelty, eroticism.

Emile Zola – Germinal
Emile Zola (1840–1902), French writer, author of a series of twenty novels written in the 1870s and 1880s under a common title: Les Rougon‑Macquart. Natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire. The novels clearly create two subseries, one of which focuses on the so called marriage line (Macquart), the other - on the „bastard” line (Rougon) in the title family. The second family line – in the opinion of experts – is considered „better” in literary terms; it includes, among others, L'assommoir (1876), Germinal (1885) and Nana (1880).

Germinal is the thirteenth novel in Zola's series. The writer gathered material for the book during several months spent observing workers on strike in Anzin: a small town in the north of the country in Nord‑Pas‑de‑Calais – a mining region. He saw hunger, diseases, exploitation and death. He got to know the ideology of socialism, which he partially agreed with.

The novel becomes a testimony of the life of miners, a presentation of the reasons behind the outbreak of the revolution, and of the political and social context of the times that it describes. The action of the novel takes place between the year 1886 and 1887. Unemployed Stefan Lantier arrives in Montsou and finds a job in the mine. He rents a room at the Maheus – a family of mine workers. He falls in love. However, he is shocked by the work and life conditions. He doesn't understand the brutality and aggression. He is overpowered by hunger. He looks for new ideals and finds them in the slogans of the emerging socialism. He initiates the creation of the first unit of the Socialist International in Montsou. He calls for a strike…