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ExamplePage 3 of 3
We could consider this ‘story’ an anecdote and wait for the shuddering concept of textbook authors who simply commission the painting of the ‘historical’ images of their choice to subside. After all, the illustration was not specifically denoted a source and is thus not a falsification. Nevertheless, it does evoke a false consciousness which – as we have seen – is reproduced until it reaches even the thinking of history professors and editors. This clarification could easily lead to this incriminating picture being simply banned from the textbook. However, this would be letting go of an opportunity. Could there be a more exciting and instructive occupation for pupils in history lessons than solving mysteries, developing theories, hunting for information by forming intelligent questions and prudent research? Organising a lesson around the image in question should be a worthwhile undertaking. One element could be a comparison between the fictive image and a real photograph (see Fig. 2); alternatively, the lithography by Kupava could be involved, or perhaps pupils could be asked to produce images themselves following a detailed description of the content (possibly using the memories of their contemporaries). This would be a good deed for pupils and a challenge to teachers, especially in such history lessons as we might find in Belarus, where they are still traditionally orientated towards reproducing knowledge and learning facts.
Figure 2 |
