Title: Deformation as self‑creation, deformation as a mask

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

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);

3) distinguishes epic, lyrical, dramatic and syncretic genres, including: genres learned in primary school and epos, ode, ancient tragedy, psalm, chronicle, satire, idyll, ballad, romantic drama, poetic novel, as well as variations of the novel and drama , lists their basic species traits;

6) recognises in the literary texts: irony and self‑irony, comedy, tragedy, humor, pathos; defines their functions in the text and understands the value of character;

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;

10) understands the concept of paraphrase, parody and travesty, indicates their text patterns; uses these concepts in the interpretation of the literary work ZR

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

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

4) compares cultural texts, taking into account various contexts; ZR

III. Creating statements.

2. Speaking and writing. Student:

4) agrees with other people's views or polemicizes with them, substantively justifying their own opinion.

General aim of education

Students based on the poems of Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński recognize the manifestations of grotesque and caricature in literature and define their functions

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• recognises the literary convention of the grotesque, explains what it is about;

• discusses the work of Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński;

• sees elements of the deformation of the world as an element of literary convention;

• analyses and interprets the poetic text.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• 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;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. The chosen or willing pupil prepares a presentation about the life and work of KI Gałczyński.

2. All students remember what the grotesque is as an aesthetic category, and prepare examples of the use of the grotesque in literature.

Introduction

1. The teacher states the subject of the lesson, explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

2. The chosen student presents a presentation on the life and work of KI Gałczyński.

Realization

1. Definition of terms. The teacher together with the students discusses what the grotesque is like as an aesthetic category. Depending on the skill of the class, this part of the lesson can be done in the form of a mental map or a talk.

2. Work in groups. The teacher divides the class into groups of 4. Each of them assigns one of the two poems of KI Gałczyński contained in the abstract. The group's task will be to read the poem, determine the lyrical subject, the addressee and determine the mood and execute the commands and exercises related to the given work contained in the abstract. Each team prepares a presentation of the results of their work. Teacher and other students will evaluate the work of colleagues, taking into account: correctness of performed tasks, accuracy of interpretation and cognitive values resulting from the presentation.

3. The teacher together with the students sums up the current course of classes.

4. The teacher returns to the grotesque category, asks students how it is implemented in the poems of KI Gałczyński. Then he asks the students, working individually, to add two verses to the poem they have previously analyzed in groups. After the appointed time, willing or selected students read their suggestions on the class forum.

Summary

1. Reading literary and literary text supplementing information about Gałczyński's poetical practice - as a summary of the reflections, students indicate the sentence that best describes the specificity of Gałczyński's work, and look for elements in the learned poems that confirm the researcher's conclusions.

2. Students perform exercises 7 and 9 in abstract.

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. In a longer written statement, analyze the following problem: „Can the model of poetry, practiced by Gałczyński, be attractive to the contemporary recipient?” Recall your own impressions from reading the poet's poems, but also refer to found certificates of receipt.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Deformation as self‑creation, deformation as a mask

Search for contemporary opinions about the work of K. I. Gałczyński (questionnaire, internet). On their basis, determine the state of knowledge about the author's output and the way of receiving his works.

Artistic deformations of the world, or transformations of reality, are often aimed at revealing what is difficult to see at first glance (this is the case, for example, of Gombrowicz or Kafka). They may also have a completely different goal, becoming an element of the strategy of hiding, masking, escaping from boredom and unambiguity. Art can also cheat. When for some creators it becomes a weapon in the search of the truth, others make it a tool of self‑creation game with recipients. Sometimes as recipients we can not decide whether we are dealing with a manifestation of truth or a game of appearances. This is a trait of work (and life) of Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński.

Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński (1905 – 1953) was one of the most popular Polish poets of the 20th century.

At the end of the 1920s, Gałczyński joined the Kwadryga group. This cooperation resulted in the acquiring of a number of new friends and publishing some pieces, but in fact Gałczyński’s poetry and personality did not fall within the framework of the socially oriented and rather vague program of the group. In 1937, in a weekly magazine „Prosto z Mostu”, a collection of Gałczyński's poems Utwory poetyckie (Poetical Pieces) was published.

Gałczyński was enlisted at the end of August 1939, and not long after the outbreak of the war he was taken prisoner. From this period, poems like his famous Pieśń o żołnierzach z Westerplatte (A Song about Soldiers from Westerplatte), reflecting the moods of that time, came. After the war Gałczyński travelled around Europe, and in 1946 he finally returned to the country. In the “Szpilki” magazine, he printed a famous series of absurd, humorous genre scenes, published as Teatrzyk Zielona Gęś (Green Goose Theatre).

In the summer of 1950, Gałczyński left for Masuria, where he created several of his poetic ideas, some of which – including poems Niobe and Wit Stwosz and a lyrical series Pieśni(Songs) – are considered by researchers as his greatest achievements.

Grotesque is an aesthetic category, which seems to play the fundamental role in Gałczyński’s poetry. In his poetry, an everyday experience is continually open to the reversal of the normal order of roles and values and the various deformations of reality and subject. The poet flees from seriousness into a joke, from involvement – into distance, from poetics – into colloquiality, from everyday life – into masquerade and vise versa.

The climax of the grotesque in Gałczyński's work is „the smallest theatre in the world”, i.e. the famous Zielona Gęś (Green Goose Theatre). These genre scenes were filled with preposterous humour, inspired by both contemporary reality and literary tradition, which continued to ridicule situations and attitudes.

The text of Skumbrie w tomacie is of a humorous nature, but provoked quite serious disputes among critics. Decide whether humour in such form can be an effective tool in discussing social and political matters.