Pyotr Pletnev’s Heritage in “Court” Pedagogy

Without claiming to be a complete reconstruction of Pletnev’s pedagogical system, which should be understood as an important part of Russian pedagogy and as a phenomenon of Russian culture, the article focuses on presenting his legacy in “court pedagogy”, showing that the basis for it was the sociocentric and anthropocentric concepts of teaching and upbringing of persons of the royal family, perceived largely from M.N. Muravyev and V.A. Zhukovsky. The methodological principles applied in the study are determined by the desire for a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach, implying a combination of biographical context analysis and comparative analysis conducted in historical-literary and historical-pedagogical directions, which corresponds to the logic of the study. Based on factual research within the framework of the topic and a detailed analysis of Pletnev’s textbook on the history of Russian literature compiled for Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich and published in 1836 under the title A Chronological List of Russian Writers and Bibliographic Notes on Their Works, the author comes to the following conclusions. Having entered the pedagogical system built by Zhukovsky for the training of Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, Pletnev followed its principles, general and specific. Pletnev’s tables on Russian history are similar to the ones Zhukovsky compiled for the Tsarevich. Pletnev’s course program is based on Zhukovsky’s teaching plan and educational and methodical publications made for the training of the heir to the Russian throne. In terms of content, this is a conceptual synopsis with notes by the author of the program, developed extremely scrupulously, in an academic “style”, which includes, in addition to a large writer’s corpus, an extensive historical and cultural context. Pletnev’s program and Zhukovsky’s pedagogical views are also brought together by beliefs in the powerful impact of fine literature and reading of literary works on the student’s heart and their relationships with people. Pletnev follows not only Zhukovsky, but also M.N. Muravyov. However, the program of the university professor Pletnev, due to its “deductive construction”, turned out to be very difficult for children to assimilate. Obviously, it had little in common with real teaching. It seems that Pletnev, following Zhukovsky and Muravyov, used “inductive strategies” in practice, following in teaching from the specific - the modern layer of literature - to the general, striving to arouse his students’ interest in books, which was realized by a joint commented reading of a work of fiction.

Keywords

Authors

References