Abstract:

The article is devoted to the analysis of elective (specialized) courses in the educational process of higher education on the example of the course “Semiotic categories of an artistic postmodern text”, implemented at the Philological faculty of Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University).

The course is designed for experienced master students who have knowledge and skills in linguistic and literary analysis of literary texts. The main goal of the studies is to link the components of philological education – linguistics, linguistic poetry, and literary studies in the aspect of metadisciplinarity. Methodologically, the course is based on the ideas of such scientists as K. Lévi-Strauss, R. Barthes, V.V. Ivanov, Y.M. Lotman, R.O. Jakobson and others.

The relevance of the course is determined by its belonging to the anthropocentric paradigm of humanitarian knowledge that dominates today. This paradigm is based on the search for interdisciplinary methodological approaches that will be the most effective and correct in relation to the intentions of the participants of literary communication – the author, the text, and the reader.

It is important to note that the course material is contemporary literary texts. A common characteristic of the modern cultural era is the postmodern, which determines the specifics of any texts generated today. All or most of the modern literary works are influenced by postmodern aesthetics, as they are created in the corresponding socio-cultural environment. Thus, one can speak of postmodern tendencies with regard to most artistic and non-artistic texts.

The most important textual categories – primarily space and time – are viewed from an interdisciplinary perspective. Characteristics, functions, methods of language representation of chronotope are examined in the diachronic aspect. The author’s approach consists in the fact that the functional and sense-generating specificity of text categories, features of the artistic method, and language tendencies of the postmodern text are revealed in comparison with the texts of classical literature and literature of the modern era.

Features of the modern text change research and reader tools. As an object of the analysis, a semiotic complex postmodern text is proposed, which is examined from a substantive and interdisciplinary perspective. At the linguistic level, students are given the task of decoding a text through identifying the mechanisms and methods of the sign use and play on words, analyzing textual and cultural allusions, deconstruction techniques, etc. At the general humanitarian level, students’ attention focuses on historical, socio-cultural and philosophical contexts, author intentions, intertextual reflexes, ways of constructing the content of characters, etc.

The set of tasks, the course material, and the linguodidactic tools used not only expand the professional knowledge and skills of Philology students, but also form general humanitarian and cultural competences.

The implementation of such elective courses creates the conditions for multi-disciplinary differentiation of the training content, providing flexible opportunities for building individual learning path in accordance with the changing conditions of the modern world, personifies the educational process, and ensures that the student understands the modern cultural space.

Keywords:

Higher education, elective courses, metadisciplinarity, contemporary literary text, postmodern text, semiotic categories.