Cinematic Pedagogical Poem: between Makarenko and the requirements of totalitarian culture Cover Image

Filmowy Poemat pedagogiczny: między Makarenką a wymogami kultury totalitarnej
Cinematic Pedagogical Poem: between Makarenko and the requirements of totalitarian culture

Author(s): Jakub Sadowski
Subject(s): Education
Published by: Polskie Towarzystwo Pedagogiczne
Keywords: Anton Makarenko; The Pedagogical Poem; Soviet Union; cinema; film; Stalinist culture; totalitarianism

Summary/Abstract: Anton Makarenko’s novel The Pedagogical Poem had been published in 1934–1935; after 20 years it was finally filmed (The Pedagogical Poem by Alexei Maslukov and Mechislava Mayevskaya, 1955). This article is an analysis of a specific relationship between Makarenko’s text and the cinematic variant of the “Poem”. The nature of transformation of literary text into film text is complex. It requires not only the adaptation of the novel to the linguistic requirements of the movie. The typological distinctions between the language of literary and cinematic Poems concern not only two spheres of the functioning of these works, but also two types of culture in which they were brought to life. The literary Pedagogical Poem was created as an autonomous work against totalitarian discourse, however it still participates in it. The key to its reading (which is specific for totalitarian culture) analyzed in this text results from the main function of narratives of this culture, i.e. the transmission of units of its mythological universe.

  • Issue Year: XIII/2017
  • Issue No: 4 (39)
  • Page Range: 114-121
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Polish