Problems of Interpreting Literary Work at School

Abstract

Integration in the global world that has rapidly been happening during the independence years in Latvia has brought about many benefits in the field of education but has also created numerous problems. It has aggravated the postmodern situation which in the context of literature teaching/learning has manifested itself as decrease of learners’ reading interests and skills. In didactics of the Latvian literature, the approach to interpretation of a literary work designed in the 19th and 20th has enriched with various theoretical and methodological sources from the West. It raised the necessity to develop awareness of these theories in the cultural and historical context and draw the conclusions in connection with the actual situation at schools. To solve these problems, curriculum development requires change of focus as well as varied methodological approaches should be applied to increase learners’ motivation to read literature and raise awareness of themselves and the environment with the help of works of art.