Warunki odbioru dzieła malarskiego w szkole, czyli o strukturowaniu sytuacji wytwarzania znaczeń

Abstract

The numerous advantages of discussing visual artworks in the Polish language classes have been emphasized in the materials on teaching Polish language and literature for the last hundred years. Also the core teaching programme for the subject mentions shaping the ability to receive works of art and the necessity to “create conditions that will foster an in-depth perception and experience of their content”. Traditionally, a Polish teacher is expected to teach the “reading” of painting, which is visible e.g. in all the Polish textbooks in the market, teaming with illustrations. “Reading” the painting, however, in the framework of school education, implies a necessity to specifically structure the learning situations, i.e. the situation of contact with the work of art, and the situation of its reception. Structuring means all activities associated with a given learning situation, those performed at the level of designing the situation, and those at the level of its particular realization (the stimulus aspect and the task aspect of a situation; co-dependence and variation of situation elements and the fluctuation of the system of elements). In the school context, the character of the contactwith- art situation is determined by several objectively negative external factors (the nature of the class complex, school compulsion, shortage of time, teachers’ insufficient competence, restrictions resulting from the method of presenting the painting). The situation of reception is dependent on the selection of the textual contexts, while the contextual surrounding of paintings, due to their specific character, must be built up in reference to the broadlyunderstood knowledge of art. In this aspect, the most useful concepts are those of Erwin Panofsky (iconological model), Mieczysław Porębski (iconic studies) and Nelson Goodman, the forefather of neuroaesthetics (a triple semiotic model of a work of art). The elementary source of literary contexts should be a suitably “structured” textbook. Selecting particular contexts for the textbook according to the adopted concept of teaching is equal to designing the situation of reception of texts. The interpretation space, marked by the contextual surrounding of a given work of art (and any other as well) must be wide enough to enable building different situations of reception of the same artworks. The co-creators and co-participants of the situation of reception (the teacher and the pupils) can modify it, e.g. by including in the area of reading their own textual contexts, unforeseen at the stage of designing the situation. The school interpretation of all cultural texts, including paintings, must not merely be a goal in itself. In optimal conditions, the task aspect of any situation of reception of a painting (or another work of art) is connected with the specificity of art as a peculiar domain of human activity. Yet discussing selected products of this activity should consist not in adopting opinions of others, but mainly in the so called creation of meanings. Creating meanings is interpretational and is one of the abilities that define our humanity, Structuring the conditions for interpretation of a work of art, which in broader terms means structuring the situation of contact with the artwork and the situation of reception (whether at the level of design, or the realization), may be thus labelled: structuring the situation of creating meanings. The human being (the pupil) who carries out the interpretation is in this perspective viewed as a participant, a co-creator of meanings. By conducting an interpretation, he takes part in the meaning of the artwork, as he co-creates this meaning and thus incorporates it in his own narration. The concept discussed in the article is based on the assumption that man’s identity is built by autoreflection, which accompanies him throughout his life. We create our own narrations, attributing meaning to our life and the world in the course of interpretation. One of the crucial tasks undertaken by the Polish language education may be ensuring optimal conditions for the reception of not only visual works of art, but also any other texts of culture.