LITERARY HERO AND SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR IN THE READING BOOKS FOR YOUNG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

The twenty-first century, the century of technology, has brought a lot of novelties, but also challenges and problems for everyone living and working in this century. The dynamic changes of the modern society affect everyone, especially the young. That is why it is necessary to make certain changes concerning the place and role of education in the development of an individual in order to avoid any antagonism between the student and school that could have serious consequences.

Choosing the adequate learning materials, organizing them didactically and methodologically in textbooks, along with a well thought out teaching process are the actions supposed not only to increase the quantity of knowledge, but also focus on the emotional, social and moral education of young people.

A good literary work offers many possibilities for this. By starting from Ingarden’s assertion that there are two different phases of reading a literary text (While-Reading Stage; Post-Reading Stage), this paper emphasizes that a more detailed interpretation of the literary hero is very important for the development of emotional sensitivity, and moral and social responsibility starting from an early age.

A literary hero can be analyzed from different perspectives. The analysis of the reading books for the third grade of primary school published in Serbia will help us find out if these books insist only on the literary heroes’ actions, behavior and qualities, or if they also insist on the descriptions, speech, feelings and moods, as well as on the connection with the students’ experience.

The emphasis is on the linguistic and methodological apparatus which serve as valuable guidelines to the teachers to help the students interpret and understand the literary work.

The results obtained indicate that the authors of the reading books mainly focus the students’ attention to the characters’ actions, behavior and characteristics, while they focus less on the description of the characters’ looks, feelings and moods, and the least attention is paid to what the characters are saying, as well as to the need to take specific actions and help others, where the teacher's responsibility is to use appropriate methodological approaches to ensure proper motivation for a more productive analysis of the character, in order to prompt self-reflection, and the adoption of positive values and socially responsible behavior in students.