PROBLEMS OF PUBERTIVITY ON THE EXAMPLE OF FRANK WEDEKIND'S PLAY “SPRING AWAKENING”

Abstract

The article analyzes the peculiarities of adolescence and the problems of education in the early twentieth century. Youth is in a particularly fragile phase of its development, it seeks out its sexual identity, philosophizes about God and the world. The social norms and rules of the time have a special influence on her behavior and way of thinking. Studying oneself and sexuality, as well as communicating with school and authority figures during puberty, require the greatest attention and therefore do not lose relevance in their pure essence. During this period, adolescents are very susceptible to the negative influences and decisions of the adult world on which they are dependent. Psychological examination of biological and physical changes, problems of puberty, awakening of sexuality and violent instincts were reflected in German dramaturgy. From the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the new millennium, the idea of a teenager with his problems in the literature is constantly changing. Social change, social and sexual revolutions, as well as the natural formation of generations affect the understanding of youth over time. Frank Vedekind's “Child Tragedy” The Awakening of Spring became the first work in German literature to analyze the psychology of adolescents and highlight the problems of school and family education. The author criticizes the conditions and the wrong practice of education in schools and parental homes, which were anxiously waiting for the questions of children and responding to them by hiding and concealing reality. Vedekind portrays in the drama about puberty and sexuality, the rigid bourgeois morality and the contrast between nature and social institutions, the structures of discourse of the time. The article deals with the main conflicts and story lines of the work: the conflict between parents and children; conflict between the moral ideas and instincts of adolescents who discover sexuality; conflict between the individual inclinations and needs of the youth and the school system that suppresses any manifestation of the individual.