Artistic representation of moral choice in V. A. Oseeva’s short stories

Abstract

   The article examines the moral maturation in V. A. Oseeva’s stories. The writer’s works have long formed part of children’s reading and serve for discussing kindness, honesty, help, and responsibility. Though they are often perceived primarily as direct moralizing texts, although their educational meaning is created through artistic form: dialogue, detail, compositional reversal, speech characterization, and the final remark.    Particular attention  is paid to the way an everyday situation is transformed into a moral trial, while a character’s action is evaluated not through direct authorial instruction, but through the development of the plot, the reactions of others, and the child’s own inner change.    Material details also play an important role, revealing the true nature of the relationships between the characters. This approach makes it possible to consider the stories as a unified artistic and educational system based on the gradual complication of moral choice.    The purpose of the study  is to identify how the inner logic of a child’s moral development is constructed in the author’s stories.    The material of the study consists of V. A. Oseeva’s stories; thematic, motif-and-image, and compositional methods of analysis were applied. The analysis showed that the works form not a random set of ethical situations, but a consistent system: from outward politeness and the ability to share to compassion, active help, selfless friendship, conscience, overcoming resentment, family responsibility, and respect for labour. The proposed sequence can be used when analysing the stories in literary reading lessons and extracurricular activities. Further research may compare the moral situations in V. A. Oseeva’s works with the prose of L. N. Tolstoy, K. D. Ushinsky, N. N. Nosov, and V. Yu. Dragunsky, as well as examine primary school pupils’ responses to these texts.